Outrage Over Veteran Injured at ‘Occupy’ Protest

When an Iraq veteran ends up in the hospital because of what police did, it makes news. It is not as if the police targeted him but that is the way this has been spun. Why? Because it causes people to get pumped up over it. If anyone should understand doing what you have to do because it is your job, it should be a veteran. The police did what they had to do no matter if they side with the protestors or not. Stop and think about the simple fact many of the members of police force have lost their jobs too. It is doubtful an officer tried to hit someone and even more doubtful they wanted to hit a combat veteran.

While I totally sympathize with the protestors, especially since I have been out of work for over three years, appalled no one in the media every stopped to think of who is responsible for even more jobs being cut with the "budget" talks or how much people have been suffering while the wealthy are more protected than anyone else, I do feel their pain, but this story has been spun.

These cops, many of them veterans, have a job to do and they are doing the best they can. If they don't do what they have to, then one of their own could end up hurt. Why can't the media understand that? Why can't they report on what is behind all of the anger the protestors feel? Why can't they stop and ask cops how they feel having to face off with citizens trying to make things better for everyone including the police losing their jobs too?

I am glad that Olsen is doing better and hope he recovers soon but this story is not the whole story about what happened.

Outrage Over Veteran Injured at ‘Occupy’ Protest

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A sign Wednesday in Oakland, Calif., refers to Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran who suffered a fractured skull Tuesday in an Occupy Oakland clash with the police

By JESSE McKINLEY and MALIA WOLLAN
Published: October 27, 2011

OAKLAND, Calif. — For supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose diffuse anger has been a defining and sometimes distracting characteristic, the wounding of an Iraq war veteran here has provided a powerful central rallying point.

The veteran, Scott Olsen, 24, was critically injured on Tuesday night when he was hit in the head with a projectile thrown or shot by law enforcement officers combating protesters trying to re-enter a downtown plaza that had been cleared of an encampment earlier in the day. Mr. Olsen, who served two tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine, suffered a fractured skull.
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