Just need to vent a little

[hootinholler]

I don't know if I can say this eloquently, or even coherently, but something has been bugging me about Scott Olsen's injuries. Well, maybe not his injuries per se, but the way the press and the public have been talking about them.

People have been talking about his being a veteran, and I can't help but notice it implies that somehow that being a vet confers a special status making the crime of inflicting a skull fracture somehow more heinous. It could have been anybody and it would have been just as horrific. I mean I get the irony of the situation, but I contend it is just as heinous without regard to who in particular was hurt.

I appreciate that vets are stepping up and putting themselves in front of others. It is what we swore to do. So does Mr Olsen get my respect for that? Hell yes. Does it make it more likely that a vet will take the brunt of the beatings? Well, it kind of follows.

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

Eloquent and coherent

[NYC_SKP]

2. It is just as heinous.

It's a bit troubling to know that a long-haired Berkeley student with dreds getting head-busted wouldn't have gotten the same kind of press, but it's always this way, a sort of differentiated value system about victims.

Awkwardly, that he is a vet creates a buzz productive to the cause, I hope he fully recovers.

[MADem]

14. ....a sort of differentiated value system about victims

Right on the mark.

It's true--it's media-generated to no small extent. The fat, pink babies who are snatched get all the airtime, the chubby brown bundle of joy, not so much. The blonde cheerleader who was abducted, murdered, what-have-you? The 24 hour news cycle, charge led by Nancy Grace, is at her disposal? The ebony princess who was president of her debating club? Not so much.

It's unfortunate that this is how it's played, but the media has always been thus. Many do not realize that Rosa Parks was not the first woman to refuse to give up her seat to a white guy....but she was the best looking, the most articulate, and the best dressed. That's why her case was "the one" that sparked a boycott.

She was a CHOSEN one, because she had media appeal.

[pacalo]

3. I'm all the more outraged because Scott served his country with two tours in Iraq,

only to be seriously injured (& purposely, since he was in uniform) by his own government. He honored his military oath to "protect the U.S. from foreign & domestic enemies" by standing with those whose opportunities have been disenfranchised by corporate-friendly economic policies. The police are NOT honoring their oaths to "protect & serve" the public.

That Scott chose to stand on the front line as the police were about to charge the protesters & got maliciously attacked for it should affect all of us deeply. He's a true hero & the fact that he sacrificed his life to serve in the military most certainly makes the police's actions against him all the more heinous.

I don't want to see anyone get hurt, period. But attacking a veteran was a major slap in the face.

[snagglepuss]

9. I don't have a TV and have been following the news for the several weeks.

I've read here about Olsen but this is the first time I read he was in uniform. Is that fact well known or has M$M buried that "tidbit"?

[pacalo]

11. There are pictures on the internet of him dressed in his fatigue shirt

with a black "Veterans for Peace" t-shirt underneath. I'll look for one to post for you & others who haven't seen it.

/edited to add pictures:

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. I agree that this would be horrific no matter who it was, but just the fact the man actually

survived two tours in Iraq and then comes HOME and is almost murdered by OUR POLICE because he was PEACEFULLY fighting for the working people of this country, makes this story what it is. That irony you speak of feeds the story. That's why it's getting so much coverage. Though I do believe that had it been a civilian who was almost murdered, the story would have been huge too...because it's the first major injury of the movement. Just that fact makes it news worthy.

[DCKit]

17. What you said. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. We must 'Peace' them out of existence. Veterans for Peace rule my world.

[MrModerate]

6. Any media story that creates a buzz . . .

Naturally flows down to the meme's lowest common denominator: "Pretty Girl In Danger!" "Rich Playboy Busted!" "Grandma Fights Off Burglar!" Or, in this case: "Hero Wounded at Demonstration."

It's both a business imperative of media outlets and plain old human nature.

[Jumping John]

7. Oakland PD doing in the US what the insurgents failed to do in Iraq n/t

[Major Hogwash]

8. Yup, Olsen went to Iraq twice, came home unscathed, and gets shot by a cop in the head at home!

That's probably why the media focused on this event the way they did.
Olsen had served in a combat zone twice and came home unscathed.

Only to be shot in the head by a cop!!!!

[jwirr]

10. I think that what makes it so special is that he went to Iraq two times

and came home safe only to be wounded exercising his freedom of speech. Yes it could have been anyone but it was a man who stayed safe in two tours of duty in a very dangerous war.

[guitar man]

12. The act is just as heinous to me

No matter who was hurt, vet or not, it's every bit as egregious.

But, what his vet status does do is change the narrative. From now on, every time a limpballs or bekkk derides the progresses as "human waste, dirty worthless hippies" or whatever, there's a real backlash potential waiting for them, especially since more and more vets will be joining the movement.

Most of all though, I wish him a speedy and full recovery :patriot:

[Matariki]

13. I think it's partly the IRONY of surviving deployment to WAR two times

then coming home and nearly getting killed by the police when exercising Constitutional right to free speech and assembly.

[pinboy3niner]

15. He's not a dirty, unemployed-by-choice, anti-American hippie Liberal with his hand out

His background, and his association with the Occupy movement, helps to counter the RW propaganda about the protesters.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I suspect that if he were not a troop

It would have been covered anyway. This was excessive force, period.

[unhappycamper]

18. I guess we could retire the "We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here"

meme. :grr:

[Major Hogwash]

19. Oakland is more dangerous to Americans than Iraq.

That's what this incident means.

Did the mayor resign yet?