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Scott Olsen 'Cannot Talk' after Injury at Occupy Oakland Protest
Iraq war veteran is believed to have sustained damage to speech centre of his brain in injury at Occupy protest on Tuesday
Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who was seriously injured by a police projectile during a protest in Oakland, has regained consciousness but "cannot talk".
In this undated photo provided by Keith Shannon, Scott Olsen is shown at a protest. Olsen, 24, who apparently suffered a fractured skull in clashes between police and anti-Wall Street protesters felt so strongly about economic inequality that he left his apartment each night to sleep alongside the demonstrators, his roommate said Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP photo/Keith Shannon) Olsen, 24, is communicating with friends and family at his bedside by writing notes, but his injury is believed to have damaged the speech centre of his brain, according to Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.
Olsen is believed to have been injured by a police projectile. He was hit in the forehead in downtown Oakland on Tuesday evening, after marching with fellow demonstrators to protest the closure of an Occupy Oakland camp in the city.
"He cannot talk right now, and that is because the fracture is right on the speech center of his brain," said Shannon. "However, they are expecting he will get that back."
Shannon added that Olsen's "spelling is not near what it used to be".
"The doctors expect that he will have a full recovery," said Shannon, who is due to visit Olsen on Friday afternoon. "However, it is going to be a long road ahead for him."
Olsen was "really happy" to see his family, Shannon added.
A spokesman for Highland General Hospital confirmed Olsen could not talk, but said he "understands everything" doctors and family are saying. His family flew to be at his bedside on Thursday. The spokesman said Olsen remained under observation to determine if he needs surgery. His condition is "fair".
Video footage posted to YouTube shows Olsen lying motionless in front of a police line after apparently having been hit. A group of up to 10 protesters gather around him, but a police officer can be seen throwing a device close to the group which then explodes with a bright flash and loud bang, scattering the protesters. The video then cuts to footage of protesters carrying Olsen away as he bleeds from the head.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was in Washington DC when the clashes occurred, has sought to distance herself from the police action.
"I only asked the chief to do one thing: to do it when it was the safest for both the police and the demonstrators," she said.
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Show AllGet well cards can be sent to :
Scott Olsen, patient
Alameda County Medical Center
1411 East 31st St
Oakland, CA 94602
To contact Oakland City offices:
Office of the Mayor phone: (510) 238-3141 fax: (510) 238-4731 Contact Form: http://www.oaklandnet.com/contactmayor.asp
To schedule an appointment with Mayor Quan: mayors-schedule@oaklandnet.com
City Administrator’s Office cityadministrator@oaklandnet.com phone: (510) 238-3301 fax: (510) 238-2223
Deputy Mayor for Policy & Program Email: LCohen@oaklandnet.com Phone: (510) 238-7577
This tragedy makes me appreciate more and empathize with the lot of Palestinians, Iranians, Syrians, Tibetans, and others who protest against repressive theocracies, oligarchies, monarchies, dictatorships, autocracies, and plutocracies.
Which of these has the US become?
orwell's oceania.....
- - - - - - - - - -
Orwell's Oceania and Bush's America: Coming Together
by David Benjamin
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1104-26.htm
{"In rereading Orwell, I didn't plan to draw parallels between Big Brother and Boy George. They just kept popping up. I recorded 11 instances in which Orwell somehow anticipated White House jive in the first decade of the 21st century.
For instance, like Orwell's Oceania, Bush's America relies on a constant state of war to instill fear and passion in the masses, and -- in both regimes -- the enemy's identity is an afterthought. Big Brother shifted his enmity from Eurasia to Eastasia and back again. Bush began his bellicose ascendancy by targeting Al Qaeda, then switching to Saddam's Iraq, and now he�s screen-testing among Syria, Iran and Al Qaeda (again) for the role of supervillain. The key, said Orwell is this: "The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible."}
- - - - - - - - - -
...peace...
Wow, A friend told me their story of their friend's son who was shot in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister -- it's been some 3 years and he's still struggling to make basic movements and speech.
Tear gas canisters are not meant to be projectiles that maim or kill people, they are meant to harmlessly hit the ground and spew a noxious gas to disperse crowds: no one is supposed to get hurt in the long run. That an Iraq war vet got severely injured is, in my opinion, a shameful example of the hypocrisy the wealthy exhibit to prolong their power over us.
what are the odds that his health insurer will refuse to pay for being involved in an act of civil insurrection?
99 to 1?
if you want to see where this goes, have a read of the IRON HEEL by Jack London. Available for free download from www.Gutenberg.org to your e-reader.
once the M$M stops making light jokes about the OWS, look out.
"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you" -- 1918 US trade union address by Nicholas Klein
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is what a real American Hero looks like. A veteran of the Empire's dirty war, he said "No More."
The Empire's war is against you,
the Empire's war is against me.
And our war, make no mistake about it, is against the banks, who subvert democracy and start these wars by funding both sides everytime.
"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning" - Henry Ford
"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States" -- Sen. Barry Goldwater
"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it". -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden
TJ
Only one presidential nominee has announced being against both Empire and the Federal Reserve, but very few people here will support him as they claim other priorities take precedence.
Yes Karlof,
And who knows? If he got elected, what would prevent the Fed from printing him a few billion to see it their way? Look at Oilbomber. Nothing the banks do raise his ire.
I have since come to understand,
that you can never put your faith in just a man.
You must put your faith in the 99 percent, for they have the numbers to overwhelm the system, should they decide to.
I now believe the Anarchists are correct. They have no candidate to corrupt, no party machinery to coerce, no state to cave in, in exchange for pork.
Just pure citizen democracy. Which is why Chomsky associates with them.
OWS: You gotta love it.
TJ
Olsen ought to sue for a Trillion.
Bought-and-paid-for Corporate lackey (read: typical politician) Gabby Giffords shot in the head by a Tea Bag Palinite gunbunny spawns a general freakout.
A (recently) faceless, nameless citizen protestor at Occupy Oakland who is later revealed to be a veteran of US wars of invasion gets shot in the head with a Police tear gas canister leads to a general (and deserved) hue and cry of brutality about US domestic policy
US troops gun down 'economically disadvantaged' brown people of non-Xtian extraction in their own country far, far away... silence.
Something wrong here, folks.
When are the folks with Veterans for Peace (and everyone else) going to realize they are being used and taken for a ride? Google: "otpor ows" and "the revolutions business" if you want to know the truth about OWS.
The third Google link is to an article titled "Occupy Wall Street Affiliated With Professional Revolutionary Organization OTPOR (CIA)" in which the author, "djosiris", writes:
"I have been quite skeptical of the Occupy movement since it suddenly sprang up out of nowhere in the last couple of weeks. ... I am suspicious of any 'grassroots' movement that immediately gets corporate media support."
Corporate media support for OWS? You must be joking.
The author's name is also a hyperlink that takes you to a page titled "Exposed: Globalist Illuminati New World Order Agenda."
Good grief, where do you find this stuff?
Luckily it didn't happen in Perry's Texas, or Scott may have been arrested after being wounded and hauled off to jail with his co-demonstrator friends.
It has always been my belief that we are allowed and it is legal to peacefully protest our government, city, county, state of federal... Guess I was mistaken. Wonder who his lawyer will be? This could turn out to be really iteresting.
I sure do hope Scott fully recovers and so far that sounds pretty good in that respect.. We'll see.
Oh definitely - for using his head to get in the way of police business.
Yep; there are always two sides to a coin... Don't believe that I'm not on your side of the coin however "666"......Isn't that the number of an evil man to be very wary of ?
A good lawyer would know it there was a valid case for a lawsuit.
Michael Moore appeared at the Oakland City hall area.
From the Associated press,,, October 28, 2011.... ("Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore addressed about 1,000 anti-Wall Street protesters in front of Oakland's City Hall, saying the Occupy movement has changed the national discussion.
"When was the last time in the last few weeks you heard them talking about the debt ceiling?" said Moore, the director of the documentary films "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine.")...end Michael Moore quotes.
I would love to see Michael Moore and Keith Olberman team up,,, one for president and the other for his running mate in the Democtrat primary... They would raise the money needed and the MSN could not possibly ignore that team... In spite of political games of the MSN, that team would be NEWS.
They are both very well versed on all of the issues and are on the right side of the issues,,,, and not the FAR Right's side... Any presidential debates in the primary and possible general elections' would be fantastic.
Injured US protester to go into surgery
Fri Oct 28, 2011 10:56AM
An American marine veteran of the US war on Iraq is to undergo a brain surgery after suffering life-threatening injuries during an anti-Wall Street protest in Oakland, California, where police officers brutally attacked protesters on Tuesday. [presstv]
That doesn't sound good... Maybe internal bleeding putting pressure on the brain? If so, that can cause a stroke, or permanent brain damage, or even death... Well neo-surgeons know how to handle it if that's the case... Let's all hope he regains full recovery and no premanent damage whatever the case.
There is a report that some demonstrators were throwing bottles and other items at the police before the police reacted with throwing things back.
What bothers me is why the protestors aren't allowed to peacefully protest day and night and rightfuly so... Let them stay all night in tents and send a just message... If our economy doesn't get straightend out soon we may all end up living in tents or under a tarp...That's what the protesting is primarily all about in the first place and our spending our nations wealth with unjust, illegal wars.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
Press TV is about to lose its broadcasting license in the UK
see: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/204513.html
Typical of big-brother government
No doubt now our government is and always has been violent when confronted.
SUE SUE SUE SUE! That family should not pay one dime. Unless that cop is brought up on charges and brought to court on a civil case, we don't have hope of any real justice.
Typical cop cowardice. All equipped to physically stop someone from merely talking, merely assembling, merely being free in a so called free country. All dressed up as if it were war and as if these people with something to say were a human wave of armed enemy soldiers coming over the hill at them. When you have all those toys you just have to use them, sooner or later. Military wannabes. Occupiers. City soldiers with nothing to say.
So all dressed up with weapons at ready, first they shoot to hurt (kill by "accident" if it "just happens") and when they've injured someone they wait until helpers show up and some oily coward throws a grenade into their midst. Oh I know, "just a flash bang" grenade. But "just a flash bang" is still a nasty little firecracker and at close range the thing can injure, and if close enough any little thing that blows up with that much force can kill or maim.
All that light and noise are not the result of light bulbs and speakers. Remember the whole block that burned out in Philadelphia some years ago and the people who died in that fire, not to mention all the homes destroyed.
To a cop this is just entertainment, just something to do with the outfits they wear and the weapons they hold. Just something to do with civilians, then go back and laugh about it. Chuckle among themselves because it is so hilarious.
In one way cops are like the rich, that is "They are different from you and me." (Fitzgerald, "The Rich Boy" 1926). They are different. Apart. "Better." Another class, an oppressor class.
[ full quote - applies so well to police (who belong to the rich) : "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft, where we are hard, cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand." ]
Never say guns don't kill people, people do. It is those people who buy the guns and fondle them and buy the outfits and fondle themselves. With all that equipage it becomes a matter of sooner or later. 101 fun things to do to civilians. Cop entertainment.
dreamdancer, good description of "cop cowardice". The disgust I feel is so strong, I can't even bring myself to comment on it.