US seeks to 'terrorize' OWS protesters

Demonstrators help US Marine veteran Scott Olsen during a heavy police attack on peaceful Occupy Oakland protesters, October 25th (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/218614.html

Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, who was severely injured by US police during a recent anti-Wall Street demonstration, says the government is terrorizing people to rob them of their right to protest.

“First and foremost, they're not respecting our right to assemble, to protest and to redress our government for grievances…By the tactics they're using, they are in fact terrorizing some of us from going out at all,” Olsen said in an interview with MSNBC.

“It's sad that the Occupations have started out as politics and economics, and now it's turned into something more based on the rights, the freedoms that we are all told when we were growing up as Americans,” Olsen added.

During an October 25th protest in Oakland, police fractured Olsen's skull, forcing him to be bedridden in the hospital for one month and leaving him with a slow speech impediment and visible signs of trauma.

“If you look at me, this is at least the worst that could happen to you if you go out to one of these. And that's a sad statement for our country,” Olsen said.

Olsen, who had served two tours in Iraq, said he returned to the US physically unscathed.

So far, the occupy protesters in the US have gone through more than three months of harsh weather, police crackdowns, and arrests.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began when a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17 to protest against the unjust distribution of wealth in the country and the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies.

Despite the police crackdown and mass arrests, the Occupy movement has now spread to many major US cities as well as to Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and other countries.