Stupid Cops Break Iraq War Vet's Skull

Scott Olsen put his life on the line in Iraq to defend American freedoms. Today, he lies in a hospital bed after cops in Oakland fractured his skull.

Olsen, a former Marine who did two tours in Iraq, is a member of Veterans for Peace and a peace activist. He is in serious but stable condition in an Oakland-area hospital after his skull was fractured by a police projectile — most likely a rubber bullet, a tear gas canister, or a flash-bang grenade.

The police deny using flash-bang grenades in Oakland, but video footage suggests they're lying. In Olsen's case, he was injured by the police. As other protesters rushed to help him, police threw another explosive device directly at Olsen. No, that is not hyperbole. The pigs threw another explosive grenade directly at Olsen, who was laying on the ground with a fractured skull, and the small crowd that formed around him to try and provide first aid.

If you can stomach it, the video link to that scene is here.

Notice that the police were not interested in helping the injured man. Serve and protect? Who, exactly, is served by tossing explosives at citizens exercising their free assembly rights? Who is protected when explosives are thrown at injured people, at ANY people? Is this America? Are these cops trying to live up to some sort of Nazi standard? It's disgusting.

One friend of Olsen's is Adele Carpenter. She was told by a doctor at the hospital that Olsen has a skull fracture from the incident.

"I'm just absolutely devastated that someone who did two tours of Iraq and came home safely is now lying in a US hospital because of the domestic police force," Carpenter said.

She's right.

This is America, where the First Amendment guarantees us all the right to protest, to speak, to assemble. Or at least it used to mean that, before jack-booted thugs decided order was more important than freedom, and safety more important than liberty.

I'm afraid that incidents like this are only going to escalate into further violence. We are willing to protest and we are willing to give peace a chance, but, as President Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Your move, Oakland PD.

You can call and protest the behavior of the Oakland cops by calling the mayor at (510) 238-3141 or the police at (510) 777-3333. You can also email the cops at ocop@oaklandnet.com. Please be as civil and pleasant as a fractured skull to a veteran warrants.

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