05 November 2011

Second Veteran Injured at Occupy Oakland: Violence and Mayhem Reign

Kayvan Sabehgi is a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He says he was beaten by police with batons. Sabehgi is in intensive care with a lacerated spleen. Another Oakland protester and Iraq vet, Scott Olsen, was injured on October 25th in Oakland. "Occupiers" in Oakland have taken an increasingly violent turn and have attempted to shutdown the city - and have done a good job of it. In fact, they have succeeded in shutting down the Port of Oakland, the 5th-busiest port for container traffic in the U.S. And the rowdies are calling for a "general strike."


"Operations are effectively shut down in the maritime area of the Port of Oakland," according to a port statement late yesterday. "Operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so."...
The demonstrations prompted hundreds of downtown workers to stay home or leave their jobs early.
The protest was "largely peaceful, with isolated incidents," according to the police statement. "Five businesses have been vandalized, mostly banks and Whole Foods." No arrests were made. One person was hurt by a rock thrown through a window, police said.
There's the huge problem. "No arrests were made." Where is the justice for business owners? Where is the justice for those who needed to be in the area but had the good sense to stay away, or were not allowed entry? Employees were sent home early...but there were no arrests. Hundreds of teachers called in sick or asked for the day off. Bet most were in the streets.

A report at America Power says the Occupy movement in Oakland intends to "reclaim abandoned properties to meet their own immediate needs..." Never mind who owns them and pays taxes on them.  Anarchists were out in full force, and ready to "brave against the violence of the state arm...." If you want to see violence in the occupy movement, American Power has the video.

Even Al Jazeera is interested in American war vets, Kayvan Sabehgi and Scott Olsen, and is reporting the story from The Guardian. Maybe they handed out candy in the office today.

Violence should be intolerable. Surely the Oakland police can handle an overflowing jail, or beg some space from nearby cities. Keep these hippies in jail for a couple of weeks and they might get back to peaceful and lawful protests.