• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

No one could have predicted…

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / Shitty Cops / Surviving Iraq to Get Gunned Down in Oakland

Surviving Iraq to Get Gunned Down in Oakland

by John Cole|  October 26, 20116:19 pm| 116 Comments

This post is in: Shitty Cops, Assholes, Sociopaths

FacebookTweetEmail

Looks like the jackbooted thugs in Oakland are having a good old time. First they brain a Marine veteran and fracture his skull with a teargas projectile, then when a crowd gathers to help him, they chuck flash-bangs into the crowd and on top of the critically wounded man. Don’t believe me? Watch for yourself:

We’ll file this under the new Police professionalism.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Like The Bankrupt Space On Wheel Of Fortune
Next Post: Sarah Silverman and Wyatt Cenac on Rick Perry Presents “Niggerhead Ranch” »

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 26, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    I guess someone is going to get docked some vacation days. Sick.

  2. 2.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    October 26, 2011 at 6:23 pm

    Where’s the news here? This is America and this is how we do things. You actually think that cops are there to “protect and serve” the American people? If a commission is formed to look into this they will find that all officers involved acted ethically and professionally.

    They have equipment that they have to use and we are the people they have to use it on.

    We deserve it.

  3. 3.

    Brian S

    October 26, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    I wish I had any confidence that these sorts of incidents would be spun as anything other than “dirty fucking hippies got what was coming to them.” Expect some concern trolling in this very thread.

  4. 4.

    singfoom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    Yeah, that’s some fucked up shit right there. This should be big, bigger than the pepper spray incident, especially with the cops throwing a flashbang at the people trying to assist the wounded veteran.

    Updates about Scott Olsen here:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-protests-live

    Truly fucking disgusting shit happening to normal Americans peaceably assembling. Fuck the OPD and their bullshit tactics. They should be ashamed.

  5. 5.

    PurpleGirl

    October 26, 2011 at 6:25 pm

    Brings to mind the Ludlow (CO) massacre where private guards and the Colorado National Guard was used to put down a coal mine strike. Sixty something people, including women and children, were killed.

  6. 6.

    singfoom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Your cynicism is shared, but while this may be the way we do things, it is certainly not the way we SHOULD do things, and it is not in the best character of this nation.

    We can and should do better, and we see shit like this, we call it out and demand accountability. That’s why their strongarm tactics against OWS and OO are going to backfire. All this does is get more people more riled up and committed to stopping this bullshit from happening again.

  7. 7.

    srv

    October 26, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    With 13 agencies, a temp police chief and no mayor, anybody can do anything and get away with it.

  8. 8.

    Mary Jane

    October 26, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    Just giving credit when due, Loneoak linked to this in DougJ’s open thread.

  9. 9.

    Jenny

    October 26, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    Man, Ponch and Jon never used to do this on CHiPs.

  10. 10.

    Linda Featheringill

    October 26, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    I saw pictures of Scott Olsen. Baby face. Went to Iraq twice and survived and just might not survive Oakland. I understand he’s in critical condition now.

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    October 26, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Yeah, but one of the protestors swore at a policeman and 2 others were threatening to sue, so those fuckers deserved the riot sticks, rubber bullets, and shit

  12. 12.

    KG

    October 26, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    the Oakland PD has never had much of a sterling record, from what I recall.

  13. 13.

    cathyx

    October 26, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    It’s much harder to spin things against the protesters when so many people have their own video cameras, i.e. cell phones, to record what happens and youtube to broadcast it.

  14. 14.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 26, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    But the OPD says no flashbangs:

    However Oakland police have specifically denied using flash bangs. California’s KGO Newstalk radio station has a transcription from a police press conference held this morning. The police spokesman was asked: “Did the Police deploy rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades?”
    __
    The answer: No, the loud noises that were heard originated from M-80 explosives thrown at Police by protesters. In addition, Police fired approximately four bean bag rounds at protesters to stop them from throwing dangerous objects at the officers.

    Who you going to believe, some dirty fucking hippie?

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    October 26, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    This is only the beginning

    it will end when money in politics ends, most likely from a constitutional amendment beneath a smoldering moon.

  16. 16.

    Brian S

    October 26, 2011 at 6:33 pm

    @cathyx: Harder, but not hard, when you have most media outlets ready to repeat whatever the authorities say verbatim, and then not show anything which might contradict it. Internet junkies get it, but we’re still a minority.

  17. 17.

    kindness

    October 26, 2011 at 6:34 pm

    Most the time Oakland cops are OK. Yea they can be dicks, but I haven’t gotten hassled by them much in my life.

    But for this thing, they were all up in full SWAT gear yesterday, marching in columns and acting like Army. They had most the downtown streets blocked off when I came to work yesterday. Today it’s light. The Occupy Oakland folks are saying they want to start some shit tonight though. I hope they don’t. The Occupy movement is helping our side. Turning it into riots will only push some folk to the Fox side.

    The poor ex-Marine is in critical at one of the local hospitals. Hope he gets better.

  18. 18.

    singfoom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:34 pm

    Hilarious inside BJ note: from the guardian link above:

    “I’m here because I’m incredibly sad and incredibly angry,” said one protester, Samsarah Morgan. “I’m hoping our city government comes to their senses and stops dealing with us like a fascist state.”

    M_C, is that you?

  19. 19.

    Jenny

    October 26, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    “I am making out the report now. We haven’t quite decided yet whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.” ~ Capt. Louis Renault. Casablanca (1942).

  20. 20.

    eemom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    This is beyond awful. WTF is wrong with these people?

    What’s next, Kent State II?

  21. 21.

    sherifffruitfly

    October 26, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Cop = state-sponsored domestic terrorist. Plain and simple.

  22. 22.

    BGinCHI

    October 26, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    I foresee some serious shit between vets and the police coming up.

    The cops are going to have to think this time. It ain’t the late 60s. There are too many eyes. The right is coming for their jobs now too.

    Solidarity or else, motherfuckers.

  23. 23.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: I’m going with the video. Those were concussion grenades, or flash-bangs if you must. They fucking well were NOT M-80s thrown by civilians.

  24. 24.

    singfoom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    @General Stuck: I pine for that day when money is removed from our politics. You’re right, constitutional amendment is the only way to protect it from SCOTUS.

    I’d be behind an amendment stating that only citizens (actual human beings) can donate money to political campaigns and no third party ads are allowed. I won’t hold my breath waiting for it though.

    How can we expect the whores (excuse the offense to ladies of the night) in Congress to be the undoing of their own gravy train?

  25. 25.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    @singfoom: Nope. She lives in the Denver area, supposedly.

  26. 26.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 26, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    @soonergrunt: I guess I should have used the snark tag there.

  27. 27.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    October 26, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    .
    .
    It’s a good thing President Obama wasn’t anywhere near there, because he would have kicked their asses.
    .
    .

  28. 28.

    Cat Lady

    October 26, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    “…then they fight you, then you win.”

    I’ll pray like crazy that Mr. Olsen recovers, but there will be more of this.

  29. 29.

    Catsy

    October 26, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    @soonergrunt: Guaran-fucking-teed. There is simply no confusing them for anyone who’s seen/heard both go off.

    The person who made that statement was either lying or lied to.

  30. 30.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 26, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    I would note that action against the protests seems to be stepping up recently. Someone in an earlier thread mentioned coordination. I won’t put on a tin-foil hat, but someone should track these police actions on a timeline or something.

  31. 31.

    singfoom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    @soonergrunt: Who are you going to believe, the official police story, or your lying DFH eyes?

    When do they get to the level of the Iraqi Propaganda minister going “THERE ARE NO AMERICAN TANKS IN BAGHDAD, THEY ARE ALL DEAD.”

    Same schtick, different conflict.

  32. 32.

    scav

    October 26, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    @Catsy: Or don’t care and can’t see the bother. They’ve no doubt been practicing for this gig by saying “We don’t torture.” to themselves repeatedly into a mirror. Headed for the big times.

  33. 33.

    RareSanity

    October 26, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    I can’t even…why did the police…

    WTF is going on in this country!?

  34. 34.

    Linda Featheringill

    October 26, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    Very nice to have some knowledgeable people comment on the videos.

    I didn’t believe OPD’s 4th of July explanation anyway.

  35. 35.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 26, 2011 at 6:48 pm

    @kindness:

    The Occupy Oakland folks are saying they want to start some shit tonight though. I hope they don’t.

    Unfortunately, I’d bet that at least some of them will. I love Oakland, but few people are as effective at undercutting themselves as Oakland protesters.

  36. 36.

    Violet

    October 26, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    This video makes me ill. I knew what was coming, and still watched in slack-jawed horror as it happened. I hope Mr. Olsen recovers. To get through Iraq and have this happen here… I can hardly absorb it.

    There will be more clashes like this. The monied interests aren’t going to give up easily. They had hoped the protestors would just go away. They haven’t. This sort of thing is the next step.

  37. 37.

    eemom

    October 26, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    @singfoom, soonergrunt

    the concept that she would do something as constructive as attending an OWS rally is fairly hilarious.

  38. 38.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    October 26, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    Nonsense. Mr. Policeman is your friend. He risks his life every day to keep each one of you safe. No one has ever been hurt or killed by the police unless they threatened or harmed the police first. Just ask Otto Zehm, Joe Torres, Eleanor Bumpurs, Kelly Thomas, Kathryn Johnston, Abner Louima, Malice Green, Fred Hampton, Sam Weaver, Vicki Weaver…

  39. 39.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: I have some stuff on this in the other thread. Long story short, local police are not trained, led, or equipped for proper riot control/crowd control. In fact, their very organization and mindset leads to rights abuses and criminal-level assault.
    If there is an upside to this–and may God forgive me for thinking of this, it’s that (I believe) more people will view the protests favorably when they see this level of brutality.

  40. 40.

    Feudalism Now!

    October 26, 2011 at 6:54 pm

    Guys, Samara Morgan is the creepy girl that crawls out of the TV in the Ring. It is another M_C pseudonym. Again I hat tip her for choice.

    The Oakland Crackdown is only the beginning. Occupy folks are going to need some first responders in residence to treat the injured. You have mayors all over the nation trying clear out the Occupy protests. The Occupy Oakland response will be their justification to unleash our militarized police forces.

  41. 41.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    @Feudalism Now!:

    Guys, Samara Morgan is the creepy girl that crawls out of the TV in the Ring. It is another M_C pseudonym. Again I hat tip her for choice.

    THAT’S where that name comes from?! REALLY? That’s fucking awesome in a “do you have any idea how truly fucked up that makes you look that you would choose that name?” kind of way.

  42. 42.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 26, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    @soonergrunt: Dude, why do you think I always call her “the little dead girl”?

  43. 43.

    cathyx

    October 26, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    The police everywhere need to realize that they are one of us. The 99%. Our fight is for them too.

  44. 44.

    Gex

    October 26, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    He fought for his freedoms? Apparently there’s more fighting to do. And Iraq is the wrong place to be fighting apparently.

  45. 45.

    punkdavid

    October 26, 2011 at 7:10 pm

    Is attacking a medic who assisting the wounded a war crime?

  46. 46.

    Brandon

    October 26, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    Let’s see. BART/OPD cop (can’t recall which), executes a handcuffed man on a BART platform. His defense was that he was only trying to taser the handcuffed man instead. Video is seen my millions on internets. Said cop gets a 1-yr prison sentence.

    I just don’t see how this isn’t more of the same. And I’m just damn happy that I don’t live in the Bay Area anymore.

  47. 47.

    Maude

    October 26, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    @soonergrunt:
    Haven’t the police become more aggressive with stronger weapons since Homeland Security came into being?

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    This incident seems intentional and gratuitously violent on the part of Oakland PD, rather than merely indiscriminate like Tony Baloney’s use of his mace can. It might seem cynical to point it out; but depending on how it’s reported, an incident like this might turn out to benefit the Occupy movement, the way Inspector Bologna helped bring wider attention to Occupy Wall Street. How much mainstream media attention this gets, and what kind, might be a gauge of the Occupy movement’s success in swaying public sympathy. The MSM is beholden to its corporate paymasters, but it still needs the public to believe it’s on their side too.
    ETA: I see soonergrunt has had the same thought.

  49. 49.

    Chris

    October 26, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @Maude:

    Haven’t they been doing that since the rioting/crime wave that started in the late sixties?

  50. 50.

    Maude

    October 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    @Chris:
    Yes, but they have more weapons now. There’s a different attitude here by our local police. They look like wind up marching dolls when they walk down the street.

  51. 51.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: I never saw the movie. Just the ad for it.

  52. 52.

    Darius

    October 26, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    Meanwhile, the top story on CNN.com right now is about… the “We are the 53%” right-wing counter-movement. Guess CNN thinks a marine getting critically wounded isn’t as important as a bunch of guys posting smug statements to the Internet.

  53. 53.

    jnfr

    October 26, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    My friends who live in the Bay Area (which I do not, so this is second-hand) say there is a group of Communist Party members who are well-known in Oakland for showing up at any kind of protest and getting violent with both police and any protesters they feel disagree with their own ideology.

    That sort of thing is a real problem for a group like OWS.

  54. 54.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    @Maude: They certainly have. The most obvious and egregious examples of this are the smaller police departments that have spent federal money buying assault rifles, body armor, sub-machine guns, etc. Then they contract with companies like Blackwater Xe to teach them how to use their new toys. This of course just leads to a deep seated desire to play with their new toys in the real world, so you end up with county sheriff’s deputies in full body armor with armored cars to execute warrant service, like that fiasco in Maricopa county a few months back where they ran over some dogs with their armored car when they went to serve a misdemeanor warrant for animal cruelty with that moron Steven Segal along for the ride.

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    @eemom:
    m_c did go to an Occupy protest, in Colorado — or so she said. In Denver, if I recall correctly. Given that she was (partly) right about Occupy before anyone else at Balloon Juice, she deserves a little bit of slack on this.

  56. 56.

    MGB

    October 26, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    @Darius: Well, the Real Muricans® are part of the 53% of course?

    /snark (just in case)

  57. 57.

    jeff

    October 26, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    There are so many police that are hoping OWS turns into a police/demonstrator war. It only takes a few bad cops and precisely one bad demonstrator/agent provocateur to make it happen.

  58. 58.

    Dee Loralei

    October 26, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    @Amir Khalid: There already was an OccupyMarines group, inspired from Shamar Thomas a few weeks ago telling the NYPD there was no honour in what they were doing to the OWS protestors.They also kicked off OccupyArmy, Navy and Police movements too. What happened to this unfortunate Marine will only galvanize the returning vets even moreso than what the cops are doing to civilians. (hint, you can follow these groups on twitter.)

    I told my elderly parents and son about this tonight over dinner. It angered them so much that we’re all going down to the OccupyMemphis rally for a while tomorrow.

    You’d think after watching the Green Revolution and the martyr Neda, and all the others this spring in the Arab world, that TPTB all over the world would realize by now that meeting peaceful protestors with violence, only makes the protestors grow larger. And it empowers the protestors.

  59. 59.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 7:38 pm

    @Darius: they have to give a hand-job to their paid commentator, Erick Erickson, who started that ‘movement.’

    On another note, the local news here in OKC, channel 4, just showed some footage of Oakland PD walking in riot gear (no footage of the actual incidents), while talking about all the utensils and bottles that were thrown at the cops there and how they had to defend themselves, and the bubble-headed bleach blonde declared that “a recent poll shows a growing disconnect with Americans and the 99% movement”, with no context at all, nor a reference to who did the poll or when or anything else.

  60. 60.

    Thoughtcrime

    October 26, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    Comment from GOS:

    Damn Cops (0+ / 0-)
    …
    Oakland cops refuse to even take a report, much less investigate, if you are robbed or your car is burglarized. They say they’re too damn busy and understaffed, and invite you to file a report online. Not that they’ll do anything with said report, except use it for stats. But somehow they have hundreds of cops available to brutally break up a demonstration. OK, let’s get this straight:
    Not enough staff to deal with actual crime.
    Plenty of staff to beat people up for exercising their constitutionally-protected right to peacefully gather and petition for redress of grievances.
    …
    Why don’t they just admit that the only things cops will bother to do now beat up and/or murder citizens. Oh, and eat donuts.
    …
    Democracy – Not Plutocracy!
    …
    by vulcangrrl on Wed Oct 26, 2011 at 01:21:44 PM PDT

    Residents of the East Bay know this all too well.

    And the other Bay Area PD’s that were involved are also disgraced by this event.

  61. 61.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    @Dee Loralei:
    Shamar Thomas’ righteous words need to be repeated every time an incident like this happens, loudly and often.

  62. 62.

    magurakurin

    October 26, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    @jnfr: I think the incident highlights how difficult it is to protest now without this type of thing happening. Over the years, the police have become a military force, but without the strict discipline of a military force. Like someone said above, they have all this crowd control gear, but they really don’t have the needed training. Any group that protests now has to be extra vigilant to avoid any impression of violent action against the police. It may be unfair to the protesters, but it is the end result of all these years of “getting tough on crime.” It looks like the Oakland protest had some problems in this regard. Apparently there was a guy named Porch wandering around with an AK.

    He wouldn’t give his name — identifying himself only as “Porch,” an out-of-work accountant who doesn’t agree with the protesters’ views — but said that he was there, armed, because he wanted to protect the rights of people to protest.

    Porch is either a lunatic or an agent of the police sent to make the protesters look bad. Either way, a guy like that in their midst is bad news. Reports from other OWS camps indicate that some places have been very careful not to do anything to anger the cops.

    But I suppose this is the end game and it always had to come to this. The game is rigged and the police, more or less, work for the House. It is encouraging, though, in the opposite sense that the police in Albany refused to arrest the protesters. There certainly are regional difference in policing and it seems like Oakland may be especially bad in the jack-booted thug department. Dicks.

  63. 63.

    Don

    October 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    Most the time Oakland cops are OK. Yea they can be dicks, but I haven’t gotten hassled by them much in my life.

    Fuck them.

    I’m seriously over it. For a long time I’ve looked at police officers as people who are usually good folks doing a tough and dangerous job. But year after year I see that supposedly good majority look the other way and let this shit go on, enable the douchebags to hurt folks and do awful things, step on people’s civil liberties, etc.

    Now we see them get caught more and more by citizen recording and time and again they get a walk. We’re smart enough to realize that the rapist who gets caught and reported probably did it other times and got away with it but apparently we can’t figure that shit out when it comes to people we hand guns and bullets and pepper spray to.

    Instead how do those supposed good well-meaning people react, prominently and aggressively? By going after anyone who dares to document them doing their job. Arrests, harassment, deleted pictures, destroyed equipment, on and one. And again, the supposed good majority lets it go on.

    Fuck them. I’m fucking done with it. I don’t know if I just got wise to it or there’s been a change from so many years of the drug war and the terrorism fear or if there’s a new generation of un-professionalism.

    Whatever it is, they’ve tilted from my assuming they’re more likely to be well-meaning to my just assuming they’re only out for themselves and I can’t trust them. Because I’m not a cop, and those seem to be the only people the cops are really dedicated to protecting.

  64. 64.

    Feudalism Now!

    October 26, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    The courtiers of the media will continue to be obeisant to their Lords and Ladies of the 1%. They do amuse the nobility so. Bloodsport is another past time of the ruling class. With Iraq coming to a close, why not some domestic blood to wash away the ennui of life in the lone superpower?
    The battle over ballots, i.e Voter infringement, winning elections by recount shenanigans and lawsuits, redistricting to ameliorate the concentration of DFH and minorities, will now lead to ballad of the bullet. The 99% needs to learn their place and it will be under the heel of the aristocracy’s troops. Next big play will be a governor calling out the National Guard for security.

  65. 65.

    Thoughtcrime

    October 26, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    And they’re just dying to use this weapon on US citizens exercising their right to peaceably assemble and protest:

    http://govpro.com/technology/telecommunications/gov_imp_79144/

  66. 66.

    Morzer

    October 26, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    @singfoom:

    I suspect that this lady is Samsarah Morgan:

    http://www.facebook.com/samsarah.morgan

  67. 67.

    Calouste

    October 26, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    Someone here naively said that you can’t get away with shooting unarmed protesters in a democratic society. Come on what do you think the US is, Egypt or Tunisia or so?

  68. 68.

    Bubblegum Tate

    October 26, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    @jnfr:

    My friends who live in the Bay Area (which I do not, so this is second-hand) say there is a group of Communist Party members who are well-known in Oakland for showing up at any kind of protest and getting violent with both police and any protesters they feel disagree with their own ideology.

    Yeah, that sort of thing is a real problem here. Some protesters have no qualms about trying to co-opt other protests, because hey, if you’re protesting one thing, you may as well protest a bunch of other things, right? When there are as many protesters as we have, it turns clusterfuckish quickly.

  69. 69.

    swonder

    October 26, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    Mayor Quan’s Facebook page is on fire.
    http://www.facebook.com/MayorJeanQuan

  70. 70.

    somegayname

    October 26, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    File this under ‘fuck the police’. Related news: Are you a felon who needs a gun in NYC? Just see your friendly NYPD (please wait until they are off duty). 8 NYPD arrested for gun smuggling

  71. 71.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    @Feudalism Now!:

    Next big play will be a governor calling out the National Guard for security.

    That’s a very dangerous game for a governor to play. Only the governor can call out the National Guard, and so is responsible for their actions.
    To say nothing of the fact that the National Guard is (these days, after a long bloody history that changed at Kent State) a lot less likely to inflict the kinds of brutality that the OPD did. Guardsmen on the skirmish line won’t have their rifles, but only batons for example. They’ll be supervised at a ratio of 4 to 1. Only Staff Sergeants and above can deploy pyro/RCA, and only on order of a Commissioned Officer, O-3 or above. The Officer will need written authorization from the Governor, through the Field Grade Officers above him.
    There’s an audit trail in other words, and there’s big Army and the National Guard Bureau looking over your shoulders, backed up by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
    None of the above is to assert that nothing bad will happen. Just to assert that the kinds of brutality we’ve seen from regular police who don’t have the training, supervision, equipment, or accountability are quite a bit less likely to happen with the National Guard.

  72. 72.

    somegayname

    October 26, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    @sherifffruitfly:

    Cop = state-sponsored domestic terrorist. Plain and simple.

    I disagree. Terrorist want to enact some political or social change, and are usually a weaker force waging asymmetrical warfare against the a stronger force. The police are basically the largest gang in america. They are in it purely for money and power, and are the stronger force in ‘civil’ society.

  73. 73.

    andrewsomething

    October 26, 2011 at 8:11 pm

    ‎”Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights.
    (…)
    The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region. (Applause.)
    (…)
    The United States supports a set of universal rights. And these rights include free speech, the freedom of peaceful assembly…”

    Remarks by the President on the Middle East and North Africa, May 11, 2011.

    Wonder if this applies in Oakland?

  74. 74.

    Judas Escargot

    October 26, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    Disgusting.

    And notice, cops… for all that, the crowd still stayed peaceful. No riots.

    What’s the next excuse?

  75. 75.

    fasteddie9318

    October 26, 2011 at 8:14 pm

    All I can say is, thank the gods that Mayor Jean Quan was on a lobbying trip to Washington, and safely out of the range in which fragments of this provocateur scum’s skull might have struck her, as was no doubt his intention from the start.

  76. 76.

    Samara Morgan

    October 26, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    Looks like Julian is going to be prescient again…he predicted America will become a police state on its way to NLS collapse. :)
    did you guys see his new arabic website?

    Assange Akhbar!

  77. 77.

    andrewsomething

    October 26, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    I was at the Seattle WTO protests. Some people like to hold it up as an example of protesters turned violent. Some militants like to use it as an example of what a protest should look like. Both seem to not remember how it began.

    That morning, I sat on the ground, arms linked, peacefully taking part in an act of civil disobedience. Police officers in riot gear walked up to us with a fire extinguisher sized pepper spray canister and just soaked us. It looked at bit like this:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbones/125523970/sizes/l/in/set-72057594102343815/

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 26, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    @Samara Morgan: Read some history.

  79. 79.

    fasteddie9318

    October 26, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    @Samara Morgan:

    Assange Akhbar!

    Assange is the news?

  80. 80.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    October 26, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    @Judas Escargot:

    I think their (cops/TPTB) intentions are to incite the crowds into doing stupid shit so they can unleash the power of their forces on them.

    Get them to react to injustice and the law will be more than happy to unleash some more “justice” on them.

  81. 81.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 8:38 pm

    @Samara Morgan:

    Assange Akhbar!

    This is Malay for “Assange is a newspaper!” Your statement is not accurate.
    ETA:
    @fasteddie9318:
    Fie upon thee, for thou hast scooped me.

  82. 82.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    @andrewsomething:
    For better and worse, Obama is a Federal official, the highest-ranking one. It would be difficult and problematic for him to stick his nose into state or local matters.

  83. 83.

    salacious crumb

    October 26, 2011 at 9:02 pm

    hey man, 9/11 happened to us. stop condemning the anointed police, military and fire department.

  84. 84.

    Morzer

    October 26, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Akhbar (noun, plural of khabar) is originally the Arabic word for news, often confused by learners with the adjective akbar (superlative of kabiir – big/great). I suspect it came into Malay as a borrowing because most Arabic newspapers have akhbar as part of their title.

    Having seen this happen often in introductory Arabic class, it’s amusing to observe the same basic blunder on teh Interwebz.

  85. 85.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Um, you DO know who you’re talking to, right?

  86. 86.

    Litlebritdifrnt2

    October 26, 2011 at 9:09 pm

    I am heart sick, the guy manages to get through two deployments to Iraq and ends up being critically injured peacefully protesting in his own land, where he is supposed to be able to peacefully protest. It is his right. He has a right to peacefully protest and some asshole cop shoots him in the fucking head with a rubber bullet and then another asshole cop shoots a flashbang into the people who are trying to help him. What. The. Fuck.

  87. 87.

    Morzer

    October 26, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    Apes don’t read philosophy!

    Yes, they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it.

  88. 88.

    Judas Escargot

    October 26, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I agree.

    And the crowd, to its credit, didn’t give them the excuse.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 26, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    @soonergrunt: Of course. I sometimes just have the quixotic need to do things like that.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    @Morzer:
    Local languages all over the Muslim world have loan words from Arabic. One Malay word for news is khabar, from the same Arabic root as akhbar.

    It’s amusing to see m_c, the most ostentatious user of Arabic here, make a mistake like confusing akhbar and akbar.

  91. 91.

    DFH no.6

    October 26, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    @cathyx:

    The police everywhere need to realize that they are one of us. The 99%. Our fight is for them too.

    Jay Gould: “I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half”.

    Many police (not all, of course, but I sadly believe most) are in that first half.

    Are now, always have been.

    Cops in America are like this everywhere.

    Expecting solidarity with them is, sorry to say, a fool’s errand.

  92. 92.

    Morzer

    October 26, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Not to go out on too precarious a limb here, but I sometimes suspect m_c’s mouth might be writing checks that her intellect has no way of cashing. I even sometimes suspect she’s ignorant of everything except a couple of anime series and her own inner fantasy world.

    (I kind of miss the good old days of wondering just which Arabic plural form was going to screw me over on the test.)

  93. 93.

    Roy G

    October 26, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    This is why it is known as Oscar Grant Square now.

  94. 94.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I sometimes just have the quixotic need…

    I thought I heard the swelling of “Impossible Dream” from Man of LaMancha. I thought it was coming from under my desk.
    Carry on, then.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 26, 2011 at 9:39 pm

    @soonergrunt: Yeah, sorry about that.

  96. 96.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, no. Better it come from your aspirations to help the little cudlip than the alternative. My insurance only covers about six psych sessions, and I was worried about audio hallucinations.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    October 26, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    @Feudalism Now!:
    The nym m_c took from Harry Potter, Hermione Granger-Weasley, was not so clever, more an indication of her own vanity. I’d have gone with Sybil Trelawney, after the eccentric Divination teacher whose predictions are almost always wrong.

  98. 98.

    Chris

    October 26, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    From the conservative side, PJMedia’s article covering this can be found here.

    Closest thing to a justification: a video showing a bunch of protestors screaming at the cops, and another showing a few objects being thrown in their direction (with practically no reaction from them).

    From the comments:

    “A few scumbags killed wouldn’t be a bad thing, as long as decent people aren’t harmed. Break some heads. Break some heads.” (A person responds by deploring the fact that if that happens, “they’ll wave the dead bodies around as martyrs for the cause, just like the Muslims do.”)

    “We seem to have a consensus here! UP-TWINKLES for brave law enforcement officers who waded into a dangerous mob and did what they had to do to disperse them!”

    “I love the smell of tear gas in the morning. Smells like victory.”

    “Buncha kids who never got spanked. Too late now.”

    “I just sent an e-mail to the mayor’s office thanking them for taking out the trash!!”

    “The police should fake some injuries on the line (you know like soccer players) and give them more liason to go out into the crowd and arrest these bozos. It’ll clear them up real quick when they see some repercussions.”

    And possibly because I’m a foreign policy nerd, this exchange probably sickened me the most in the entire thread:

    “Couldn’t we just give them SF and Oakland, Detroit and say…Martha’s Vineyard…and be done with it? They can live on hippie reservations. Have their own economy where 1% do all the work and the other 99% protest themselves for a living.”

    And the response: “You’re describing Gaza. Once America stops giving free stuff to Hippianna, they’ll start screaming “occupation!!!!”.”

  99. 99.

    russell

    October 26, 2011 at 10:34 pm

    kalifornia uber alles.

    fuckers.

  100. 100.

    soonergrunt

    October 26, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    This is interesting:
    http://www.occupypolice.org/
    Right up there with:
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/OccupyARMY/163972943696817
    and http://www.occupymarines.org

  101. 101.

    PeakVT

    October 26, 2011 at 11:46 pm

    The OPD needs someone like Bill Bratton to come in and give it a mental makeover.

  102. 102.

    AndoChronic

    October 27, 2011 at 12:29 am

    Isn’t the OPD the same OPD that chased and shot some kid for not having a bus transfer? Something is wrong in their organization’s culture.

  103. 103.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    October 27, 2011 at 1:25 am

    @AndoChronic: no, that was the SFPD.

  104. 104.

    bjacques

    October 27, 2011 at 4:19 am

    @andrewsomething:

    I remember this pic very well from the Seattle WTO protest, because of its classic composition.

    [ETA] Goya also, too.

  105. 105.

    colleen

    October 27, 2011 at 10:08 am

    http://www.benzinga.com/news/11/10/2015610/occupy-everything-congress-shall-make-no-law

  106. 106.

    Robert

    October 27, 2011 at 10:09 am

    You know the protesters were throwing chemicals and paint at the police officers, right? That they were warned to disperse numerous times before one canister was thrown in? That as soon as the police followed through with exactly what they warned would happen, protesters began throwing rocks, bottles, and anything they could grab at the police, right?

    Context is important. It’s disgusting that someone got severely hurt at the protest, but had the crowd dispersed and not attacked the police, it wouldn’t have escalated to this point.

  107. 107.

    Dustin

    October 27, 2011 at 10:17 am

    @Robert:
    You have proof, Robert? Or are you just pulling shit out of your ass to play the false-equivalency game to discourage anger at the fact that a two-tour marine was shot in the head and then had a flash grenade thrown on his rescuers? Well fuck that.

    The kid that got hurt is from my fucking home town, I’m not gong to stand by while shitheads like you try to excuse a police state.

  108. 108.

    Chris

    October 27, 2011 at 10:35 am

    @Robert:

    Here’s a thought: has anyone considered just letting the guys protest, instead of trying to disperse them?

    I mean, there’s been an “Occupy DC” movement camped out in the square outside of my old office for weeks now, and I have yet to hear a single thing about violence or clashes going on at that place. Amazing what’ll happen if you just let people have their say instead of trying to shut them down.

  109. 109.

    Shinobi

    October 27, 2011 at 10:48 am

    @Robert: Why should we believe that this happened? Where is the evidence? They lied about deploying tear gas, what else did they lie about?

  110. 110.

    Chris

    October 27, 2011 at 10:59 am

    @Shinobi:

    This, too.

    Even PJM’s videos couldn’t come up with anything more drastic than “they were throwing paint.” Which, you know, fine – if you want to bill Occupy Oakland for the cost of a couple of laundry cycles, I’ll support that.

    Rocks and bottles? Yeah, right.

    And exactly how many cops ended up in the ER because of the absolutely brutal treatment they got from the unruly mob?

  111. 111.

    kindness

    October 27, 2011 at 11:02 am

    Robert is a troll late to the party looks like.

  112. 112.

    Dustin

    October 27, 2011 at 11:14 am

    @kindness: Most likely, but even trolls deserve to get smacked around sometimes.

  113. 113.

    Shinobi

    October 27, 2011 at 11:16 am

    @Dustin: I do enjoy a nice game of “Whack a Troll.”

  114. 114.

    fasteddie9318

    October 27, 2011 at 11:24 am

    @Robert: You’re totally right on this. Do you agree with me that it was this proletarian scum’s plan all along to have some cop shoot a grenade at his head so that he could rain potentially injurious shards of his skull down on the poor, unsuspecting police and, possibly, Mayor Quan herself? Do you think we could push to have this investigated as a possible assassination attempt against the mayor? It’s only by sheer luck that she was in DC at the time and, thus, safely out of range of this agitator’s skull shrapnel.

  115. 115.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    October 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    When I lived in the UK, I ended up in the middle of two riots and (as an organizer of demonstations) stopped two.

    The two riots I was in the middle of were triggered by the Met losing their sh*t and charging a crowd. With horses.

    The two riots I stopped I was helped by the local police force (not the Met) knowing when to stay cool and let me, as the demonstration organizer, calm things the f*ck down and get the hotheads to shut up.

    I’m convinced, based on that experience, that riots get caused by the police losing their sh*t.

  116. 116.

    Chris

    October 27, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    @Herbal Infusion Bagger:

    Yeah, I believe it. I’ve read somewhere that most of the urban riots of the late sixties/early seventies started with acts of police brutality. Somehow I completely believe it.

    (Although between Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover, I can well imagine that a tremendous amount of ratfucking may have contributed to that shit too…)

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • Manyakitty on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 2:32pm)
  • Sure Lurkalot on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 2:31pm)
  • artem1s on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 2:30pm)
  • rikyrah on COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: March 22, 2023 (Mar 22, 2023 @ 2:25pm)
  • Betty Cracker on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 2:21pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!