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Stephen Lam / Reuters, file
Members of the Oakland Police department form a line during a confrontation with Occupy Oakland demonstrators on January 28, 2012.
Oakland police used "an overwhelming military-type response" to disperse Occupy Oakland demonstrators and fired at a former Marine and Iraq war veteran who was critically injured in the clashes in October, according to a report issued on Monday.
The federal court monitor tracking reforms in the Oakland Police Department came one day before anti-Wall Street protesters plan nationwide rallies on May 1, with Occupy Oakland demonstrators vowing to take over San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge.
Oakland's police practices came under intense scrutiny last year when former Marine Scott Olsen was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister.
Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, injured at an Occupy Oakland protest, gave his first live television interview following the incident to MSNBC's The Ed Show
The report concludes, for the first time from an official source, that police did fire at and hit Olsen that evening. An Oakland Police Department SWAT team member fired a beanbag round at Olsen, striking him in the head, according to the report.
"We have viewed many official and unofficial video clips of the Occupy Oakland-related incidents," the report said. "These recordings lead us to ask additional questions as the level of force that was used by OPD officers, and whether that use of force was in compliance with the Department's use of force policies."
Exclusive "Occupy" interview: Scott Olsen on MSNBC's The Ed Show
The beanbag rounds fired that night leave a green residue, which was found on the hat Olsen was wearing that night, later retrieved by police, according to the report.
The monitor, Robert Warshaw, said the court-ordered reforms, many of them related to how the department polices its officers, have gone backward during the past year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
'Thoroughly dismayed'
Olsen's case reinvigorated the Occupy movement against economic inequality, and the confrontations with police in subsequent protests turned Oakland into a focal point for the movement as demonstrators rallied against what they described as police brutality.
Jay Finneburgh / AP, file
Scott Olsen lays on the ground bleeding from a head wound after being struck by a projectile on October 25, 2011.
The Oakland Police Department has been subject to court-ordered external monitoring and review since the 2003 settlement of what was known as the Riders case, in which four officers were accused of planting evidence, fabricating police reports and using unlawful force, according to the Oakland police.
Injured vet spent days at work, nights at protest
Monday's report was the latest in a series designed to monitor and enforce compliance with the court-ordered reforms, known as the Negotiated Settlement Agreement.
"We were, in some instances, satisfied with the performance of the Department; yet in others, we were thoroughly dismayed by what we observed," monitor Warshaw wrote.
The police department announced last week that it was making significant changes to how it trains officers to control large crowds following criticism over its practices during Occupy Oakland protests that sometimes turned violent. It received more than 1,000 misconduct complaints during those protests.
"OPD has turned the corner," Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said in a statement upon the report's release. "My vision is to make Oakland one of the safer major cities in California."
The police department's critics of the department said the report brought the force closer to a federal takeover, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Stagnation is troubling. After nine years, more progress should be made," John Burris, one of two attorneys who brought a civil suit a decade ago that led to court oversight, told the newspaper. "We must seriously explore the next step."
Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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STOP RESISTING, STOP RESISTING, STOP RESISTING! Code...that means the cop's tape recorder has been turned on, idiot. So you were stopped because your tailpipe was dragging. Does that make a cop liable or stupid for handcuffing you, searching your vehicle for weapons, contraband and stolen property or frisking your girl friend while you whine about road rash on your face or the knee on the back of your neck? Only if the cop forgot to turn on his tape recorder and yell, STOP RESISTING, STOP RESISTING, STOP RESISTING! Get a clue.
Hmmmmm the only time I received such treatment from law enforcement..I DESERVED IT. I was young and stupid and I was breaking the law. All other times, everyone I have known were treated pretty fairly by those who serve as officers.
The violence against the peaceful protesters of Occupy has forever changed in my heart and mind, the favorable opinion of the country in which I live. If we were well off, we would be finding a country with a little more heart and a more human outlook toward its citizens.
But we aren't well off, and, I'm stuck in a country full of three generations of sheeple and psychopaths the result of over sixty years of detachment parenting all the way down to removing from little babies the food they most need. Their mommy's mammal milk.
Welcome to the experiment, folks. How do you like your country, now? How is that paid work loyalty above all even your very own children paying off for ya? Don't fall for the us against them, the Olders against the Youngers schtick...our current Oligarchy is not good for any of us citizens who happen to not be billionaires, millionaires or even human. Take the money away from the working class by denying them pay raises while amply rewarding the CEO long enough....well...we just won't have any money to spend to support the very businesses currently siphoning off of us. Not that it matters, they can just move to China or India where they still hate women and starve little girls just for being born....
While we all argue back and forth here, the powers that be continue unabated. I can sympathise with the concerns of most who have a valid concern. From either side of the fence. Truth is we are in serious trouble as a nation. "We, the people" are falling apart. We're drawing ever more defined lines of battle against each other. All the while our situation continues to worsen. I for one believe that we, as Americans, have a right to as productive a life as we desire through our self determination. I am not so naive as to believe that everyone believes as I do either. It's becoming like a runaway train. At some point control is going to be lost and a collision will occur. Not good. Something to ponder.
th Managed conflict is designed to produce the desired result.
the clearly defined lines are all a result of "political science" and propaganda
the powers that be need everything divided more or less on a 50-50 margin on any issue so they can manipulate the weak into agreeing with ignorant policies
Those youngsters need to relax, if thay want to cause trouble thay deserve a bloody nose .
LIFES A BICH MAN!
YOU wanna play you gotta pay
if you hurt people and damage property ITS THE COPS JOB TO PROTECT BOTH
YOU CAN"T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS,
QUIT WHINING AND take your medicine like good boys they should have taken you out back to the shed.
Hahaha the MEDIA is a JOKE too bad their offices were left unscathed
whaaaa whaa whaaa
I fought the LAW and the LAW won
deal with it you bunch of sissies
THEY NEED TO DE-POLITICALIZE the police departments and allow COPS to do their jobs instead of promoting anarchy and calling cops to the table every time some law-breaking punk whines unfair, unfair or some racist black and all their leaders cry racism racism, racial profiling..
START SHOOTING TO KILL and CRIME WILL GO WAY DOWN
EXECUTE RAPISTS, drug dealers and child molesters, for others 3 stikes and you're toast! why spend $50,000 a year feeding and housing each of these animals?????
people are animals....go to china where they think like you
Olsen was injured by a beanbag 7 months ago. You can clearly see the small scar on his forehead. But the temporary neck brace was over the top. Gotta stop asking people how stupid can they be. Some, like Olsen, are taking the question as a challenge.
There's nothing worst than an UNDER-WHELMING military-type response!
TRY CRITCIZING the protesters who were damaging property.
Too bad they didn't rapid fire beanbags at his head
although he does look a little "slow" but maybe that was a pre-existing condition....
kinda looks like "MR. floats like a butterfly stings like a bee" does now-a-days, weebad
Sooo, the liberals dont like the Police who won't let them run amok and inconvenience law abiding citizens and who use tear gas and rubber bullets???? Mnnn ok I agree...let's use machine guns and grenade launchers instead like they do in Syria and we'll see how quickly the nonsense stops.
Tanks, but no tanks. I won't shell out for that. That's a HEAP of trouble. This will get syrias very quickly. Employing dum-dums as cops is too explosive an issue. Shoot, first this is dangerous. Kent State lost four-to-one. It ain't worth a bag-of-beans. Where was that veteran heading?
allprezsmen,
I would like to invite you as well to our montly meetings.
We are looking for a few good ol American idiots to help form the Fourth Reich.
Only real requirement is that you wipe your ass with the constitution.
What shirt size are you?
We have several Brown Shirts that I'm sure one would fit you perfectly.
hey navy...maybe you could look into what fascim really is (in terms of italy in ww2, the only example i know of that claimed itself as such)...look at some of mussolini's quotes about politics...while you are at it, maybe check out what some of the nazi party beliefs were back in those days...fascism should be corporatism...mussolini said woeds to those effect....all some people know is what fox news tells them as far as history and what somethinig is defined as...to use more like a club instead of an intellectual discussion of what we deal with in the real world...
jay I have watched fox news. At least they let liberals have there say on all the maters. Let a conservative come on and say something on the liberal sites and they get fired right away so who has a more bigoted news site.
whatever you say
As the past has dictated this civil disobedience has to be controlled immediately. For those with a short memory I refer you to the riots of the sixties and Rodney King incident..
Shut up and let the cops do their job !!!!!
If you don't think we are in the beginning of a dictatorship think again. WE have lost our rights to free speach, to assembly and much more. What will it take for American to wake up. It is like pre-war Germany. If WE all don't take a stand we are going to lose all the freedomes we have.
You corporate trolls should not collapse comments just because they are intelligent viewpoints that conflict with your own . Just shows your fear of the truth.