Kayvan Sabehgi is in intensive care with a lacerated spleen after being attacked by a group of officers while walking home Wednesday night following demonstrations reported by LA Times as officially ended. Some skirmishes with police had broken out after nightfall and in the wee hours of Thursday morning when persons strung toilet paper, spray painted the walls of a fast food chain, and attempted to take over vacant and foreclosed buildings.
Courtesy of the LA Times
Photographer: Noah Berger
Demonstrators take over a vacant building
Guardian reports speaking directly with Mr. Sabehgi from Highland Hospital where Scott Olsen was originally taken. Mr. Sabehgi was scheduled for surgery today to repair his spleen, using a clot or patch to prevent internal bleeding:
Sabehgi told the Guardian from hospital he was walking alone along 14th Street in central Oakland – away from the main area of clashes – when he was injured.
"There was a group of police in front of me," he told the Guardian from his hospital bed.
"They told me to move, but I was like: 'Move to where?' There was nowhere to move.
"Then they lined up in front of me. I was talking to one of them, saying 'Why are you doing this?' when one moved forward and hit me in my arm and legs and back with his baton. Then three or four cops tackled me and arrested me."
Sabeghi, who left the army in 2007 and now part-owns a small bar-restaurant in El Cerrito, about 10 miles north of Oakland, said he was handcuffed and placed in a police van for three hours before being taken to jail. By the time he got there he was in "unbelievable pain".
He said: "My stomach was really hurting, and it got worse to the point where I couldn't stand up.
"I was on my hands and knees and crawled over the cell door to call for help."Apparently, other demonstrators were seriously injured after nightfall by police. Below, for example, an LA Times photo of an unidentified protester brutally shot in the leg by Oakland police with a tear gas canister:
A nurse was called and recommended Sabehgi take a suppository, but he said he "didn't want to take it".
He was allowed to "crawl" to another cell to use the toilet, but said it was clogged.
"I was vomiting and had diarrhoea," Sabehgi said. "I just lay there in pain for hours."
Sabehgi's bail was posted in the mid-afternoon, but he said he was unable to leave his cell because of the pain. The cell door was closed, and he remained on the floor until 6pm, when an ambulance was called.
Photographer: Noah Berger
In Denver, where police have also used excessive violence against protesters, Occupy Denver is temporarily relocating from its plaza to make way for honorary demonstrations on the approaching Veteran's Day, Friday, November 11th, and as a show of support for American veterans and their dedication to the United States, regardless of people's varying opinions on specific military engagements. They will coordinate the move with Bank Transfer Day scheduled for Saturday, November 5th. Occupy Denver has stated:
Occupy Denver will reestablish its Occupation at Skyline Park on 16th Street Mall, directly across from the Denver Federal Reserve building, and has planned a series of actions for Saturday to coincide with the bank boycott known as Bank Transfer Day, in which customers are urged to close their accounts with predatory financial institutions like Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Chase, and redeposit their funds into their local credit unions. Occupy Denver member Mitch Shenassa explains, “The Occupation has deliberately chosen the space across from the Federal Reserve as its temporary site to bring attention to the economic dangers posed by this independent central bank and its short-sighted fractional reserve banking system that cause the devaluation of our currency and the ballooning of our national debt.”More here on Bank Transfer Day, Saturday, November 5th, and the Move Your Money project, with video shown here:
No comments:
Post a Comment