Veteran shot in the face by rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland protests

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Oh,.. they also had bean bag rounds out of the shotguns...but again, a shot to the head would do some real damage at close range....not just a bloody mess.

I thought I throw this out...since everyone is just assuming a cop actually fired rubber bullets point blank at head level. They're...uhh...ANYTHING but non-lethal at close range and straight into the head. I dare say some Palestinian families who no longer have relatives among the living can attest to what "Rubber" bullets do if not fired off a ricochet.

Indeed...this isn't an illusion. I am replying to something I wrote myself. See, the edit window of 4 hours has passed so I can't add to the post I am quoting from.

I wrote that before some of the more detailed information has come since about the man's condition and true extent of his injuries. Now that those are known, it does sound entirely possible that, unbelievably, he may have been hit with a rubber bullet or beanbag round up close and at head level. IF that turns out to be the case, then OPD has an officer to fire and prosecute. That is my view if either of those rounds were fired by any officer on the line out there last night at head level.

Anyway... What I said in the first post turned out to be wrong, and I'm not one to just slink off and pretend I didn't write something, so here is what I suppose one could call a correction, since retractions aren't possible after 4 hours.

God Bless the Vet in this story as not just as a Vet, but an American who didn't deserve this for what he was doing out there. My hopes and prayers for the best in getting through this..and lets hope we don't see more incidents like this.

reply to post by backinblack


I was at Occupy Melbourne when we got moved to Trade Hall; I saw at least one girl get trampled (by a horse) and fall behind police lines, no idea what happened to her. My friend was pushed to the ground then kneed in the head twice (he can't remember it, bad concussion) by the police, they kneed him because he wouldn't move after he hurt his leg when they pushed him.. =

So many maced eyes that day also, was pretty frightening tbh.

reply to post by Vitchilo

Tension has been building up between Occupy, cops, and locals.

Its only a mater of time until something more serious happens.

reply to post by Vitchilo


These looser pigs need to calm down, all over the world these freaks are attacking these people for protesting because they know the the truth. Good job Oakland, the rest of the world is with you.

On twitter last night, a lot of people using hashtag #occupyoakland WERE posting pictures of shell casings and rubber bullets on twitpic and with links, so those were coming from somewhere.

reply to post by dethduck


Darnit, dethduck, I almost broke my screen trying to swat that bug!

On topic, I feel that this is being orchestrated in order to escalate. Change tactics rather than fall into the trap.

I'm actually surprised no one has been killed yet.
I think we all know that, that is what is going to push this into the next phase...
Shame it's come to this.
it's all fun and games till someone loses a life.

reply to post by backinblack


Yeah dude. I think I saw a video of that. One horse got spooked and went down for a second. Taking horses into a crowd and having them surrounded by people is down right ignorant, I was shocked when I saw that.

reply to post by Domo1


I cannot with any certainty say that what is depicted in this video is real but it looks real given what I saw last night. I stayed up all night with Oakland and Atlanta as they were both raided simultaneously. What I can say with absolute certainty is LRAD (Long Range Accoustical Device) was used, tear gas (lots of gas) rubber bullets and most disturbingly flash bangs. I know a thing or two about dealing with large crowds and never in my experience was it ever standard practice to throw flash bangs into large crowds of people.

If this has become the new norm of suppressing the populace I expect to see summary executions in the streets in my lifetime.

reply to post by hopenotfeariswhatweneed

"I know I'm a dreamer"

but your not the only one.

2nd line

How the hell do you justify throwing a flash bang into a group of people trying to help a wounded person up?

How do you justify shooting a person in the face with a " non-lethal " munition. That is attempted murder.

The long short of it is:

We need more of THIS:



To prevent any more of THIS:



If the matter escalates further then the appropriate measures will be taken to
humble these arrogant Officers of the "Law".

reply to post by Vitchilo


This is an absolute outrage !!!! WTF ARE THE DOING !! THESE ARE HUMAN BEINGS !!! I've almost had enough ! I can't even properly funnel my rage right now. This is going to get soo much worse very very fast.

If things like this keep up, people are no longer going to care what the protesters are protesting or who the protesters are. They are going to side with their fellow Americans.

It just ticks me off how our governments asks other countries to let their people protest but yet don't make the same demand upon itself.

Originally posted by FugitiveSoul
The long short of it is:

We need more of THIS:

To prevent any more of THIS:

If the matter escalates further then the appropriate measures will be taken to
humble these arrogant Officers of the "Law".

Wow that cop shot a canister right into the crowd that was trying to help the downed protestor..

I dont give a damn if you agree with OWS or not that type of behavior should not be condoned and is malicious.

Just reaffirms how they are punks who cant wait to use their gadgets to bring pain to the populace. One day this will backfire on them and that day wont be soon enough.

That video is ridiculous !!! This is something that should only happen in WAR ! The people screaming medic make it pair up with any gruesome wartorn scene even better. The video a couple posts above this response, is even more disgusting !!! What purpose dose attacking a crowd trying to aid the fallen serve ? With a flash bang !!! This is #ing disgusting! I sincerely hope those officers are willing to die for their cause because I'm willing to die for the my people, justice will be served and taking the uniform off won't save you, you sick #s! God, I can't even believe this #! How are they going to act when we fight back? They will wash the dirt off their hands and pretend it was unprovoked. I smell an uprising brewing.... Do they really not realize when the majority throws down their work gloves, and draws their swords money will mean nothing? I can't quite remember this saying but it goes along the lines of this. An elephant may be large, and trample an anthill, but in the end the ants will win, because the ants will always be much larger in numbers.... Something along those lines. Ah hell I butchered it, it's a wonderful quote that is very suiting to the coming days.

maybe its high time the protesters stop being peaceful. molotov cocktail anyone?

sounds like a war going on in Oakland . It is a shame to see police not joining the protestors. Considering they aren't getting paid enough to deal with this #. They surely aren't part of the 1%. I do not see any of the protestors being violent either... so sickening ....

bb

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
I'm absolutely shocked at the polices response. Tear Gas and rubber bullets against a majority of peaceful protesters. It is completely unacceptable, yet I fear some on ATS will defend or justify the polices actions

Last month I gave folks 5 things which would help them if the cops got ugly. I got all kinds of nasty notes saying I was the enemy, etc, etc, etc. And now if you had taken my advice and used the 5 simple things, then you wouldn't be in this predicment. Cause american cops would never fire tear gas or rubber bullets at defensless protestors. oh the horror.

Well it happened just like I said it would happen. I hope some of you dig up the 5 things I listed.
all I can say is if your not prepared for something then when stuff does happen your sol.

::wanders off cause they should have listened::
::