Why is all the focus on the one cop who fired the shot?

[noamnety]

I watched the video. I saw a whole line of cops who saw a citizen who clearly needed emergency first aid, and every last one of them refused it.

Am I missing something? Are people calling for all of them to be investigated?

[valerief]

1. Just as soon as the bankers get investigated.

It'll be a long wait, I suspect.

[idiotgardener]

2. I asked a similar question...

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2191339

Also, it's disappointing that we have to wait for a servicemember to be injured before people get pissed off. I don't begrudge the attention Mr. Olsen is receiving, but he is not the first to be injured in this way.

[noamnety]

6. I'm sorry I missed that thread.

I would have rec'd it.

Part of it is what you asked - why they didn't arrest the policeman who clearly was attacking innocent citizens. And the other is just the question of whether they have a job obligation to give first aid when someone's life is at stake, regardless of how the victim was shot.

Heck, I thought even if they shot an armed criminal and the person is no longer a threat to them, they aren't allowed to just let them lie at their feet and bleed to death without attempted some medical aid. Am I wrong about that?

[idiotgardener]

12. Good question

I suspect they would claim that the crowd around Mr. Olsen posed a threat to them.

This whole thing just makes me sick.

[chollybocker]

3. Citizens don't get to investigate cops.

Cops police cops. And the brotherhood supercedes all laws.

Til now, if we want it badly enough. :)

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I strongly agree. Same thing with the cops who kettled the group of women Bologna pepper-sprayed.

Kelly Schomburg (sp?) had her camera rolling through the entire event, and placed it on the ground to help the screaming girl. It's on her site...you can clearly see the other girl collapse at the feet, onto the feet of the kettling officers and lay there. All you can see are officer's feet, orange net, and the girl, for about 44 seconds. Then they back off with the net and leave everyone there.

Protecting and serving WHO?

[Initech]

5. The focus should be on who ordered the cops to fire in the first place.

[EFerrari]

9. ACLU sued Oakland over a 2003 protest which injured a bunch of people

iirc, with rubber bullets and won. At a shipyard, maybe? Protesters were trying to stop the transit of military materiel.

So Wednesday, ACLU put out an advisory that it looks like Oakland reverted to old behavior and violated their policy that was modified after they paid out $$$ to settle the ACLU case.

Harold Jordan, the new OPD chief is fucked. And that mayor of theirs, Jean Quan, is likely toast. They're going to be fighting for their jobs right about now.

[Initech]

11. Good they should be worried.

[etherealtruth]

26. Apparently they learned nothing (links to the 2033 incident)

http://archive.dailycal.org/article/12060/news_in_brief

April 2003 incident

"OAKLAND-Accompanied by a hefty team of civil rights attorneys and union groups, the 40 protesters injured by rubber bullets and wooden dowels at an April Port of Oakland protest filed a lawsuit against the City of Oakland yesterday.


Police ignored protesters' rights to free speech and peaceful assembly through use of excessive force during the protest, civil rights attorneys said at a press conference yesterday morning.


Oakland police fired non-lethal weapons at a crowd of several hundred, that included UC Berkeley students gathered April 7 to protest the war on Iraq. "



http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E4DC1F31F933A15750C0A9609C8B63
Oakland Nears Final Payouts For Protesters Hurt by Police
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
Published: March 20, 2006
Sign In to E-Mail


"A clash between the police and antiwar protesters here nearly three years ago will cost the City of Oakland more than $2 million, including dozens of payouts to people injured when officers fired wooden dowels, bean bags and rubber pellets. "

[EFerrari]

7. OccupyMarines has identified the cops on both sides of the shooter

and pointed out that one of them who is visible on tape did nothing to go to the aid of Olsen.

I've been talking about the more than ten agencies that were there that night. Mecury said 12, someone else tells me 16. I don't remember seeing anything like this, ever. Oakland must have called every cop with a pulse all around the bay. And then the Mayor goes out of town -- can you believe it? She orders up an army and leaves it to its own devices. :shrug:

I wonder if that means DHS is in on it, somehow. Because that's weird behavior for a mayor, right there, especially one in the middle of a recall. :shrug:

[jeff47]

8. There's multiple levels of evil involved.

The one who shot a marine in the face with a CS canister is definitely a larger problem than the ones who failed to provide first aid.

Mostly because in a "riot" situation, I doubt the police are required to drop their riot gear and help the injured (that they caused). So at best an investigation may change "policy" but wouldn't punish anyone.

Aside from the shooter, the other people who need to be investigated are the ones who ordered the shooting.

[libertypirate]

10. He needs to be made an example for his behavior..

Only then can his colleagues fully understand the gravity of their behavior. These people are taught to fear protesters like riots, which is a very imbalanced perspective.

This circus of police idiots treated a peaceful protest like they were preparing to attack the police line. Why, because they read it in a book somewhere or paid some other asshole to teach them how to mitigate these situations.

There was no imminent danger for the police to justify their escalation. They best way to get these people to stop is to provide them with a pariah, a model of whom not to become.

[robinlynne]

15. just fyi, I read that people were throwing bottles at the cops first. I do not say that

is a justification of anything the police are doing. Peaceful assembly is our RIGHT, our duty even.
just think facts are facts. It is possible that things were thrown at the cops first.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Let's go down there

Do me a favor, get a few bottles and try to find how hard you can throw. If you do it fast enough to break a police shield, contact the scout for your local basebal team.

Police policy says escalation of force has to be commensurate to the threat.

There is more, if there were rocks thrown, a few cracked shields and helmets should have been produced.

Here is a last question, how many cops were transported to hospital? A big goose egg. So forgive me for smelling agent provocateour on this one.

[robinlynne]

20. got it. Also read today on Du that the way they fired that tear gas canister was

illegal even in a war zone. It had to be fired to the ground. It was not.

[csziggy]

17. Here is video before and during the hits on Scott Olsen and the group

That ran to help him: http://youtu.be/nM3GgZTPYiA

The video runs for three minutes before the tear gas that hit Olsen and that also engulfed an old lady in a wheelchair. Do you see ANYTHING thrown towards the police?

What I see is an injured man ten feet in front of a line of officers who did nothing to help him and objects flying from the line of police towards the crowd that was clearly only going to help the injured man.

[Major Hogwash]

18. If that tear gas shell would have hit that woman in the wheelchair, I think the reaction would have

been worse.
But, it doesn't appear that the police officer saw her, or he might have shot at her instead!!

If that officer isn't charged with attempted murder, there is something seriously wrong with Oakland!
And I mean that, most sincerely.

[libertypirate]

19. Not a single image of a bloody police officer, there was no justification period.

One bloody cop might justify the response we saw. Nothing was thrown that could hurt anyone in body armor. You can't even pretend in a bubble of bull that this could have been justified.

[justiceischeap]

23. Some photos of police splashed with paint are out there

just Google police oakland paint and you can find them.

That said, those photos (and I saw a video of a cop getting some water thrown on his back) are from what appears to be earlier in the day. When they went all 'war zone' on the demonstrators asses was nighttime, hours it seems removed from the "actions against the police."

If someone threw water or paint on me, then I turned around and shot them in the face with a flare gun, I'd guess I'd be in a shitload of trouble... just as the officer who shot Olsen and those that stood about and did nothing to help him.

[redqueen]

13. Yes, a full investigation.

That would cover the entire incident. They seem to act as if this was all according to procedure... so we need to know why there was absolutely no reaction on the part of any of those other officers after the canister was fired at the people who tried to help Scott.

This may also explain why no officials or pols acted as if it was nothing worthy of commenting on.

[Politicalboi]

14. Looking back it was probably better

That the cops didn't intervene, they probably would have arrested him and he would have died in jail.

[PurgedVoter]

21. K&R This missed my attention entirely.

It tells us what our expectations have become, that we do not expect police to help the injured. Yet when we watch these videos, children and women are being hounded, not protected. The speeches that come afterwards talk about protecting people, but the actions show a different face.

[justiceischeap]

22. I've made that point several times myself. nt

[yardwork]

24. Threads all over DU calling for the mayor and chief of police to resign.

I haven't read a single post here suggesting that "one bad apple" caused this. I see no focus on a single cop. At the same time, it's important to get the names of the police who fired the shots and threw the tear gas and other objects. Without names, the Oakland leadership simply keeps avoiding responsibility. For days we've seen press releases and statements from Oakland police that it wasn't them, San Francisco Sheriff's Department says it wasn't them, well who was it? Names and faces, please.

[1776Forever]

25. Yes they are calling for ALL the tactics that were used to be investigated BUT the man that threw

the projectile also needs to be held responsible for his actions! He must be asked if he acted on his own recognizance or did he have orders to do thia - of course he and those giving him orders need to be held responsible!

[hfojvt]

27. so there were a hundred cops there

but everybody is focussing on just one?