Yesterday, the United States and the world witnessed yet another gross violation of the basic human right to popular assembly and peaceful protest. A 24-year old Iraq veteran Scott Olsen, a protester in the peaceful Occupy Oakland demonstration, was shot in the head during an extremely violent police crackdown on the movement. He remains in critical condition with a fractured skull and brain swelling.
Scott is a former marine and a member of Veterans for Peace. He served 2 tours in Iraq (although he opposed the war) and came home safe. Then, in Oakland, he was struck in the head by a rubber bullet or other “non-lethal” projectile while exercising his patriotic duty to demand a government that is accountable to its people. When others tried to help him as he lay unconscious on the ground, they too were deliberately shot with rubber bullets and flash bang grenades.
The crackdown on Occupy Oakland and the shooting of Scott Olsen is rapidly becoming a symbol for the indiscriminate attacks on unarmed civilians and the violent police repression of our global protest movement. From Athens to New York, from Barcelona to Boston and from Cairo to Oakland, a pattern is revealing itself that shows authorities desperately clinging to power through the exercise of brute force and wanton criminality. This cannot stand.
Continue reading - The world is watching: we are all Scott Olsen!
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