Occupy Oakland

On Tuesday, Occupy Oakland was forced out of their encampment. Early in the morning, police in full riot gear stormed the site and dismantled the tents and other structures set up their, as part of a fierce crackdown on protesters by police. Flashbang grenades and tear gas were used on protesters, many of whom were still sleeping wen the assault began. Is this was America stands for now? I thought we had a right to free speech, to protest, to gather. Apparently we can only protest during the day, when it suits people and their schedules. No! That's not what protests are about! Protests are about creating a rift in the status quo, interrupting peoples daily lives and making them think about the issues. Protesting isn't being assaulted by police as if you were violent rioters. Occupy Oakland was a peaceful protest, doing everything in it's power to have a clean, safe place of protest while at the same time spreading their grievances. The police response to this was unnecessarily brutal and its sickening to me how little compassion was shown to protesters, and many were injured indiscriminately and beaten.




As you can see in this video, police have started throwing tear gas canisters at the protesters. This took place later in the day on Tuesday, as protesters took to the streets in protest of the demolishing of their encampment. Some protesters are seen to be hurling the tear gas back at police, but about 25 seconds in, you can see someone lying on the ground a few feet from the police line clearly injured. As protesters notice something is amiss, they rush to help the injured protester, pleading with the police, shouting "Help him! Help him!" Of course the police do nothing but stare menacingly at the protesters, who obviously incited the whole incident. (Note my use of sarcasm here) But to make matters even worse, one police officer decides that adding an explosive to the mix would make it much better. 35 seconds in you see a black object, a flashbang grenade, thrown from behind police lines. This is hurled directly into the group around the injured protester, going off right by the person on the ground, scattering the helpers. There are so many things wrong with that! Why would anyone do such a thing, knowing full well that this group of people is not a threat, and that they are merely trying to aid someone that is injured? Where is the humanity in this? I'm sorry, but this seems more like something that would happen in Egypt 5 months ago, not America.





This time, another protester is injured, but this time it is much more serious. 24-year-old Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen is seen here being carried away after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet round from police. As seen ere, he is bleeding from the head and looks very dazed and confused. After being taken to a nearby hospital, Scott was unconscious for nearly 12 hours before finally waking up. He is now doing fine, although his speech is somewhat impaired. Unfortunately, his brain is swelling due to the fracture of his skull, and surgery may have to be performed if it does not go down soon. Since when are police allowed to shoot a person in the head, nonlethal projectile or not, and cause them to have a skull fracture and result in a mini-coma and swelling of the brain? Personally, this disgusts me, and I seriously hope that attention will be brought to the OPD and their brutal tactics. But so far, no major news organization seems to be covering it, leaving me to wonder how far America has fallen.