Interview: Scott Olsen on his Lawsuit Against the Oakland Police Department

http://politicalfailblog.com/archives/6033

PFB sits down with Scott Olsen in his Oakland, CA home to discuss his recent lawsuit against OPD.

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So we're sitting here with Scott Olsen, who recently filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Oakland the Oakland police department.

So a couple days ago we filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Oakland, the Oakland police department, Robert Roche, and 50 Does- those are officers who are unnamed or we don't know their identity right now.

So we filed that and we're seeking undetermined damages and we want to hold the police department accountable so that we can hopefully prevent police brutality in the future.

So you've identified one officer as Robert Roche, correct?

Right, he is the officer who threw the grenade at the people who came to help me after I was shot.

And some people call that a double-tap, like a terrorist tactic, right?

Yeah, it's common and they did it with IEDs in Iraq.

They'd set off one and then wait for people to gather round then set off another one.

So, like you were saying, in the lawsuit you have Robert Roche named as the officer, and there's 50 other officers who the police department is refusing to identify.

Right, we don't know who the officer who shot me is and we're quite sure the city and police department do know his identity and they won't tell us... So he's Doe one.

Well I think we'll probably be successful in this lawsuit and our goal is to hold the police department accountable, something that hasn't been done well in the past,...

...and we want to do it in a way that they can't ignore, that they will change their future actions.

[unrecognizable] you know. I guess my question is, what are you asking them for in this lawsuit specifically?

Well, as far as monetary damages, that's undetermined, and we have several points listed that would be determined during the trial, I guess.

I really don't want to settle this lawsuit out and keep it quiet and just get my money.

I would rather take it to trial and make a big deal about it and hold them accountable.

So I was on two deployments to Iraq, each about 8 months long, and I just, through going through that, I saw the trauma of war, that it inflicts on everyone involved, and all the wastes and mistreatment going on, too.

After going through that I realized that I had been lied to and used for 4 years, fighting for somebody else's profits and well-being; completely the opposite of what I thought I was getting myself into.

After experiencing that I started to research about who's pulling the strings and who's benefiting from these wars and...

...it turned me into empathizing with the people that we have affected the most, the Iraqi community and Afghan community, and people around the world...

...and I thought that the only way for me to reconcile that, or one of the only ways, is to speak about it and to bring the truth home and to fight against what's happening.

So when you got home, you joined a group, an activist group, the Iraq Veterans Against War. What lead you to them?

A few months after I got out of the military I found Iraq Veterans Against War on the internet. I was looking for a community of veterans who kind of thought the same way I did, who have arrived at the same conclusions that I had...

...and since I've met up with them I've been participating in several actions and gotten to know many other veterans, and it's been very healing and very productive.

I was at one of the actions with you when a group of people occupied Obama's headquarters in Oakland.

That was in support of Bradley Manning, which obviously is something I'm very big about.

Do you have anything to say about Bradley Manning and why your group supports him?

Well, we consider Bradley Manning to be a hero. He did the right thing and took a big step and put a lot on the line to expose the truth about Iraq, Afghanistan, and the way we as a country do business around the world.

And myself, I could easily see myself in his position, because I had access to the same documents on the classified network, that he released.

If I had come across the wrong one, or the right one, I could have considered leaking ones, and so I could really be in his position right now, and I'm glad I'm not, and I really look up to him for doing the right thing.

The treatment he has gone through is horrendous and I don't think he'll get justice and a court marshal, but he deserves it.

A few months ago you were at a protest in Chicago, an anti-NATO protest and you decided to throw your medal, along with a few other veterans, off of a stage in a protest to war.

What lead you to make that decision, to join that group in Chicago?

It was a group of about 45 veterans from around the country, who realized that these medals that were once given to us, um, for me they meant something to me, and they made me feel good about what I was doing.

Over time they really lost their luster and they became meaningless. They represented a lie and I didn't want those medals, so I threw them back.

What did that feel like to actually throw the medals? It was past a barricade, correct? It was like the red zone, right?

Right, we did that as close as we could to where they were having the NATO convention and it felt really good to get rid of them.

Everybody felt like it was a literal weight off their shoulders and it meant a lot to us.

It was very healing for us to do, to kind of identify some of the guilty parties and confront them and say, "we don't want your medals anymore, they don't mean anything to us."