Thousands march for
badly injured Oakland vet
From: PlanetEarthAwakens01
Thousands marched in the US city of Oakland on Wednesday night after clashes saw a protester’s skull fractured, apparently by a non-lethal round fired by police. Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen (pictured above) was on a respirator in hospital, and in a critical condition, after the incident on Tuesday night. His condition was upgraded to fair early on Thursday. Around 2,000 people took their protest to City Hall on Thursday night, where police stood off even as the group tore down a steel barricade. A nearby underground station was shut, and protesters marched through the city centre. Olsen, meanwhile, is recovering in hospital. The incident that left him with a fractured skull took place on Tuesday night as police from Oakland and neighboring departments attempted to prevent protesters re-occupying a protest camp that had been cleared in a dawn raid. Oakland police stated they did not fire rubber bullets or use stun grenades, but video emerged suggesting that both weapons were deployed from police lines. No formal complaint has been lodged, but police sources reportedly said an official investigation would be carried out.
Olsen’s condition was initially reported as critical:
@OccupyMARINES
OccupyMARINES Scott Olsen, 24, remains sedated on a respirator, in stable but critical condition at Oakland’s Highland Hospital MARINES STAND WITH HIM
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @OccupyMARINES
A Reddit poster who says he served with the marines in Iraq posted this response to Scott Olsen’s injury in this reddit thread.
Oakland mayor Jean Quan expressed her regret over Tuesday night’s events:
@abc7newsBayArea
abc7newsBayArea "Oakland is a city that loves peace and progress...I'm saddened by what happened." - Mayor Jean Quan #occupyoakland
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @abc7newsBayArea
But protesters have been gathering evidence of the non-lethal weapons deployed against them. The uploader says this photograph shows a “a police 12 gauge cartridge and a rubber bullet”.
According to the uploader, this photograph shows a protester injured by a ‘rubber bullet to the head’.
The Occupy Oakland encampment was created on October 10 and grew into a ‘tent city’ with around 300 demonstrators taking their place outside City Hall. Organisers claimed some 70 people were arrested in the dawn raid:
@occupyoakland
Occupy Oakland 70 occupiers arrested. #OccupyOakland
Favorite Retweet ReplyFrom @occupyoakland
__________________________
Quan, Under Attack,
Changes Course on
Occupy Oakland
Mayor reopens plaza to protesters, promises dialogue and "minimum police presence" if demonstrations stay peaceful
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, under attack from inside and outside her administration, announced late Wednesday that Occupy Oakland can return to the plaza in front of City Hall, an abrupt reversal that followed a night of street violence Tuesday and widespread criticism over her handling of the crisis.
As more than 1,000 people descended on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Wednesday night, Quan called for "a minimum police presence" and said nonviolent protesters would be allowed to re-occupy the area near City Hall. One day earlier, with Quan's authorization, 400 police officers had dismantled the tent city.
Quan has been facing a growing firestorm over what some describe as a tentative, out-of-touch approach to the crisis. Earlier, Quan admitted that she had not known that police were planning to evict the protesters early Tuesday morning, saying only that she had signed off on the plan.
Dan Siegel, the mayor's longtime friend and legal adviser, said he was considering resigning over the raid. He added that city officials were divided over how to handle Occupy Oakland.
“I think a big mistake was made yesterday. A big mistake,” Siegel said during an appearance on the plaza. “I have made that clear to the mayor.”
Quan's Facebook page was filled with calls for her resignation Wednesday. After protesters distributed her cell phone number, her voicemail inbox was full. An online petition condemning Quan and City Council members for authorizing the raid has collected 1,500 signatures.
The announcements Wednesday were designed to placate the protesters, but Occupy Oakland also appeared to be dictating events. The city initially re-opened only a concrete portion of the plaza in front of City Hall, encircling the lawn where protesters had camped with a 6-foot chainlink fence. But protesters calmly removed the fence in the early evening, and some protesters began to lay down sleeping bags and drive tent stakes into the grass.
Later, Quan said Occupy Oakland would be allowed to stay on the lawn, which the city administrator previously described as a "biohazard," as long as the occupation was peaceful. Quan said she planned to "open up channels of communication" with th protesters.
"I’m a mayor of a city that has divided opinions on some things," Quan said. "I think most support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I know you guys don’t like that I look at things day by day, situation by situation. We’re going to do what keeps most people safe."
City finance officials now expect the costs of the eviction, cleanup and response to the protests to surpass $1 million, with at least half going to police overtime, according to sources familiar with the projections.
“Wall Street’s not going broke, but the city of Oakland will,” one finance official said. “We’re spending money on resources we definitely don’t have.”
They expressed fears that future clashes would become more violent.
“I think we’re in trouble. We’ve been placating these people so long that they don’t take us seriously,” one officer said. “If you run this red light 10 times and I’m sitting there and on the 11th time I give you a ticket, you’re going to say, you’ve been watching me this whole time and today you’ve decided to do something about it?”
Quan has “lost both the progressives and the people who are supportive of police,” another officer said. “I think she wants to maintain this kind of weird plausible deniability that the police department has operated totally independent of her. She wants people to blame OPD.”
Some city leaders agree Quan should have acted sooner — and more decisively.
“I think we should have never allowed them to put up tents,” City Council member Larry Reid said Wednesday. “I think all of us were very supportive of Occupy Oakland when it started out initially. Then it went beyond Occupy Oakland.”
At Wednesday's news conference, Quan reiterated her support for the Occupy Wall Street movement, noting her own experience as a civil rights demonstrator. She said she was disappointed and surprised that the protest Tuesday night became violent.
"I asked the chief to investigate that," she said of Jordan. "We’re taking it very seriously."
But if Siegel’s appearance Wednesday was any indication, Quan has a long way to go to repair her reputation. Wearing blue chinos and a striped shirt, Siegel said he came to offer support but as he walked into the plaza he was confronted by a man who called him a “fraud” for representing Quan.
"This guy has no credibility,” another man shouted. “You’re a hack. You have already lost. What are you doing here? Get out of the way.”
Someone else yelled: “Why wasn’t she willing to take on any leadership? She was handing it over to a city administrator and one-week old police chief. She’s our leader.”
"I think that’s a question you should ask her,” Siegel replied.
As the questioning grew more intense and dozens of people crowded around him, Siegel finally said plaintively: “Give me a break at least of acknowledging that I am not the mayor."
A woman handed Siegel a penny.
"This is you," she said. "You are the 1 percent."
Quan seemed to be working overtime to repair relations with other allies. On Wednesday afternoon, she and Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu met with labor and religious leaders, as well as representatives from the Ella Baker Center, to ask for help keeping future protests nonviolent, according to Reid. Both the Ella Baker Center and the Alameda Labor Council had released statements Wednesday criticizing Quan.
"Some have members in the encampment," Quan said. "They have agreed to step up participation in the camp and work with us to see if we can chart a different way."
>via: http://www.baycitizen.org/occupy-movement/story/quan-shunned-reverses-occupy-...