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Video and police records indicate that Oakland Police Officer Robert Roche threw a stun grenade at protesters trying to help the injured Iraq War vet. ...
One of the most indelible images of the Occupy movement to date is that of Marine veteran Scott Olsen being carried away from a skirmish line of riot police at 14th Street and Broadway on October 25 in Oakland. Stunned and bleeding from an ugly gash on his forehead, the 24-year-old Wisconsin native had been struck in the head by an unknown projectile during the first salvo of tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and less-than-lethal munitions fired at hundreds of Occupy Oakland supporters facing off against Oakland police and several other Bay Area law enforcement agencies called in on mutual aid. ...
As several protesters ran to Olsen's aid, someone from the cluster of police appears to lob a flash-bang grenade into the crowd gathered around the young veteran. The stun grenade explodes amid a cloud of tear gas and deafening noise, scattering Olsen's rescuers.
The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (NLGSF) condemns Oakland Police (OPD) and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) violence, mass arrests and abuses against Occupy demonstrators at Saturday’s demonstration. Police violently attacked activists with chemical weapons, so called Less-Lethal munitions, and physical assaults. Hundreds were arrested unlawfully, without opportunity to disperse, and then detained for many hours on the street and then in buses, in stress positions, and without bathrooms, food or water. Once in jail, protesters faced inhumanely crowded conditions, abusive treatment and were denied access to legal counsel. Many remain unaccounted for, though certainly arrested and awaiting booking two days after being detained.
I've heard of the Scoville scale, which measures the potency of spicy peppers. Those boring green bell peppers get a 0; habaneros get a score of 350,000.
The stuff those UC Davis police officers so casually hosed into the faces of peacefully demonstrating students? between 2,000,000 and 5,300,000 Scoville units.
The video is so quiet you can hear the echo of [UC Davis Chancellor] Katehi's shoes on the concrete. The students remain seated, staring at her with disdain, less than 24 hours after the police Katehi ordered to disperse the protestors forcibly opened the mouths of some of the them to shove pepper spray down their throats.
I'm in awe of these UC students, here and in Berkeley, who have consistently adhered to the principles of creative, non-violent civil disobedience. ...
Kristin Stoneking, the woman seen in the video accompanying Katehi, wrote a long post on Facebook explaining the circumstances leading up to that video.
I include it here in it's entirety. It's worth reading to the very end.
Lt. John Pike, the U.C. Davis campus police officer who pepper-sprayed passive student protesters, is popping up in some of the world’s most famous paintings as part of an Internet meme intended to shame him for his actions. ...
More at the Pepper Spraying Cop Tumblr.
Several members of the NYPD formed a circle to keep the protesters away while another group of officers held a protester down and took turns beating and kicking him. ...
The NYPD has been roughing up and arresting both journalists and protesters all day. Journalists have reported that they are being told that their NYPD issued press credentials, which are supposed to allow them to be in the park, are no good.
These are not abstractions or “power” as a theoretical concept. This was power made frighteningly manifest, on the bodies of human beings ...
Why were the tents so important? Why is that so many people allowed the police to beat them rather than get out of the way? ...
In order to prevent a situation “beyond our control and ability to manage safely” from arising, [Chancellor Birgeneau] empowered the Alameda County Sheriff’s department to bring riot cops in to do what riot cops do, which is control people by hurting them until they comply. ...
In July of 1986, the University of California pulled its $3.1 billion investment out of companies doing business in South Africa... The UC regents (and the California governor who appoints them) ended up doing what the students of the University of California told them to do. This is what’s at stake: who gets to make decisions about the University of California.
...when “intransigent” individuals refuse to acknowledge the university’s authority, the administration won’t be able to exercise its authority, so it will therefore need to exercise its authority. This is exactly as tautological and contradictory a line of “reasoning” as it sounds, a rhetorical snake eating its own tail. To maintain hygiene, the students cannot use tents to keep themselves warm; to manage the space, students must be kept out; to address “conflict issues,” students had to be attacked; and to keep the students safe, they will be beaten.
The language falls apart at this point, because it’s not “philosophy” that’s driving any of this, but the question of who has the right to speak and be heard about what the university is for.
...[Chancellor Birgeneau] argues that the “tradition of peaceful civil disobedience,” which deserves honor, is a tradition of obedience to civil authorities.
... “Civil Disobedience” has always been, manifestly and unmistakably, a tradition of disobeying the civil authorities. I feel silly even needing to spell that out. ... Linking arms and occupying the space between the police and their objective is a tactic used by just about every example of civil disobedience I can think of. It is, quite frankly the single best and most iconic example of the thing he says it is not.
...the UC will hurt you if you obstruct them or challenge their authority, even nonviolently. Free speech is a function of free thinking, and on the campus of free speech, Birgeneau should be free to say and think what he pleases, even if what he says is that those who do not obey will be beaten into submission. But let us hear him say that, if that’s what he believes. Let him admit and stand behind the decision he has made.
The San Diego Reader reports that O'Grady is 28 years old, and that he was choked and arrested at around 2:35 AM Saturday morning in San Diego's Civic Center Plaza after police ordered him to "exit his sleeping bag and sit up." The video above shows that he appeared to pose no threat to the armed officers surrounding him. Read eyewitness reports here.
A video showing police at the University of California, Berkeley, dragging two protesters, including a professor, to the ground by their hair during an Occupy protest earlier this week has stoked outrage among some faculty and legal experts. ...
Langan, who was released late Wednesday after roughly five hours in police custody, intends to file a complaint with the University of California Police Department on Monday accusing authorities of using excessive force. She says as officers approached, she stuck out her wrist and said, “Arrest me.” Instead, they grabbed her by the hair.
Kayvan Sabehgi in intensive care with a lacerated spleen after protests in Oakland, a week after Scott Olsen was hurt. He says police beat him with batons
As for the Justice Department keeping an eye on the broader police response to Occupy protests around the country to see whether authorities are violating Americans’ constitutional rights (e.g by punching them in the face in the street or macing women for exercising their First Amendment rights), the Justice Department says it’s not investigating that either.
But Hinojosa does promise that, “The Department will review complaints, as it always does, that indicate a pattern of misconduct or criminal misconduct.” The DoJ helpfully sent along the link where you can lodge a complaint. ...
When Egypt teargassed and beat protestors in Tahrir Square, the world, including the Obama administration, howled in outrage.
New film has emerged from Occupy Oakland repression in which two tour Iraq vet Scott Olsen suffered a fractured skull from being shot with a tear gas canister from 5 to 10 feet away.
If the police claim Scott Olsen attacked them — this video may show differently. Olsen appears at 3:30 into the clip.
This is the funny thing about the right to assemble. You have that right, but there is no place to assemble. There is no public street, no park, no soapbox, no small crust of ground, no voice for the voiceless, no straight spine for the subjects in subject position.
A video of a man, a war hero. Brought down wounded on the streets of Oakland. Pieta' through the sad and sickened streets. Medic, Medic. This man is down!
The events in Oakland made for the majority of headlines today, as the Oakland Police statements continue to "evolve" in justification of what seems, from available evidence, to have been an excessive and perhaps outright incompetent police action yesterday.
...plenty of video and photographic evidence showing these weapons being used against protesters, but no video has yet come forward matching the Oakland Police Department's other major claim: that the violence against protesters came after officers had rocks and/or bottles thrown at them. And we have multiple instances of protesters being hit in the head with non-lethal weapons, which could very well render those weapons lethal... Hopefully we will get a clearer picture of what happened, but as of the moment the Oakland Police is left with a serious credibility problem.
The reason for all that police action? To allow the city to clean the park. Yeah, sorry we shot you in the head, Mr. Veteran, but you've really been messing up that lawn. ...
A common refrain, during these protests: hey, your free speech is nice, but the lawn is more important. The latest version comes from Los Angeles: fine, citizens, you've made your point, but think of the damn lawn already: ...
A statement of solidarity from Cairo. [link] While you read through that, I'd just like you to reflect a moment on how a group of people in Egypt were able to come up with a clear description of the motivations of the Occupy movement long before professional expert-guy Bill Kristol ever will.
Readers of the Washington Post illustrated a picture of the Oakland violence with a nice picture of a police officer petting a kitten. Sigh.
Are you F***ing kidding me? The Mayor gives the orders for the occupation to be cleared, an act that any sane individual could see had the potential to lead to massive protests, violence, or even a Kent State style tragedy, and then she skips town while it happens???
This is not the act of a leader. Whatever the pros and cons of the action, she should have been there when it came down.
Fortunately for the people of Oakland, a recall petition has already been initiated. In an suitably ironic twist, the people who have filed the petition seem to be law-and-order types, believing that Quan has not done enough to insure public safety.
[A commenter reports that a fence has been erected around the occupy site. -L]
...OPD declared the protest to be an unlawful assembly, gave us 5 minutes to disperse, and then attacked the crowd with tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets. I was there until that point, and I can testify that it was a peaceful march until the police attacked it.
If you read an account of the march like this one – or listen to the Oakland Police Chief here — you will get the impression that the crowd was the aggressor ...
When a thousand people marched first from the library to the detention facility at 7th and Washington (where the 70 or so occupiers that were arrested that morning were being held), we were met with tear gas for the first time. Then, when we turned back towards Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza, we were again hit with tear gas at the intersection of Broadway and 14th.
...the police warned an otherwise peaceful demonstration that it was illegal, and they would use “chemical agents” to make them disperse.
Most of the most violent footage you will see comes from after this point; things got so much worse after I left, that the very mild tear gassing the first two times are not worth reporting on very much. This sort of thing went on for hours:...
Moreover, they just happened to begin firing tear gas into the crowd, the third time, right after the two major media outlets that were covering it with live feeds turned off their cameras (as I can verify because I was watching those feeds from the safety of my living room while following the twitter feeds of people like @garonsen and @susie_c).
Thanks to cellphone videos, you can assess the conduct of law-enforcement officers for yourself.
In one, posted by the OccupyWallStNewYork Twitter account, a police officer says he wants to "beat" Occupy Wall Street protesters and wants his "little nightstick" to "get a workout tonight, hopefully." Then he pantomimes a beating.
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