ANOTHER U.S. Army veteran in intensive care after being hit with police nightsticks during Occupy Oakland clash



A former Army Ranger and Occupy Oakland protester was in intensive care today after a veterans group said he was beaten by police in brutal clashes with demonstrators.

The veteran, identified as Kayvan Sabeghi, was the second former U.S. serviceman during the past two weeks to be badly hurt in confrontations between anti-Wall Street protesters and police in Oakland.

The group Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sabeghi was detained during disturbances that erupted late Wednesday in downtown Oakland and was charged with resisting arrest and remaining present at a riot.

Brutal: Kayvan Sabeghi told friends he was arrested and beaten by a group of policemen as he was leaving the Oakland protest to go home

Highland General Hospital confirmed that Sabeghi was a patient in the intensive care unit there.

CHILD SERVICES SEIZES BABY AT OCCUPY DALLAS

Texas child welfare officials say have taken a 9-month-old boy from his homeless parents at an Occupy Dallas camp. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales says the baby was taken into state custody Thursday and his parents were being interviewed. She declined to give more details until a judge signs off on the case. Cordell Cameron, a spokesman for the protest group, says the homeless parents, who had joined demonstrators about a week ago, were 'pretty devastated.' He said they were in the process of trying to obtain housing through a family program but feared they would no longer be eligible. Cameron says the child was in a heated tent, 'there was no abuse' but 'obviously you can't keep a baby out in freezing weather.' (Source: AP)

Brian Kelly, who co-owns a brew pub with Sabeghi, said his business partner served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.



He said Sabeghi told him he was arrested and beaten by a group of policemen as he was leaving the protest to go home.

'He told me he was in the hospital with a lacerated spleen and that the cops had jumped him,' Kelly said.

'They put him in jail, and he told them he was injured, and they denied him medical treatment for about 18 hours.'

The Oakland Police Department did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Sabeghi's name was listed by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office as one of more than 100 people arrested that night.

The veterans group said in a statement that police struck Sabeghi with nightsticks on his hands, shoulders, ribs and back, and that in addition to a lacerated spleen he suffered from internal bleeding.

Clashes between police and demonstrators broke out in the early morning hours of Thursday in downtown Oakland following a day of mostly peaceful rallies and marches against economic inequality and police brutality.

The Port of Oakland was forced to shut down during the demonstrations, sparked in part by the severe injury of another former serviceman, ex-Marine Scott Olsen, during a confrontation with police last week.

Olsen's injury became a rallying cry for the anti-Wall Street protest movement nationwide.

Man down: Former Marine Scott Olsen's injury has become a rallying cry for the anti-Wall Street protest movement nationwide.