Supposedly, according to Associated Press “Port of Oakland reopens after Wall Street protesters remove blockade that had shut down operations overnight”
They very much wish that Wall Street protestors had been able to shut down operations
Supposedly there was a general strike in Oakland yesterday, a strike, which, however, strangely only affected city operations.
But what in fact happened was revealed by the Police Association: according to to Police Officer’s Association, objecting to being police being choreographed as riot bad guys.:
the Administration issued a memo on Friday, October 28th to all City workers in support of the “Stop Work” strike scheduled for Wednesday, giving all employees, except for police officers, permission to take the day off.
So the Port of Oakland was only shut down because the city government shut it down, and as much of the city as they could. With all port workers given a day off, not much to blockade.
The protestors tweeted about buses transporting protestors, which leads me to suspect that the city unions then bused the city employees to the protest in city buses, though I don’t have direct proof of that:
The police officers also shed light on the protestors triumphant reoccupation of city property after being thrown out which much spectacular and photogenic violence, during which a protestor supposedly suffered brain damage after a blow to his head that caused only very minor bleeding.
On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampments at Frank Ogawa Plaza and to keep protesters out of the Plaza. We performed the job that the Mayor’s Administration asked us to do, being fully aware that past protests in Oakland have resulted in rioting, violence and destruction of property.
Then, on Wednesday, October 26th, the Mayor allowed protesters back in – to camp out at the very place they were evacuated from the day before.
Evidently the purpose of Mayor’s order was not to remove the encampment, but to stage a Kent State Moment.
The officers also complain that the City Government is supplying astroturf:
The Mayor and her Administration are beefing up police presence for Wednesday’s work strike they are encouraging and even “staffing,”
The police officers complain that the city government’s behavior is “confusing”. To make sense of the confusion simply recall that the state is the left, and the left is the state. Leftism is the state at prayer, the ideology of the state, and the Ivy League its churches.
Obviously, Scott Olsen may very well have been seriously injured, but, since this is exactly what the Left was seeking in provoking a confrontation we should 1) treat the claim with extreme suspicion until it’s confirmed, and 2) place the blame for Mr. Olsen’s injury where it belongs – on the Leftists who sought the confrontation.
I do think you ought to post it to I-S. I’m going to post the letter there.
–J.
Oops, sorry–asked & answered. Missed it! Thanks. –J.
OK, thanks for the elucidation. :>) What about my interpretation of your metaphor? I don’t want to put words in your mouth.
–J.
A good metaphor has several meanings, and several layers of meaning, and is all the worse for being explained, thereby depriving it of all the other layers of meaning.
I don’t have any evidence that Olsen had no skull fracture. If, however, a skull fracture is caused by a hard object, such as a tear gas canister, it is likely to cause massive bleeding.
Since the purported eviction was staged to create the appearance of a Kent State Moment, I view any alleged Kent State Moment with suspicion, but have no proof that it did not happen.
Brain damage can, and often does, result from a blow to the head which causes no bleeding, for example a punch to the head which abruptly spins the head around, but skulls are mighty solid. A blow to the head that knocks a man down could plausibly cause brain damage with little or no bleeding, but that which fractures the skull is going to do extensive damage to the flesh around the skull.
That is not how I would summarize it, but your summary might well be more accurate than my own.
It’s not really all that relevant to your point, but people get skull fractures without breaking skin often enough that this particular line of reasoning isn’t very convincing. Fall off bike, hit head on curb, for example. Curbs aren’t that sharp. Fall off skis, ram into tree for another example. Getting hit hard by something which isn’t too sharp can give a fracture with no skin break. And a skull fracture can be pretty serious. It can have internal bleeding, brain swelling, etc. Skin is tough in ways different from the ways bone is tough. It is stretchy while bone is (more) brittle. So, skin can stretch to accommodate an object pushing into the head while the bone breaks.
Yes, it can happen, but it is a stretch. The confrontation was staged, as demonstrated by the fact that they were allowed back in immediately after being thrown out. We should therefore suspect that the injury is staged.
The crowd swarmed around Olsen too quickly. They were expecting him to go down. Then the cop throws a flash bang grenade. The normal use of a flash bang grenade is to startle and distract people to that they are slow to react to the cops doing something else. It is a distracter. The normal use of flash bang grenades is to make people look away, so that they don’t see what you don’t want them to see until it is too late. The cop instead used it to make people look: When he throws a flash bang, he is says by his actions “Look! See! Man Down!”
A flash bang grenade is not an attack, it is the sound and fury of an attack, to control where people are paying attention. By his actions he said “Pay attention to the man down!”
James–Thanks for the lead to the Letter. I’m posting that to the 2ampd list.
I have two questions.
First, I’ve looked and can’t find anything that states or implies that in fact Scott Olsen only had a major bruise and not a skull fracture. Do you have a source? Also, is it not true that brain damage, even serious brain damage, can result from a knock to the head whose outward appearance is merely bruising–said damage occurring when the brain itself runs into the skull? (I should think there would also be cases where the tissue that actually hits the cranium is already weakened for some reason, and ruptures.)
Second, is the following a reasonable description I can use in introducing your commentary to people not familiar with it?
“Mr. Donald’s writing often uses the metaphor of a stylized overarching State Religion and theocracy to symbolize the Left and Statism–in which the individual person exists solely to serve the purposes of the State, which means of the State Religion, which means of the Priesthood, and who has no other moral importance.”
I like this commentary very much, by the way.
Thanks,
Julie