Scott Olsen: ‘Freedom of Speech Literally Taken From Me’

Peace activist Scott Olsen reports on his public Google Plus account that he is slowly regaining his speech after being shot in the head with a teargas canister at Occupy Oakland. “I’m feeling a lot better, with a long road in front of me,” Olsen wrote. “After my freedom of speech was quite literally taken from me, my speech is coming back but I’ve got a lot of work to do with rehab.”

Olsen was at the front of the crowd when Oakland police lit up a downtown intersection with gas and “flashbang” grenades. Occupy participants say the police used rubber bullets, but the Oakland PD denies it.

After Olsen was hit, and as Occupy medics attended his wounds, another gas bomb was hurled at Olsen and those helping him. Investigators with the Anonymous movement identified the officer who shot Olsen as Officer Scott Bergstresser of the San Francisco Police Dept after a $1600 bounty was collected to find the name of the shooter. The investigators turned down the bounty, and it was instead donated to Olsen.

Early on, with his brain swelling inside his fractured skull, it was thought the former Marine could die. As the days passed, his condition improved, and now he’s on the road to recovery with a warning to police brutes and their supporters:

“Soon enough we’ll see you in our streets!”

To donate to Scott Olsen’s recovery, visit Iraq Veterans Against the War.