Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
A fractured skull is what 24-year-old Scott Olsen got for his trouble after serving two tours of duty in Iraq. Olsen was injured Tuesday night after police fired a projectile of some sort, presumably a rubber bullet, hitting him in the head at the Occupy Oakland protest in Oakland, California.
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Iraq War veteran injured during a clash between police and anti-Wall Street protesters wasn't taking part in the demonstrations out of economic want.
Scott Olsen, 24, makes a good living at a software company and rents a hillside apartment with views of San Francisco Bay. And yet, his friends say, he felt so strongly about economic inequality in the country that he fought for that he slept at a San Francisco protest camp after work. "He felt you shouldn't wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it," said friend and roommate Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.
It was that feeling that drew him to Oakland on Tuesday night, when the clashes broke out and Olsen was struck by a projectile that fractured his skull. Police say they responded only when protesters began throwing bottles and other items at them.
But has anyone actually seen any video of protesters throwing bottles at police? According to this report from RT, no such video has surfaced.
In this report we have police claiming they didn't use either flash grenades or rubber bullets, insisting nothing more dangerous than bean bag rounds and tear gas was used. Well, look at the following video and be the judge for yourself. Do you see any bean bags? Or do you see explosions and flashes?
Joshua Shepherd, 27, a Navy veteran who was standing nearby when Olsen got struck, said he didn't know what hit him. "It was like a war zone," he said.
Then there was a scramble and he couldn't clearly see the rush of folks who went to Olsen's aid.
A video posted on YouTube showed Olsen being carried by other protesters through the tear gas, his face bloodied. People shout at him: "What's your name? What's your name?" Olsen, however, just stares back.
Shepherd said it's a cruel irony that Olsen is fighting for his life in the country that he fought to protect. "He was over there protecting the rights and freedoms of America and he comes home, exercises his "freedoms" and, it's here, where he's nearly fatally wounded," Shepherd said.
Olsen was peacefully exercising his first amendment right to free speech. Not only did police inflict serious injury on him, but in the following video we see one of them deliberately tossing a grenade of some sort, or possibly a tear gas bomb, into a crowd of people who had come to his assistance.
Olsen was awarded seven medals while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he left as a lance corporal in November 2009 after serving for four years. One of them was the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Olsen moved to the Bay Area in July, and quickly found friends in the veterans against the war group. The lanky man with a dry sense of humor did not show a lot of interest in politics as a teen - he has two tattoos for the group "Insane Clown Posse" on his upper arms, Shannon said.
His tours of duty in Iraq made him more serious, Shannon said.
"He wasn't active in politics before he went in the military, but he became active once he was out ... the experience in the military definitely shaped him," Shannon said.
It is quite amazing, is it not? That a nonviolent protest of some 350 people or thereabouts can send such terrors coursing through the veins of the criminals in charge of America that they would mobilize this much police repression against it? Are they afraid of something? And could it be us?
And of course it isn't just Oakland. Here's what they did in New York when Wall Street protesters held a march to show solidarity with the people of Oakland.
Now it seems police are applying pressure upon Google to remove videos from YouTube showing police brutality. And judging at least from this report, they are apparently having some measure of success.
A fellow Marine expresses his opinion of what happened to Olsen
Uprooted Palestinian
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