"Now we have our Rosa Parks," tweets @your_neighbors. I'm not sure you can make a direct comparison between Ms. Parks, who wouldn't sit in the back of Montgomery bus, and Scott Olsen, the young Marine veteran whose skull was fractured in a police raid on Occupy Oakland. But that's almost beside the point.
The Occupy movement is now everywhere, and the name of Scott Olsen is a rallying cry. A new Facebook group called We are all Scott Olsen now has been making the rounds, along with a call for a general strike on Wednesday.
As predicted by Frank Rich and others, the crackdown against the protests has made them stronger. The San Jose Mercury News reports today that police in San Francisco, just over the bridge from Oakland, appear to have called off a raid last night that had seemed imminent. A crowd instead spent the night drumming and dancing. In Oakland today, at least one tent has reappeared across from city hall.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who earlier commended police for their response, now says she has decided to keep the police presence minimal. Mayor Quan says she sides with the Occupy movement. "Most of us are part of the 99%, and understand the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street Movement," she said in her statement. "We are committed to honoring their free speech right."
UPDATE: The hospital says Scott Olsen's condition has been upgraded to fair. His roommate says he was still unconscious last night and breathing with help from a respirator.