Keith Olbermann To Oakland Mayor Jean Quan: 'Resign' (VIDEO)

After a violent, nationally televised clash between police and Occupy Oakland protesters on Tuesday, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is facing a growing list of heated voices recommending -- or demanding -- that she step down. Now, she can add political commentator Keith Olbermann to that list.

On Wednesday, Olbermann used the popular Special Comment section of his show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, to slam Quan's handling of the protests and police reaction. "Mayor Quan is left with two choices," said Olbermann. "She can dismiss the acting police chief, Howard Jordan, and use her mayoral powers to authorize Occupy Oakland to protest again without harassment. Or, having betrayed everything she supported and all those who have supported her, she must resign."

Olbermann called the police's use of force a display of "astonishing brutality," and likened it to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Quan, who was out of town at a meeting in Washington D.C. during the clash, authorized the morning raid of the Occupy Oakland campsite but has been stumbling over the incidents that occurred at the violent protest following night. "I don't know everything," she said at a press conference on Wednesday, when asked if she was satisfied with how police handled the incident.

But Olbermann disregarded her comments, saying:

If one night a group of peaceful protesters exercising the rights given to them under the Constitution -- and not rights made up by the cops for the cops, like lawful command and imminent threat -- if they are attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets and the mayor's only comments are to commend the police chief for a quote 'generally peaceful resolution to a situation,' and after that claim 'democracy is messy' after the unprovoked actions of those police horrify a nation, she is endorsing and assuming for herself the responsibility for whatever havoc the out-of-control police officers have wrought.

Among the opponents is also political action group, MoveOn. In response to the incident, MoveOn released a video showing clips of the protests and tear gas raids, climaxing with footage of the critically injured Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, being carried to the medic. A narrator asks, "Mayor Quan, is this your city? Is this how we treat free speech in the United States of America?"

For her part, Mayor Quan has been aggressively attempting to amend the situation. On Thursday, she granted the protesters access to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Later that day, she personally visited Olsen in the hospital, shook his hand, apologized and promised an investigation.

Watch Keith Olbermann's clip on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and then watch MoveOn's video below:

 

 

Comments

[marine42247]

08:08 PM on 10/29/2011

MARINE42247,TO THE MAYOR OF OAKLAND ,CALIFORNIA WE THE US MARINES ASK FOR YOU MAYOR TOO RESIGN AS A BROTHER US MARINE IS IN THE HOSPITAL STILL NOT SURE IF HE GOING TO DIE A US MARINE . SO MAYOR WE THE PEOPLE ASK FOR YOU TOO RESIGN NOW AND STOP THESE MAD MEN FROM SHOOTING US MARINES ,SO WE US MARINES ASK MAYOR TO RESIGN NOW YOUR POST AS MAYOR OF OAKLAND ,CALIFORNIA ,US MARINES CORPS.

[wayne the pain]

06:40 PM on 10/29/2011

I have met Jean Quan a few time! I thought she was the most liberal person I had ever met. She turns out to be the typical liberal with few exceptions. She was this loser looking ro be somebody and used progressive organizations to get elected to something. She craved office and knew in Oakland there was no Republican path so she pretended to be liberal and got elected, finally to something, Mayor of Oakland! Then her true conservative nature came out. She has now been exposed as a fraud and I hope the people in Oakland show this hypocrite the door and never give her the time of day again. I know she has burned her bridges with liberal organizations that helped get her to where she is! I agree with Keith, she should resign!

[Rwstafford]

09:00 AM on 10/29/2011

When it comes to brutality, you ain't seen nothing yet. I foresee things calming down for awhile with the advent of winter, but just watch next summer at convention time. It's going to make 1968 look like a picnic.

[glassjaw]

03:05 PM on 10/28/2011

it is a bit of a stretch to say anything connected with his show is "popular"

[laurawee]

06:41 PM on 10/28/2011

.....a really BIG stretch!

[bhaines213]

02:47 PM on 10/28/2011

As usual, Keith gives and intelligent, concise analysis that gets right to the point. The Oakland police are too militarized. They looked at the people who were exercising their constitutional rights to peaceful protest and saw ‘the enemy’ and then the police turned Oakland’s streets into a war zone.

[glassjaw]

03:28 PM on 10/28/2011

"PEACEFUL"? mulitiple rapes, 1000s of arrests,,, $$$millions in damage

[Celebrindan]

06:49 PM on 10/29/2011

Rapes?

Links please.

[Enrique Iglesias]

03:54 PM on 10/28/2011

War Zone, you say; you wouldn't know a War Zone from a Peace Demonstration; and your Hero Keith Olbermann, who was right there to give that on the spot; intelligent analysis; like yourself, is so far removed that you read the headlines and assume the worst... No one knows how this kid got hit in the head, it could have been from the Peaceful Marchers or it could have been a SCUD fired from a Drone Platform... Maybe even something that the police picked up and threw back at the "Peaceful" marchers that were just sniffing their flowers as they sang baez songs to the police... No One Knows, including Olbermann!!!

[Celebrindan]

06:50 PM on 10/29/2011

It's on film, idiot.

[ewalter899]

02:43 PM on 10/28/2011

This guy is telling somone else to resign?

[glassjaw]

02:42 PM on 10/28/2011

OWS,,,,,,,6 RAPES,,,, 1 INCIDENT OF 16YR OLD GIRL BEING PIMPED
OWS,,,,,2900 ARRESTS
OWS,,,,,,,,,$3MILLION IN TAXPAYER EXPENSES FOR DAMAGE et al
OWS,,,,,,42 DAYS

TEA PARTY.................ZERO ON FIRST THREE,,,,,,,898 DAYS

[momoluvsu]

04:55 PM on 10/28/2011

reference please

[Celebrindan]

06:50 PM on 10/29/2011

liar

[retiredvetdidmine]

02:05 PM on 10/28/2011

Right on again, Keith.

[Phillip Rhoades]

12:41 PM on 10/28/2011

For those claiming the police were unprovoked, a release from Mother Jones, before this (?) a trusted liberal magazine:

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/occupy-oakland-protesters-violence

[DnDCfromChi-town]

01:31 PM on 10/28/2011

please one man yelling is considered threatening?

[Steven Schwartz2012]

01:44 PM on 10/28/2011

,,,,,,and, that's it? 100 cops in full riot gear and 2 bottles were thrown out of a crowd of a thousand!!!
Oh they called them names too

[Phillip Rhoades]

04:28 PM on 10/28/2011

The original claims were that the police reacted in an unprovoked manner. That has been proven false.

[vesaversa1]

12:39 PM on 10/28/2011

Mayor Quan should be recalled .So should Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta.

[slenderman]

01:19 PM on 10/28/2011

Mayor of Atlanta announced that anyone who remains in woodruff park after a city ordinance he passed will be arrested, and the people still claim they will stay. Anyone who gets arrested at that point will have themselves to blame. They were given a time and have have to leave after its up. But I bet as soon as the arresting starts people will be up in arms about it.

[Bella Lee]

02:07 PM on 10/28/2011

Protesters expect to be arrested, not shot in the face

[masha2009]

12:36 PM on 10/28/2011

right on, kieth. this was unacceptable behavior on the part of the city.

[masha2009]

12:30 PM on 10/28/2011

the chief of police at the very least has to go and the policeman who threw a tear gas canister at the people helping the iraq war vet.

[plansmaker]

12:28 PM on 10/28/2011

Shut your face Keith..or I will Occupy Olbermann.
You don't want that!

[Rodger leMonde]

12:53 PM on 10/28/2011

It is said and others will repeat it. Threats are so undignified . Empty ones more so.

[plansmaker]

01:15 PM on 10/28/2011

You know its a joke, right?

[Kenneth kdubs Williams]

12:13 PM on 10/28/2011

Well assuming that we take our feelings of KO away from the table, a mayor that accepts what the videos have been showing about their city should get their head examined. I hope she makes her presence known in this. Because when people start to die, you won't be able to take back the actions that led of to it. She better be on the right side of this situation.

[Phillip Rhoades]

12:53 PM on 10/28/2011

I agree. I don't agree with KOs hyperbole but I do believe in accountability. I sincerely hope the various reviews expose honesty within the Oakland system. If not, then I support jobs being lost and symbolic resignations. Time will tell.

[Boiz]

12:09 PM on 10/28/2011

They were told to LEAVE. They threw glass bottles and rocks at the cops. They got what they deserved.

[masha2009]

12:34 PM on 10/28/2011

fail

[goleafsgo]

12:44 PM on 10/28/2011

Since when do people have "glass bottles?'     Most bottles are plastic.   Did you see glass bottles breaking?   I do not thinks so.

[slenderman]

01:20 PM on 10/28/2011

Starbucks frappuccino bottles are glass and available at most stores. If they don't break it doesn't matter. I'm sure you wouldn't like being hit with one.