When I read the headlines yesterday evening, I felt as though I were in a time warp. "Police Fracture Iraq Vet's Skull Clearing Intersection of Protesters." But the location was wrong: Oakland, Calif. I thought that happened in Hempstead, N.Y.
I was reading about Scott Olsen's cracked skull at the hands of the Oakland police, but all I could picture was my friend Nick Morgan's head, fractured by the Hempstead police, bleeding out on the sidewalk in front of Hofstra University. Three years ago, almost to the day, they nearly killed my friend, a veteran of Iraq... when they fractured his skull... clearing an intersection of protesters.
Police violence against peaceful demonstrators in the U.S. has a long and painful history. Police violence against veteran demonstrators is absolutely no exception.
One need only search the words, "Bonus March" for a bloody history lesson in how America treats its veterans demanding a fair shake from the 1%. In 1932, under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Infantry and Cavalry deployed in the streets of Washington D.C. to violently dismantle a large encampment of WWI veterans demanding benefits promised them for their service and sacrifice. The attack left more than fifty veterans injured and killed an infant who died several weeks later from tear gas-related injuries. While perhaps the largest example in history of state violence against veterans, it certainly is not the last.
Now we are made furious by the injuries caused to Scott Olsen. Like the Bonus Marchers before him, he was a veteran occupying public space, demanding a promise be made good on: a fair shake from the country that sent him to combat. And like the Bonus Marchers before him, we've all relearned a valuable lesson. Being veterans protects nobody when the streets become a warzone.
But that lesson is not new to us. Not those veterans who've been protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last decade. As I referenced earlier, veterans were injured by police before when American streets became a warzone Oct. 15, 2008. Outside the last Presidential Debate in Hempstead, N.Y., between Obama and McCain, protesters, including veterans, came out in droves to demand the "People's Agenda" be heard by the candidates. Within that, the veterans had a very specific demand.
We were demanding two veterans in uniform be allowed into the debate to ask one question of each candidate. What happened when we approached police lines felt unreal at the time. The immediate of us were arrested, and then horses were used to disperse the rest. When protesters found themselves trapped between the advancing horses and a wall to their rear, they were trampled. Among them was Nick, a former Army sergeant, wearing his uniform, whose cheekbone was crushed by a horse on the sidewalk. Graphic Video of the incident still exists here.
More shocking is that after his face was crushed, he was arrested. While unconscious, no less, he was handcuffed and loaded on a bus to jail. Charges were later dismissed against all 15 demonstrators arrested that evening, but officers of the Nassau County Police Department have yet to be held accountable for their actions.
Nick still has a lawsuit pending against the County, but police lawyers have refused to negotiate as police officials have issued denials of wrongdoing and contradictory police narratives of the events that took place that evening. All of this makes the case that if you're protesting in America, you are not safe from the police, even if you are in a liberal city, even if you believe they are part of the 99%, even if you are a veteran in uniform protesting the very same war you were sent to fight in. The police are not your friends.
We thought our uniforms made us safe. We were wrong. I wore an American flag bandanna around my wrist when we marched on the debate, and held another folded in my hands because I thought they were symbols the police would recognize and react peacefully to. I don't wear my uniform anymore, and the flag no longer has any home on my body.
As I write this, Scott Olsen still rests on a gurney in a hospital in Oakland, Calif. And while he is not handcuffed to the gurney as Nick was handcuffed to his, he is no less a veteran survivor of police brutality, and joins the swelling ranks of those who made it home in one piece only to be broken by the system and have their movements dispersed.
But the movement may withstand the system this time. We were much smaller when Nick was attacked, and had nowhere near the publicity. For as shocking as the images of Nick being trampled were, the incident was blacked out by the Mainstream Media. The organizers, myself included, divided ourselves and fought over how we could have protested better, when we should have been rallying around Nick and demanding an end to police brutality. But we were driven into our separate corners, so many of us, and remain largely unreconciled to this day.
That was the third veteran-led direct action at an electoral event that year, the first two being held at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. It was destined to be the last. Police violence functioned to fracture the organizing core.
May the Occupy Wall Street movement never forget that the only people to blame for Scott Olsen's injuries are the police and the 1%. No matter what circumstances come to light, no matter if he was committing civil disobedience at the time or if there could have existed some better way the situation could have been negotiated. The police and the 1% bear sole responsibility, and it is for this reason that we must grow and continue to confront them.
If veterans like Scott Olsen, Nick Morgan and the Bonus Marchers can't be safe from violence at the hands of the system, why should any American feel safe? Grow the 99% and create a country where people don't have their skulls cracked for occupying public space.
Rob Johnson: Gandhi's Wings: Occupy Wall Street and the Redistribution of Anxiety
Scott Olsen Attacked for Using First Amendment Rights, Says His Uncle
Scott Olsen: Republicans on the Wrong Side of Occupy Wall Street
NYPD Sergeants Vow To Sue Occupy Wall Street Protesters Who Injure Police
The Guardian: Injured Vet Scott Olsen Is In Stable Condition
Injured vet's uncle appalled by police action
My son, and several other Oregonians have been proudly in Zucotti square from day one.
Unfortunately, the 1% don't seem to learn from history. They are blinded by Greed and Self-riteousness.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44908122/ns/us_news-life/
After several months fighting OneWest and Fannie Mae, we have been told that we will probaly lose the Court case and have to be out by Jan. 30th. My son bought this house in 1995. In 2010, IndyMac, now One West, started Forclosure proceedings. In 2009 he was discharged after 21 years in the National Guard, because he had Diabetis. He DOESN'T, but lost $700 a month due to the discharge.
He tried to get a Modification but every time we sent the paperwork, CERTIFIED, to IndyMac they said they didn't get 1 document or another. Naturally, we had no way of proving what had been in the certified mail they had to sign for. However, do a search. IndyMac loses paperwork. Common ploy to get past Oregon Law that states they must give us a reason for denying the mod.
Also, Oregon Law stipulates that ALL transactions must be recorded, before filing a Notice of Foreclosure. Not done, but the Judge decided to let them slide. Additionally, she decided my son must pay $1,000 a month into a fund which One West will now receive. No other Mortgage holder of a house in the $163,000 range has had to pay more than a $500.00 one time fee.
This is history of the treatment of veterans, deleted and scrubbed from books by the censors of big government.
"Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time, visited their camp to back the effort and encourage them. On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died.
*****President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans' campsite. *******
Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.
****A second, smaller Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the Roosevelt Administration was defused with promises instead of military action. In 1936, Congress overrode President Franklin D. Roosevelt's veto to pay the veterans their bonus years early.******
Roosevelt later issued an executive order allowing the enrollment of 25,000 veterans in the CCC, exempting them from the normal requirement that applicants be unmarried and under the age of 25.[20] Congress, where ***Democrats*** held majorities in both houses, passed the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act in 1936 authorizing the immediate payment of the $2 billion in WWI bonuses over the President's veto."
Looks like the only time something gets done FOR THE PEOPLE, is when Democrats hold all 3 branches of Government.
It's about time Vets fought back against the Bumper-Sticker Patriotism that is so prevalent in this country. We are heroes when they send us off to war--but unwelcome and criminalized when we dare speak up about any injustice in our own country.
are knowingly committing civil disobedience. It's
unprofessional." from a FB friend of mine and see it on here and I don’t fully grasp what the issue is. They can risk their lives to save this country on false claims and false promises and when they come home they can’t use that uniform to help make a point? I think it sends a strong message to everyone. Like the Marine who confronted NYPD (police brutality) the look of embarrassment on their faces when he questioned their honor after protecting their freedom! Our government has always been more concerned with their own personal needs and has never fully respected and supported our troupes’ whether active or veterans’ and it’s a shame, but it shows me how little respect they must have for the average American if they treat the men and women who risk their lives to protect their freedoms and fortunes’! Previous generations didn’t mind as much paying a “war” tax to fund the war, but right now, we can bail out wall street, but we need to cut veterans’ and retiree’s benefits before we even consider raising anyone’s taxes? Ryan’s plan gutted Medicaid and gave more tax breaks?
FDr staved off revolution with the NEw DEal.
GOVt seemed to be taking some measures to aid the people at that time.
TODay,I dont think so.
Every thing that is for the average persons benefit is under attack.SS MEDICARE ETC.
See you at the barricades BOB.
VETs have earned the right to do whatever they want.Uniform or not.
They must speak out also.
You are the 99% and you shall not be silenced.
Thoughts go out to Scott and Nick. They bled for America. Their blood cries out for the restoration of both liberty and equality.
This is exactly the sort of extreme behavior and attitude that has already turned OWS into a tiny fringe group - and you managed to do it in a few short weeks.
IF all OWS does is pitch tents and walk around with signs, waiting for the porta-potties to fill up, what will it accomplish and how?
Here's one I do have an opinion on. Would the civil rights protests of the 60s have succeeded if all the black folks just kinda camped out on the village green? Or did they need to march where they knew they would be confronted? Did they need to join hands and try to enter the college, the lunch counter, drink from the forbidden water fountains, and thereby provoke arrest and police violence, and make news?
Did Martin Luther King Jr. attack people and make snide remarks when people simply asked why he was marching?