Media made injured Iraq veteran is face of Occupy movement

UPDATE
Now someone is claiming the police aimed at him?

“Before gas goes into a crowd shield bearers have to be making no progress moving a crowd or crowd must be assaulting the line. Not with sticks and stones but a no bullshit assault. 3 warnings must be given to the crowd in a manner they can hear that force is about to be used. Shield bearers take a knee and CS gas is released in grenade form first to fog out your lines because you have gas masks. You then kick the canisters along in front of your lines. Projectile gas is not used except for longer ranged engagement or trying to steer the crowd ( by steering a crowd I mean firing gas to block a street off ). You also have shotguns with beanbags and various less than lethal rounds for your launchers. These are the rules for a WARZONE!!

How did a cop who is supposed to have training on his weapon system accidentally SHOOT someone in the head with a 40mm gas canister?

Simple. He was aiming at him.

read more here

This is from Veterans For Peace Executive Director Mike Ferner. I would be shocked if it is ever proven a cop would know Olsen was an Iraq veteran and aimed right for him.

It isn't as if the Occupy groups need any extra sympathy from the rest of us since we've all been suffering too with the way things have been. So what is all of this really about?

Outrage over veteran injured at Occupy Oakland was the headline I used for a rant I had the other day. I was angry over the media blowing this all up and putting a spin on it as if the police targeted Olsen. As I wrote then, I sympathize with the protestors and what they stand for. They are taking a stand for average people in this country. What I don't get is the fact the media reports have all been about Olsen. Why is that? Is it because he's an Iraq War Veteran? If that were the case then they should be reporting on everything else going on with them. Shouldn't they? Would they have reported on this if Olsen was not a veteran? There have been others hurt and it isn't a far leap to understand how hard this is on police officers. So where are the full reports on everyone involved in all of this?

Injured Iraq veteran is face of Occupy movement
By Moni Basu, CNN
updated 8:15 PM EST, Fri October 28, 2011

A vigil is held for Marine Lance Cpl. Scott Olsen, who was injured during an Occupy movement protest in California

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Scott Olsen returned from two tours of Iraq without injury
But he suffered a fractured skull in the Oakland protests
The videos went viral, and Olsen became the face of the movement
His uncle says Iraq changed his nephew's views on war

(CNN) -- The chaotic scene unfolded with flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and clouds of smoke.

Canisters whizzed through the air amid deafening booms.

Marine Lance Cpl. Scott Olsen went down.

"Medic! Medic!" someone yelled.

Olsen, 24, had seen his share of war in two tours of Iraq as a Marine. He was lucky, returning home physically unscathed.

But Tuesday evening, near the corner of 14th Avenue and Broadway in Oakland, California, Olsen went down.

The video images went viral: streams of crimson flowing down Olsen's head, his black T-shirt adorned with a white dove of peace, the war veteran carried to a hospital.

And with that, the Occupy movement had a face.

"We are all Scott Olsen," declared its website.

"It's ironic," said his uncle George Nygaard, that Olsen should be the poster child for this movement.

Ironic, said Olsen's Marine buddy and current roommate Keith Shannon, that a young man who fought for American freedoms should be injured exercising those same freedoms at home.
read more here

In fairness to CNN, they have been doing the best reports on veterans and telling their stories but as good as they've been, they seem to only want to report on what they think will get them the most attention and not what will do the most good for these men and women coming home.

They come home with wounded bodies and minds. They come home to no more money coming in when they leave the military, no jobs to find and more cuts to social services. To a VA system overloaded trapping them beneath a mountain of other claims as if their ability to survive combat should satisfy them when they can't pay their bills. Stand Downs for homeless veterans happen almost every weekend but there haven't been many reports on CNN about these.

It is almost as if the cable news stations have nothing better to report on than anything ties to politics. The troops are not a political issue. They are a national one. Considering what happens to them when they come home, it should be the biggest story CNN has because it crosses all political lines. They are willing to die for one of their buddies and that is all that matters to them. Not politics. It's time for the media to do the same and stop fueling the political fire.