As we broadcast, protesters with the Occupy of San Francisco encampment are preparing
for possible eviction by police, but reports just now coming in say police may have called
off their raid.
Meanwhile, across the bay last night, thousands of people reclaimed the Occupy Oakland encampment
in front of City Hall after police dispersed them Tuesday night using bean bag projectiles
and tear gas.
At last night's General Assembly, the Occupy Oakland encampment voted almost unanimously
to call for a general strike on November 2nd, saying, quote, instead of workers going to
work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut
down the city.
All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them, the
statement said.
Also in Oakland, an independent police review body will examine the clashes between riot
police and protesters Tuesday that left an Iraq war veteran in critical condition.
Scott Olson is a 24-year-old Iraq war vet.
He was struck in the head by a police projectile.
Video footage posted to YouTube shows a man identified as Scott Olson lying motionless
and unresponsive in front of a police line after apparently having been hit by a tear
gas canister.
Several protesters gather around him, but a police officer can be seen throwing a device
close to the group, which then explodes with a bright flash and loud bang dispersing the
protesters.
Olson then cuts to footage of protesters carrying Olson away as blood streams down his face.
A spokesperson for Highland Hospital in East Oakland has confirmed that Scott Olson remains
in critical condition.
He suffered from a fractured skull and brain swelling.
One of Olson's friends, Adele Carpenter, told Reuters, the irony is not lost on anyone
here, that this is someone who survived two tours in Iraq and is now seriously injured
by the Oakland police force.
Olson served in Iraq from 2006 to 2010 with the 3rd Battalion 4th Marine Regiment.
Acting Oakland police chief Howard Jordan told a news conference, his department's investigating
the injury to Olson as a level one incident, the highest level for an internal police inquiry.
He declined to confirm whether Olson was struck with a projectile fired by police.
Well, for more on what happened to a rock war veteran to Marine Corporal Scott Olson
and the broader role that veterans play in the Occupy movement across the country were
joined by two guests in Berkeley, California.
Aaron Hynd is a close friend of Scott Olson, a member of Iraq veterans against the war,
as Scott was.
He slept at Occupy San Francisco for several nights.
We're also joined by Jesse Palmer, who participated in Occupy Oakland since its inception.
He helped carry Scott to safety after the police projectile hit Olson in the head.
Aaron Hynd, Jesse Palmer, are joining us from the studios of the University of California
Berkeley School of Journalism.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
I want to begin with Jesse, because you are on the scene on Tuesday night.
Can you describe what time it was that Scott was hit and exactly what happened when you
came upon him?
Well, it was about 7.45.
People had marched at five, and by the point that the first tear gas and concussion grenades
were used, people had been marching for over two hours.
At the time, there was a large group of people standing at 14th and Broadway, which is the
intersection right in downtown Oakland, closest to Oscar Grant Plaza.
The police had given an order to disperse, but there was no aggressive behavior towards
the police.
It was basically just a standoff.
People were standing around.
All of a sudden, just an instant with no real warning, concussion grenades went off and
tear gas canisters went off all around us.
I was right in the middle of the intersection, and it was very shocking, because you just
heard the explosions in every direction all around you.
Most of the crowd, I was with, proceeded north on Broadway, but people went in every
direction, the other two intersections, people left.
At that time, I didn't see that Scott had been struck, and in fact, the tear gas makes
it very hard for you to see.
You can't see.
So, people fell back about a half a block down Broadway, then somebody said that somebody
had been hurt, and so a number of people ran back up into the tear gas, and he was lying
on the sidewalk, and there were a couple of medics already with him, and they said, we
need to get him farther out, because it was very unsafe at that location, and so we picked
him up and we carried him about a block around the corner from where they could safely work
on him.
What exactly was his condition as you tried with others to carry him?
So we picked him up, and my initial—I told him, you're going to be OK.
My name's Jesse.
Can you tell me your name?
Because I knew it was a terrifying situation, and I wanted to comfort him, but he didn't
respond at all.
His eyes were open.
He just stared blankly, and that was when I realized, you know, there was blood coming
out of—it was a little hard to say, but his eyes, his mouth, his nose, there was a
lot of blood on his face, and it was a terrifying, you know, moment.
I mean, he was alive, and we didn't know how badly he was hurt, and he didn't speak
back to me.
And I tried a few times because I thought, oh, he'll be able to speak back, and he never
spoke.
He—we got him around the sidewalk, and then there were—the medics said they were
EMTs, and they had experience, so that was when I left.
But he—yeah, he was seriously hurt.
I want to play the videotape that has been posted to YouTube.
There were two different ones.
One is the first, when you all got him, and it shows Scott's bloody face as you were
carrying him away.
And then we'll play the other, where people went to try to get him, and the flash-bang
grenade was hit right at the area where he was lying.
Let's go to the first, where you got him.
What's your name?
And for our radio listeners, of course, you can see this on television, but as you could
see just how it—how it sounds exactly as it looks, and that is a war zone.
The other video is Scott lying on the ground, not yet taken by all of you, the video we
just had.
And this is when people ran up—we're going to play it as I speak—ran up to try to help
him.
So Jesse Palmer, what do you understand at this point was the projectile that was used
that first hit Scott and this flash-bang grenade when people came to try to pick him
up?
I mean, it's—there's no way I can really say precisely what happened.
There were tear gas projectiles that were shot in and fell all around us.
The flash-bang grenades were thrown, and they went off, again, all around us.
And meanwhile, you can also hear on the video that they're shooting some kind of—some
kind of other thing, what they were calling them, bean background.
Some people were calling them rubber bullets.
But those were ricocheting and flying through the air all at once.
And in fact, just to correct you, he actually got carried twice.
There was the initial group that carried him from right in front of the police barricade,
which is where he was standing, just down the street a little bit.
But then, for whatever reason, they weren't able to carry him all the way to safety.
And I think the reason is, is because there was so much tear gas and so much—so many
projectiles flying through the air.
So I first became aware of him.
He had been carried away from the barricade, but not all the way to safety.
He was still close to the police, and that was when we ran back up near the police and
took—carried him again.
So the first video is of his first carrying, but then he was put down, and then we carried
him again to a safer location around the block.
It was very chaotic.
Hymne, tell us who Scott is.
Who is your friend, Scott Olson?
You both members of IVAW, the Rock Veterans Against the War.
Scott came to San Francisco about three months ago from Wisconsin, where he actually participated
in the holding of the state capitol over there.
Scott's probably one of the most warmest, kindest guys I know.
He's just one of those people who always has a smile on his face and never has anything
negative to say.
Like Adele said, it's very ironic that he was the one to be critically injured, not
just because of his status as a veteran, but just because of the nature of him.
He was a very nice guy.
He was not aggressive.
He was not angry at all.
Talk about his moving from Madison to the Bay Area and why he was participating in
Occupy Oakland.
You were not there at the time, is that right?
You were at Occupy San Francisco?
Right, I was at Occupy San Francisco around eight o'clock or so, so when I was reading
off a couple of tweets off of the Twitter feed and said that there was an Iraq veteran
who had been injured, I immediately called some people over there and found out that
it was a long-haired Iraq veteran, and I knew immediately that it was Scott, so I started
calling hospitals, found out where he was, and immediately drove over there and called
over other members of our organization to the hospital for support.
Scott came, like I said, three months ago, and he got a great job with his friend Keith,
who he also served with in the IT. He worked during the day and slept in San Francisco
by night.
He was a very motivated and dedicated individual, and he believed in the Occupy movement because
it's very obvious what's happening in this country, especially as veterans.
We've had our eyes open by serving and going to war overseas, so there's a small contingency
of us out here, and we're all very motivated and dedicated, and we're all hoping for the
best for a full and swift recovery for Scott.
Aaron, can you describe—there's a vigil outside of the hospital, as Scott lies inside
the hospital. Now, the hospital put him into a coma, is that right, to reduce the brain's
swelling?
Right. The hospital has kept him intubated and drugged up so that he doesn't regain
consciousness. I was able to see him for a while yesterday until the nurses finally kicked
everyone but his roommate out and stopped communicating with us. I'm guessing that has
something to do with the ongoing police investigation in the matter.
As far as the vigil outside the hospital, I haven't been back there since about four
o'clock yesterday, so I will definitely be attending that today.
His family is flying in today?
I believe his family is trying to get here as quickly as possible. I haven't talked
with Keith yet to see when exactly they're coming in, but yes, his family is on the way.
And you said it's seven o'clock?
Seven o'clock.
