On Tuesday evening, the streets of Oakland, Calif. were showered with flying rubber bullets, flash grenades, and clouds of tear gas. The Occupy Oakland protesters were invaded by police, landing several of the protesters in custody and one Iraq War veteran in the hospital in critical condition from a fractured skull.
Scott Olsen, 24, was participating in the Oakland chapter of the Occupy Movement and was allegedly hit in the head by a police projectile with what some believed to be a canister of tear gas. One of the protesters helping Olsen with his injury was gunned down by rubber bullets.
Police say they turned to these defensive methods when members of the movement began throwing objects at them. So naturally, like every other police enforcement monitoring a protest site, the law turned to extreme methods of violence to tame the typically nonviolent crowd.
Take a glance back on our history throughout the past 40 years. Police brutality has been widespread across America, injuring hundreds of protesters through actions that were inhumane and often times unnecessary.
One of the events that immediately came to my mind after hearing about Oakland was the Kent State massacre in 1970. The Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of unarmed college students who were protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia. Sixty-seven shots were fired in 13 seconds killing four students and wounding nine.
What I don't understand is why the police, in a position of so much power, turned to such barbaric and violent methods to control the high-tensioned situation. Wasn't there a more civilized way to handle the protesters? History has proven that violence ignites more anger and perpetuates violence.
Sure, the occupy crowd may have gotten a little rowdy, but was this level of retaliation necessary?
Dozens of occupiers left the plaza on Tuesday with welts the size of baseballs from being pelted by rubber bullets. Olsen, who had been in Iraq on two terms, received no injury at war but is now battling a fatal blow to his head from a scuffle on American turf.
It's incredible to see so many individuals banding together and standing up for something they believe in. Our generation has been branded by being apathetic, and it finally seems like we're taking steps to prove it wrong.
Email: akari.iburi@ubspectrum.com
