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OWS Horror: Cops crack the skull of Iraq War Vet

OWS OAKLAND - OCTOBER 26

Scott Olsen, 24, of Daly City, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was among the hundreds of protesters who filled the streets of downtown Oakland to protest the police dismantling of the encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall.

Keith Shannon, Olsen's roommate who served with him in Iraq, said doctors told him that Olsen was unconscious and breathing with the help of a respirator. He was initially reported to be in critical condition.

The antiwar group said Olsen, a systems administrator at a San Francisco software firm, suffered a skull fracture when he was hit by a "blunt object."

Video footage shows a protester, identified by the antiwar group as Olsen, being knocked to the ground at 14th Street and Broadway after police lobbed an object - possibly a tear gas canister - at a group of protesters. While he lay wounded in the street, other protesters came to his aid. The footage then appears to show an officer tossing another canister toward the group helping him.

The group dragged Olsen away. Olsen had spent most nights over the last few weeks at the Occupy SF camp, Shannon said. "He'd leave work, head there, sleep there and go to work the next day," Shannon said. "We were really against the fact that the banks and corporations were not held accountable for what they did."

Olsen joined the Marines in 2006, served two tours in Iraq and was discharged in 2010, according to Iraq Veterans Against the War. "It is a sad state of affairs when a Marine can't assemble peacefully in the streets without getting injured," said Jose Sanchez, the group's executive director.

Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday that the incident was under investigation. Officers from 18 law enforcement agencies were on the streets of Oakland when Scott Olsen was assaulted.

OWS NEW YORK - OCTOBER 27

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through lower Manhattan last night in solidarity with the evicted Occupy movements in Atlanta, Georgia, and Oakland, California, where violence erupted late on Tuesday. Tension was high in New York as police blocked the path of the march, and at least ten people were arrested to chants of, "Oakland to NYC, stop police brutality."

Following the clashes in Oakland, where tear gas was used and Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, suffered a broken skull, governments in other cities housing Occupy goups are on high alert. Governments who represent the corporatocracy, not the people, are trying to figure out a strategy to clear out the "occupiers" without arousing public disapproval.

While Mayor Bloomberg has adopted a more low-key, wait-it-out policy on the protests lately, some cities big and small are becoming wary of continued demonstrations, with mayors in Los Angeles and Boston warning protesters that they can't stay outside forever. In Providence, Rhode Island, the mayor is seeking a court order to remove the occupiers, while in Atlanta, where 50 people were arrested simultaneously to the Oakland violence, Mayor Kasim Reed said, "The attitude I have seen here is not consistent with any civil rights protests I have seen in Atlanta and certainly not consistent with the most respected forms of civil disobedience."

Around 3,000 protesters rallied again in Oakland last night, but remained peaceful, invigorated by their strong showing after the previous night's horrors. This time, police kept their distance as demonstrators chanted, "Now the whole world is watching Oakland."

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE SOLIDARITY

An Egyptian blogger reports today that demonstrators in Tahrir will march to the U.S. embassy tomorrow to protest the crackdowns in the United States.