I’ve never been hit with a rubber bullet, but I’ve read they hurt something fierce and damage skin and bone. (See pix below.) Beanbags, from what I’ve heard, cause a sting and bruising, but no other deep injury. It doesn’t seem 24-year-old Iraq War vet Scott Olsen was hit with a beanbag, nor a tear gas canister, as originally reported — he was apparently hit with a rubber bullet, fired at his head. Why someone in law enforcement (not necessarily the Oakland Police) would aim for the head instead of his body is a matter for investigation, but there is no doubt that Olsen sustained a severely fractured skull which put him in the hospital in critical condition (he’s been upgraded to ‘fair’), so the firing was likely at close range to have that much impact. Scott Olsen did two tours of duty in Iraq — seems he was safer over there than in his own country, exercising his Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and protest the government.
“On Wednesday, protesters displayed rubber bullets and beanbags they said were fired at them the night before. [Oakland Acting Police Chief Howard] Jordan said his department used the beanbags but not rubber bullets, but that other agencies may have used the rubber bullets.”
— From “Occupy Oakland protesters regroup — Iraq vet hurt,” SF Chronicle, Oct. 27, 2011.
If the point of all this was to scare away the OWS protestors, it backfired, just as it backfired in New York after police attacked demonstrators with billy clubs and pepper spray. More people are showing up in Oakland, New York and across the country to protest not only the 1 Percent who are stealing from us, but their ‘Praetorian Guard’ who use violence to control nonviolent assemblies. Even so, let’s not blame all the cops — every large organization has its cowboys and nutcases, but many in law enforcement know full well they’re part of the 99 Percent who are getting screwed and are sympathetic to the cause but, especially in these hard times, they need to keep their jobs. I hope the protestors keep this in mind — the cops are not the real enemy and the 1 Percent who are would like nothing better than to play “Let’s you and him fight” between protestors and police while they skate free. Don’t fall into that trap.
Photos from “Yes, They Hurt! Wounds From A Rubber Bullet” of Oakland OWS protestors hit with rubber bullets:
