SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
$4.5 Million Settlement for Anti-War Veteran, Occupy Activist Injured by Oakland Police
Scott Olsen was shot in the head with a projectile at close-range by officers during an Occupy Oakland protest in 2011
Mar 21, 2014
Scott Olsen, the protester and a memebr of Iraq Veterans Against the War who was gravely injured during a public march in Oakland at the height of the Occupy movement in 2011, has been awarded a $4.5 million settlement by the city.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Olsen, 26, was among more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the police clearing of an Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall when he was struck by the beanbag Oct. 25, 2011.
"We're very pleased that Scott is finally getting some compensation," Rachel Lederman, one of Olsen's attorneys, said Friday. "He was very seriously injured and sustained some serious brain damage as a result of being shot at close range" with the beanbag.
Jim Chanin, another attorney representing Olsen, called it "a very sad day, not only for Scott, who's going to have to start his life all over, but for the city of Oakland, which has been hit with yet another unnecessary lawsuit with a very large settlement that could have been used for the public good while Scott went on with his life, without his injury."
Olsen appeared on Democracy Now! on Friday to discuss his case and the settlement:
____________________________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Scott Olsen, the protester and a memebr of Iraq Veterans Against the War who was gravely injured during a public march in Oakland at the height of the Occupy movement in 2011, has been awarded a $4.5 million settlement by the city.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Olsen, 26, was among more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the police clearing of an Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall when he was struck by the beanbag Oct. 25, 2011.
"We're very pleased that Scott is finally getting some compensation," Rachel Lederman, one of Olsen's attorneys, said Friday. "He was very seriously injured and sustained some serious brain damage as a result of being shot at close range" with the beanbag.
Jim Chanin, another attorney representing Olsen, called it "a very sad day, not only for Scott, who's going to have to start his life all over, but for the city of Oakland, which has been hit with yet another unnecessary lawsuit with a very large settlement that could have been used for the public good while Scott went on with his life, without his injury."
Olsen appeared on Democracy Now! on Friday to discuss his case and the settlement:
____________________________________
Scott Olsen, the protester and a memebr of Iraq Veterans Against the War who was gravely injured during a public march in Oakland at the height of the Occupy movement in 2011, has been awarded a $4.5 million settlement by the city.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Olsen, 26, was among more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the police clearing of an Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall when he was struck by the beanbag Oct. 25, 2011.
"We're very pleased that Scott is finally getting some compensation," Rachel Lederman, one of Olsen's attorneys, said Friday. "He was very seriously injured and sustained some serious brain damage as a result of being shot at close range" with the beanbag.
Jim Chanin, another attorney representing Olsen, called it "a very sad day, not only for Scott, who's going to have to start his life all over, but for the city of Oakland, which has been hit with yet another unnecessary lawsuit with a very large settlement that could have been used for the public good while Scott went on with his life, without his injury."
Olsen appeared on Democracy Now! on Friday to discuss his case and the settlement:
____________________________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.