Scott Olsen and the Oakland Shooting - A Follow-Up

Well, for those who may have wondered what happened to him, Scott Olsen appears to be doing well and recovering from the near fatal head shot an Officer in Oakland gave him for his trouble of protesting. For those who don't recall events that night, here is a quick recap in pictures.

He was a member of this group;



and his friend, who was standing beside him when he was shot in the head, remained at his lonely spot later into the evening.



and here they were standing together before Scott Olsen was shot.



and after he was shot.



Now to the meat of the story....He's back and ready to see some accounting for what was done!

Olsen says he became "disillusioned with the United States' military operation there." After his discharge in 2009 he became involved with Iraq Veterans Against the War, which has advocated for withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Middle East since 2004.

Olsen says he "was standing still and quiet with another veteran between protesters and a line of law enforcement officers as a statement of support for the Occupy movement, including its opposition to U.S. military involvement in Iraq. A line of law enforcement officers was about 20 feet away from Mr. Olsen. Without warning, one of the officer fired a high-velocity round made of metal pellets (a 'bean bag' round) at Mr. Olsen, hitting him in the head. The impact fractured Mr. Olsen's skull and caused severe hemorrhaging of his brain. As a result of his injuries, Mr. Olsen lost his ability to speak and perform basic mental and physical functions. Although he has recovered much of his speech and functions through intensive therapy, he still frequently has difficulty speaking, concentrating, and remembering things."

This hit did a lot of damage and he's awfully lucky he wasn't killed on the spot with it.

"Without warning, an Oakland police officer (Doe 1) located about 20 feet away from Scott Olsen and armed with a high-powered rifle loaded with a bean bag round, aimed his weapon at Scott Olsen and fired. The bean bag round struck Mr. Olsen in the head, fracturing his skull in several places and causing trauma and hemorrhaging to his brain. Mr. Olsen immediately fell to the street. Either the fall or the initial impact of the bean bag round fractured both a vertebra in Mr. Olsen's neck and his facial orbital bone," the complaint states.

Source

I wish him well on his pursuit of Justice in this case. This all happened a few days after I got back from the Occupy STL camp and was still recording as much of Occupy, nation-wide as I could for various reasons and helping some in the Occupy movement at the time. So it happened I was watching this entire event live with so many others and it's about how they describe it. Hopefully, at the very least, the cop that took the head shot is put in the street without a pension.

Nothing about that protest was worth murdering someone for. Shooting someone in the head with a beanbag round at 20 feet is basically executing them in my opinion...as the physical damage here showed. He was very nearly killed by it, despite being a strong young man and war vet himself. Lines of conduct have to be established and held to....regardless of who is breaking them. This went beyond conduct issues into pure sadism, IMO. I hope he wins huge for what he went through.