Scott Olsen, U.S. Vet Nearly Killed by Police Beanbag at Occupy Oakland, Settles Lawsuit with City

[Eric J in MN]

Source: Democracy Now!

"Scott Olsen survived two tours in Iraq but almost died when he was hit with a police projectile at an Occupy Oakland protest in 2011. He was hospitalized in critical condition with a fractured skull, a broken neck vertebrae and brain swelling. At the time of the shooting, Olsen was wearing fatigues and a Veterans for Peace t-shirt. Moments after he was shot, police fired a bright flash grenade at a group of Occupy protesters who attempted to help treat him. Soon after that, protesters carried Olsen away as blood streamed down his face. Scott was later released from the hospital and sued the Oakland Police Department. He announced today on Democracy Now! he had reached a seven-figure settlement."

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/21/scott_olsen_us_vet_nearly_killed

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It's terrible how protesters are treated in America.

[valerief]

1. You mean that country with Free Speech and Right to Assemble? Oh, not that country.

You mean the USA instead.

[LiberalFighter]

2. I'm sure not enough is going to come of this.

The police officers involved should be fired as well as anyone that gave the orders. They operate under a blanket protection thinking that they can do anything as long as someone else gave the orders. If they know they could be fired or more easily prosecuted they would not be as inclined to abuse their powers.

[reddread]

3. so who was responsible?

Maduro, Brown, Quan or Obama?

[Eric J in MN]

6. Who is Maduro? NT

NT

[reddread]

7. One of Putin's lieutenants in the Klingon Empire n/t

[reddread]

38. urban warfare, an Oakland tradition since Brown came to town

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1999/07/jerry-brown-gets-real

Brown displayed a similar implacability when he invited the Navy and the U.S. Marines to come to Oakland for 3 days of exercises designed to prepare several hundred troops for urban combat. Local peace activists saw the war games as either a hideously expensive recruitment technique or a thinly disguised dress rehearsal for the quelling of urban insurrections, and the ensuing protests included a picket of Brown's home and a noisy takeover of his office in City Hall. Brown declared himself puzzled by all the fuss, pointing out that the military exercise would net the city several million dollars and likening the entire event to a Chinese New Year's parade. "There seems to be serious problems on the left with finding ways to express themselves," he remarked after the office sit-in. "I have to say, it's more pathetic than serious."

These kinds of remarks don't sit well with Brown's erstwhile supporters on the left, many of whom thought they were electing the man who used his radio show to fulminate against the "powerful propaganda and distortion" of the military-industrial complex and the "perversity" of an economy that failed to address the sufferings of the poor.

"I thought I knew who Jerry was," sighs former Oakland City Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr., who backed Brown during his campaign. "I thought I could look at his history."



so much for the several million they netted.
that Son of a Bitch.

[Hissyspit]

4. "Seven-figure"

Last edited Fri Mar 21, 2014, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)

$4.5 Million.

[questionseverything]

33. link contains moving video of the vet

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8876

holding the Constitution in the face of many officers

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Problem is

the settlement will contain the words "While not admitting any liability..."

Which means the police get to pretend they did nothing wrong, while the victims is portrayed as a greedy fraud.

[Vox Moi]

9. Very much agreed ...

Compensation is not accountability.
In fact, it is a way of saying that money makes the law.
Well, you got paid, didn't you?
------------

[barbtries]

13. deserving of every cent imo

his life was changed forever. and this seems to be the only way to hurt tptb

[Eric J in MN]

16. Also, when someone wins a lawsuit against a Police Dept

...the money comes from the general fund of the city or state, not from that Police Dept.

[Kelvin Mace]

19. Or the policeman who committed the crime

of the policemen who helped cover it up.

[mwooldri]

32. Wouldn't police departments have some kind of liability insurance?

Or some kind of re-insurance? It's not right that it has to come out of general funds... but a city needs some kind of insurance policy, no?

Though the settlement would say things like "not admitting liability"... so that rules out filing an insurance claim... but then if they had insurance, and if they were found liable, would their insurance go up by 4.5 mil? City might have though it best to settle out of court and not face higher insurance expenses later on.

Don't mind me, I'm just rambling along...

[libodem]

8. Iraq

Better grab a clue. We are sending arms over there like mad. Don't think for a minute those RPGs will be used on foreigners. It will be for.crowd control.

[Ino]

10. They hate us for our freedom. (nt)

[truthisfreedom]

11. Our tax dollars at work. A giant system of abuse, fraud, theft...

And insanity.

Fire 'em all, start from scratch. First new experiment would be all female cops.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. He wasn't hit by a beanbag.

That was one of the big smoke canisters, wasn't it?

[SunSeeker]

15. Correct. He was believed to be hit by a metal tear gas canister at close range.

Witnesses report police were using the tear gas canisters as projectiles to hit protesters on the front line. He was basically shot in the head with a metal tear gas cannister point blank. A bean bag would not have cut his head open. The pictures of his bloodied head were gruesome. I'm amazed he survived. The cop should have been charged with attempted murder. I hope he doesn't have lasting brain damage. Judging by the size of the award, I am guessing they expect him to suffer from the effects of the attack for a long time.

[Eric J in MN]

18. He said that he was.

"I was hit with a beanbag round, which is fired out of a shotgun. And it’s like a nylon sock with 40 grams of lead pellets. And it was from about a distance of about 15 feet."

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/21/scott_olsen_us_vet_nearly_killed

They should probably call "beanbag rounds" something else. It makes them sound as soft as a beanbag chair, but they're full of lead.

[Half-Century Man]

27. They used to call a beanbag projectile a blackjack or sap.

And I believe it was outlawed for use by police. Replaced by the gentler tazer.

[notadmblnd]

31. My grandmother had a BlackJack. I remember her saying it was illegal to posess when she

showed it to my mother. From what I remember seeing it, it was basically a half inch lead pipe coated in about 1/8 inch of rubber. I can't remember thee type of handle it had. I was just really impressed that it was illegal

[Hissyspit]

36. Video:

[AtheistCrusader]

37. Yep. Beanbags don't spark.

That was horrendous.

[Hissyspit]

35. Here you go:

[blackspade]

14. One could hope that at least part of the settlement....

came out of the fuck who shot him's paycheck.
But that guy is probably still on the payroll and still beating citizens.

[Eric J in MN]

17. I doubt that the cop who shot him had to pay.

Olsen said, "we reached a settlement with the city of Oakland."

[blackspade]

21. Oh, I know.

They never do. It's always the tax payer that eats the damages caused by these goons.

[Alameda]

23. which means the citizens of Oakland...

[MADem]

20. You should see how they are treated in Venezuela.

USA looks like a red carpet at the Oscars by comparison.

If you think I am minimizing or making light of this, I'm not. Thirty people have been killed -- yes, killed -- as a consequence of demonstrations in the past month, the vast majority of them unarmed students. HUNDREDS have been wounded, and over a thousand arrested, and many of those remained detained without access to legal aid.

If you want to get an idea of what going up against the National Guard, the State Police, or the Colectivos (armed thugs on motorbikes who ride into a demonstration and shoot/kidnap the vulnerable, the rallyers, the leaders) is like, have a glance at this link. Give the pictures time to load. WARNING--some of these pictures are graphic. If you don't like seeing blood, torn flesh, and images of harm to persons/violence, do not click:

https://twitter.com/search?q=venezuela%20heridos&src=typd&mode=photos

[blackspade]

22. And that makes Oakland a-ok then?

Not sure I understand the context of this reply.
Are you saying we should not be concerned about the police brutality against the occupy movement because it's not as bad as the shit storm in Venezuela?
Or are you saying if we don't watch out and keep a lid on police lawlessness we could end up like Venezuela?

[MADem]

24. What??????? I am not sure how you arrived at that conclusion.

Read the OP. I was responding to this remark:

It's terrible how protesters are treated in America.


My ONLY point is that they are treated WORSE elsewhere, not that it "makes it OK."

If Americans were treated the way protesters are routinely treated in VZ, there would be HELL TO PAY at the highest reaches of government.

To reiterate, since assumptions are evidently being made:

No, this does not make it OK.

No, this does not mean we should not be concerned about police brutality.

Certainly, police brutality IS an issue...but we as a nation don't have a frigging CLUE as to how ugly it can get because we don't see this kind of sustained street violence in our country; we--for all of our gun violence and bullshit in other areas--are "Marquis of Queensberry" types when it comes to demonstrations compared to many, many other nations.

Look at the pictures. Count the dead. Count the wounded. Add up the number of people detained without access to legal aid, held incommunicado. It's reprehensible.

But it doesn't have a damned thing to do with ""a-ok."

[reddread]

25. best guess is Amy Goodman's attack at the RNC means little to the Schooling the America's crowd

since the hundreds of cases of brutality carried out at Republican Convention's here in the USA USA USA
dont seem to put a dent in their Faux righteous indignation. but im sure they are every bit as concerned.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/amy_goodman_two_democracy_now_producers

[bkanderson76]

26. And might the naive now realize the war isn't as existant over there as it is over here.

[alp227]

28. Oakland Tribune article

Oakland to pay Iraq War vet $4.5 million for Occupy shooting

[tclambert]

29. O noes! They put him into the 1%!

Kidding. He deserves fat stacks.

[reddread]

34. sadly, they didnt.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by-wealth-not-income/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[Dawson Leery]

30. The pigs bloated pension fund should be used to pay the settlement.