Scott Campbell was peacefully filming Occupy Oakland when he was shot with a projectile by the police. For no freaking reason. Seriously, unless cameras are the new guns, he did nothing wrong! It's disturbing to see the police, people who are supposed to serve and protect, attack an innocent man like this.


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If you watch the video, you can hear Campbell repeatedly ask the police if "this is okay?". I think it's safe to assume that Campbell was verifying with the police if it was okay to film them and if he was at a proper distance from the police line. He asks this question multiple times before continuing to film. Hearing nothing back, Campbell films the rest of the police line at a respectable distance until... he gets shot by an asshole police officer. What the hell? You can see the rubber bullet (bean bag? another projectile?) being fired and hitting Campbell in the video.


Look, I can understand why police presence might be necessary at these events. Maybe things get out of hand? Maybe fights break out? Maybe just maybe it's supposed to increase the peace? Whatever. But I can't for the life of me see how it was necessary for that police officer to so blatantly abuse his power and attack a man who was merely documenting Occupy Oakland.

The evidence in this video is damning and it's complete bullshit. This police officer needs to own up to what he did. [Scott Campbell via BoingBoing]