Iraq Veterans Who Join Occupy Wall Street Protest

An ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protester who was injured earlier this week in California is hospitalized in critical condition. Scott Olsen’s skull was fractured as protesters in Oakland clashed with police.

Olsen is a veteran of the Iraq War. Other veterans have been turning out for the Occupy Wall Street protests, too.

Joseph Carter is one: he’s been going to the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests in New York.

Both he and Olsen are also members of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Some in the group have raised the idea that veterans could advise the protesters on tactics to protect themselves from projectiles or tear-gas attacks.

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks with Joseph Carter.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: An Occupy Wall Street protestor who was earlier this week in California is still in the hospital today. Scott Olsen’s skull was fractured as protestors in Oakland clashed with police. Olsen is a veteran of the Iraq war. Other veterans have been turning out for the Occupy Wall Street protests too. Joseph Carter is one of them. He’s been going to the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Both he and Olsen are members of the group, Iraq Veterans Against the War, IVAW. A few in the group have raised the idea that veterans could advise the protestors on tactics to protect themselves from projectiles or tear gas attacks. Joseph Carter says that the veterans group doesn’t necessarily endorse that, but he says that there are things that protestors can learn from those with military experience and from people involved in protests in other countries.

Joseph Carter: One of the things I thought was really interesting from Egypt was that because of the rock throwing wars that had sort of broken out during the revolution there, there were folks who were wearing plastic bottles on their heads as sort of helmets, and there was a lot of really interesting images that came out of that. So yeah, if we can provide any sort of advice on that I think that most of us are willing to do so.

Mullins: Like what? I mean what kind of advice would you give?

Carter: One thing that, actually it’s funny that you brought this up. Last night I was at a solidarity rally for Oakland at Occupy Wall Street and I ran into somebody who was a Marine. And he and I were speaking about how some of his friends who are former marines had seen some of the techniques that had come out of Egypt and how to fashion homemade, homemade gas masks. And so they got really interested based on their training in the military to see how well these things work. So they took the models that they’d seen from Egypt and they fashioned their own masks, and they tested them out with tear gas themselves to see if they worked. And they turned out to work, so now they’re trying to share this information with other folks just in case folks get tear gassed.

Mullins: Joseph, you’ve been out at the Occupy Wall Street protests yourself. Do you feel as if veterans are kindred spirits with those people who are out protesting, and I wonder if you know if a lot of your members are out there?

Carter: Absolutely, I feel like veterans are very much kindred spirits with a lot of the protestors. And veterans for the most part are part of the 99%, we’re affected by the fact that our autonomy has been devastated by this recession. And you know, whenever I go onto the internet, when I check Facebook, when I check Twitter, when I check all sorts of different websites I see lots of veterans and people who are still in the military supporting this movement.

Mullins: Well, what resonates let’s say to you personally as you’re out there? What resonates with you and the message that’s widely being disseminated in the protests?

Carter: I would say what most widely resonates with me and what resonates with most veterans that I know is that right now our political system as it’s currently structured disproportionately favors money from corporations and money from people who sit really as the top 1% of this population. We’re asked to vote every four years and every six years for the senate, and it seems like every time we cast a ballot it doesn’t matter if it’s a Democrat or Republican that gets in, our voices really aren’t heard. But corporations’ voices are always heard. And I feel like for me, someone who was raised really in the concepts of freedom, and democracy and liberty, I really feel like the American people’s voices should be heard in our government.

Mullins: How old were you when you first entered the military?

Carter: I entered the military at 18.

Mullins: 18 years old and now you are 27 years old and some things have changed a lot in your life, not just because of your military service, but coming back now with many, many other veterans (certainly more people have been in active duty than when you were 18 years old), is there a perspective that you have that gives you more affinity in these protests than you might have had if you hadn’t served?

Carter: Absolutely. I feel like having served I have a much deeper emotional commitment to making sure that people here in America have the rights that are guaranteed to them under the constitution. Being that I spent five years in the military I feel a very deep commitment to the American people and to their safety. So when it comes to things like Occupy Wall Street and people are standing up and saying hey, I want more of a voice in my government, I want to get corporate money out of our government. I definitely feel like a strong affinity with those folks and I feel like I have a responsibility to stand up with them.

Mullins: Interesting you see that as a safety issue.

Carter: I feel like when it comes to the safety issue we’re talking about the fact that right now you’ve got folks who are standing up all across the country and they’re being met with a really strong police presence. And that’s not to say I am anti-police. I definitely am not. I feel like though that the various mayors of different cities and different politicians are asking that police be sent out to places like Zuccotti Park, they’re being asked to be sent out to places like Oakland, and there protestors are being hurt. And so I feel like the more numbers we have the less likely they are to use that kind of force.

Mullins: Thank you for speaking with us, Joseph Carter, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Joseph served two tours of duty in Iraq. He’s also a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Thanks a lot.

Carter: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read tweets about the ‘Occupy’ movement