We may soon see the American military regime occupying its own streets (which won’t be a first, but the timing would be poignant.)
A Marine veteran protesting with “Occupy Oakland” sustained a skull fracture Tuesday night after being shot in the head with appears to be a tear gas canister.Scott Olsen, a two-time Iraq war veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was at 14th Street and Broadway when he was struck in the head.
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As Olsen was carried away, he appeared unconscious and bloody, unable to even respond when asked his name.
He is currently sedated at a local hospital awaiting examination by a neurosurgeon and is in a “critical condition” condition, according to The Guardian.
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According to the San Francisco Chronicle, some protesters threw paint at the officers and chanted, “This is why we call you pigs.” Some also set trash cans on fire.
The back window of a California Highway Patrol cruiser was also smashed.
More than 100 were reportedly arrested Tuesday night. Two officers were reportedly injured.
An estimated 1,500 Occupy Oakland supporters regrouped in front of City Hall on Wednesday where they tore down police barricades that had been erected around the city's main plaza.An activist, who asked not to be named, told Al Jazeera police told her earlier on Wednesday that they were preparing for "round two" of street battles.
After a "general assembly" process, in which decisions are made by consensus, the group announced it would call for a general strike in Oakland for November 2.
The group then began a peaceful march through Oakland's central business district.
"We were going to head to San Francisco because they were getting evicted, but we couldn't because they closed BART [the local metro station]," Patrick Knoll, a protester who has been involved in the organising process since the early planning phase, told Al Jazeera.
The BART station was closed due to "civil disturbance", according to its website.
Shut down the people’s systems. The 99%’s systems. The 1% don’t use BART. I guess they couldn’t get away with shutting down the cell phone service again, due to possible legal liability in the case of an emergency. If the general strike is successful on November 2 in Oakland, however, the 99% will effectively shut down the whole shebang. The 1% don't make money when none of the 99% are at work.
Receiving the most national coverage has been the police action in “Occupy Oakland,” where another slue of arrests were made for a second consecutive day. More than 100 protesters were handcuffed as cops once again used tear gas and weaponry, causing protesters to shout, “Who are you protecting?”
Cracking down on protesters. Isn’t that part of what got Qadafi blacklisted on the Hill?
Also popping up on the national scene was police action at “Occupy Atlanta,” where around 50 protesters were arrested after authorities warned the crowd at Woodruff Park to leave. Protesters sang “We Shall Overcome” as police walked or dragged them out of the park. Among the protestors arrested was State Sen. Vincent Fort (D), who called the police action “overkill.”
Color me jaded. Senator Fort knows how to campaign.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Amy Ritter, an “Occupy Orlando” protester. “We’re obviously out here occupying for significant change, and it’s very important that we maintain a presence. Right now, every day, the rules change. Sometimes we’re allowed to keep materials here, and then all of a sudden, they come in and give us 20 minutes to move everything off property.”
Next will come the rubber bullets and the tear gas.
Seven progressive House candidates and Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) members delivered nearly 36,000 “We stand with the 99%” petitions directly to House Speaker John Boehner’s Capitol Hill office Wednesday afternoon.The petitions stated: “We stand with the 99% — we need an economy that works for all of us, not just the richest 1%.”
They were received by Boehner’s press secretary after she refused entrance to the group, despite the “welcome” sign on Boehner’s office door.
Hey, at least they got to go inside. I attended a peaceful protest march in Columbia, Missouri, at the invasion of Iraq, and the GOP “representative” wouldn’t even let us inside the building. He sent his lackey down to the parking lot.
“I guess that should really read, ‘Welcome 1%, please come in,’” joked Marko Liias, a Democratic candidate in Washington’s First Congressional District.
The Republican Party doesn’t seem to mind branding itself as the party of the One Percent. The Grand One Percent.
A conservative blogger has been accused of trying to give out marijuana bongs and Che Guevara rolling papers in Zuccotti Park in order to make Occupy Wall Street protesters look criminal.
Surely they haven’t just now started infiltrating. But maybe so. The MSM reportedly hasn’t been quick to pick up on what’s going on, and the one percent have been seen to be pooh-poohing it. Maybe the Grand One Percent and their minions are just now getting a clue. Police action and riots sometimes has that effect on them.
Brazil joins the global protests…
And an update in London…Around 150 Brazilian activists held signs with angry slogans in downtown Rio de Janeiro in an “Occupy Rio” protest inspired by similar demonstrations in Spain and the United States.“2012 Is the End of the Capitalist World,” read one sign. “Why is the world for everyone, but so many people are hungry?” asked another.
The activists, inspired by the “outrage” protests in Madrid and the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators in New York, moved into Rio over the weekend and are staying in tents pitched in the Cinelandia Plaza.
A senior official at St Paul’s Cathedral in London said he had resigned on Thursday amid a dispute over the closure of the building due to anti-capitalist protesters camped outside.Canon Giles Fraser, the chancellor of St Paul’s and the third most senior official at the landmark church in the British capital’s financial district, said he was quitting with “great regret and sadness”.
Reports said he was sympathetic to the protest camp and disagreed with a decision last week to close the cathedral over health and safety issues caused by the “Occupy London Stock Exchange” protest.
Good for you, padre.
On a related note...
Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to veils on Wednesday in protest at the government's crackdown on demonstrators, after overnight clashes in the capital and another city left 25 people dead, officials said.Women have taken a key role in the uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's authoritarian rule. This month the Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman was awarded the Nobel peace prize along with two Liberian women, for their struggle for women's rights.
Like the '60s American women who burned their bras, eh?
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