Posted by
Steve on Thursday, November 03, 2011 12:30:50 PM
At the Occupy Oakland event, there was an altercation between the protesters and the police. During the altercation, one protester was hurt. He is a former marine who now runs a web site that attacks the marines.
The Occupy Oakland protesters are hailing this former marine as a hero. They claim that the police shot him with rubber bullets and broke his skull. He did suffer a fractured skull. The police ran an investigation of every officer that was at the altercation. There were 37 officers present when the event started and finished. All of them were armed. The investigation showed that 2 of the 37 officers were armed with rubber bullets. Neither officer armed with rubber bullets fired their weapon during the protest altercation.
Prior to the police response of firing tear gas and flash bombs into the crowd, the protesters were throwing rocks and bottles at the police. Since no officer shot a rubber bullet, the injury to this former marine must have come from the rock and bottle throwing by the protesters.
On a news report on the way into work today, it was reported that the police fired rubber bullets into the crowd and injured this former marine. Obviously the reporter making this allegation does not have all the facts or chose to ignore the truth. The police report was public information by the time the reporter made her report. So, any reporter that did due diligence would know that the police did not fire rubber bullets and injure the former marine. She should have done some independent investigation or deductive reasoning to come up with the idea that it might have been the protesters themselves that injured the former marine. I realize that deductive reasoning is probably outside of what was taught at journalism school, but is something she should have picked up along the way in school or just in life. Not being factually correct is the downfall of many a reporter with an agenda. This reporter is no exception to that rule.
Since the occupy protests are shrinking due to lack of interest, they need to ramp them up a bit. The obvious method to ramp up the protests is to confront the police and get them to respond. That means some protesters will be injured and go to jail. The point then becomes that these “poor” protesters were being brutalized by the police. Then the truth comes to light and that perfectly crafted story goes out the window. People who are not aware of the facts will be duped into believing the reporter’s version of the truth until they discover the truth for themselves. The reporter’s credibility will take a hit for her lack of integrity. The reporter’s news agency will take a hit for having such a twit on their payroll.
I expect to hear about more violent protests at these occupy events in the next few weeks. Their initial support is dwindling, so they need to do something to attract attention. Riots are always an attention getter. In this protest in Oakland, the protesters got some people arrested for occupying a bank. When the arrested protesters were being hauled off to jail, the mob stormed the police. Expect to see more of this tactic by the occupy people in the near future. The protesters need to keep the spotlight on their protest. As the interest wanes, the need for more attention grows. Sooner or later, someone will get seriously injured or killed to try and make the protesters point.