{"id":48013,"date":"2011-10-27T17:11:58","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T21:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=48013"},"modified":"2011-10-28T16:53:17","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T20:53:17","slug":"iraq-war-veteran-in-critical-condition-after-occupy-oakland-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/politics\/iraq-war-veteran-in-critical-condition-after-occupy-oakland-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq war veteran in critical condition after Occupy Oakland raid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/embed_show_v2\/300\/2011\/10\/27\/story\/iraq_war_vet_hospitalized_with_fractured\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2011\/10\/27\/iraq_war_vet_hospitalized_with_fractured\">Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/current.com\/shows\/countdown\/videos\/occupy-oakland-keith-shannon-on-injured-iraq-veteran-scott-olsen\">Keith Olbermann of Current TV<\/a> have both been dedicating daily air time to the progress of the #Occupy movement. Occupy Oakland, CA is the latest in the news. Thousands of protesters have retaken Frank Ogawa plaza, in front of City Hall, after Oakland police cleared the encampment in the pre-dwan hours on Tuesday and then again that night, when marchers attempted to return. In that evening event, police used flash-bang grenades, tear gas and bean-bag rounds to disperse what had been a peaceful protest. The video above includes footage of the police violence and of Iraq veteran Scott Olsen being carried away after apparently being hit by a police projectile; plus interviews with one of the people who helped carry him away and one of Olsen&#8217;s friends. Olsen is in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain swelling; doctors are keeping him in an artificial coma until swelling subsides and the decide if surgery is needed.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Listening to the broadcast on the radio, it sounded like a war zone. And Olsen&#8217;s friend Adele Carpenter told Reuters, &#8220;The irony is not lost on anyone here that this is someone who survived two tours in Iraq and is now seriously injured by the Oakland police force.&#8221; I asked Fe Bongloan, our political correspondent in the Bay Area of CA, what her take on things was. She said that parts of Oakland basically are a war zone; the 1% live in their protected enclaves, and the police are something to be feared &#8212; as evidenced by the 2009 shooting of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oscar_Grant\">Oscar Grant<\/a> and the protests that event generated. Fe described Oakland mayor Jean Quan as being &#8220;out of her league&#8221; in this situation; Keith Olbermann, <a href=\"http:\/\/current.com\/shows\/countdown\/videos\/keiths-special-comment-oakland-mayor-jean-quan-must-repent-or-resign\">in his special comment<\/a> last night, called for the mayor&#8217;s resignation.<\/p>\n<p>Occupy Oakland is calling for a unified city-wide strike on Nov. 2. It remains to be seen whether such an event will escalate tensions and violence or be allowed to occur peacefully; whether the world will take notice and use Oakland&#8217;s events to cast the whole #Occupy movement under a shadow of fear, or rather begin to see with clearer eyes the imbalances in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Keith Olbermann of Current TV have both been dedicating daily air time to the progress of the #Occupy movement. Occupy Oakland, CA is the latest in the news. Thousands of protesters have retaken Frank Ogawa plaza, in front of City Hall, after Oakland police cleared the encampment in the &#8230; <a title=\"Iraq war veteran in critical condition after Occupy Oakland raid\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/politics\/iraq-war-veteran-in-critical-condition-after-occupy-oakland-raid\/\" aria-label=\"More on Iraq war veteran in critical condition after Occupy Oakland raid\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[762],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}