Of
Tear Gas Used
on Occupy Wall
Street, UN
Says Oakland
"Acted
Responsibly"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 3 --
The day after
police used
tear gas in
Oakland,
California to
put down an
Occupy Wall
Street protest
for second
time
in eight days,
Inner City
Press asked
United Nations
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey is anyone
in the UN is
tracking this
and if the UN
thinks the
responses in
Oakland have
been
proportionate.
"Obviously
the
fact that tear
gas was used,
the
authorities
thought that
tear
gas had to be
used," UN
spokesman Del
Buey said.
Video here,
from Minute
14:55.
This
is a strange
logic for the
UN, that if
"the
authorities"
do something,
they must have
thought it was
necessary --
and it must
therefore be
justified. The
UN does not
use this
approach
elsewhere.
Del
Buey said that
the mayor of
Oakland
"apologized"
for the first
use of tear
gas, which
fractured the
skull of US
veteran Scott
Olsen with a
police
projectile,
"so we believe
the
authorities
are acting
responsibly."
Elsewhere,
the UN
does not say
that
apologizing is
enough, or
means that
authorities
are "acting
responsibly."
All
three times,
so far, that
Inner City
Press has
asked the
spokespeople
for UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon about
authorities'
responses to
Occupy
Wall Street it
has begun by
acknowledging
that the
violence used
is
qualitatively
less than in
countries like
Syria and
Yemen, both of
which Inner
City Press
asked about at
the UN on
Thursday.
So
what
standards does
the UN have
and apply in
the US?
(c) UN Photo
Ban Ki-moon in
flack jacket,
tear gas used
on #OWS not
shown
Consider
that Ban
Ki-moon
named as the
co-chair of
his High Level
Group on
Sustainable
Energy for All
Charles
Holliday,
chairman of
Bank of
America,
protested by
Occupy Wall
Street for
being the
number one
funder of
moutaintop
removal coal
mining.
Earlier
this week
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
went out of
his way to
allow any
other
question --
including
about UNESCO --
rather than
Inner City
Press'
question
about
sustainable
energy and
Ban's Bank of
America
nomination,
click here for
that story. Now
the UN says
using tear
gas, including
dangerous
projectiles,
against Occupy
Wall Street is
"acting
responsibly."
Is it time to
Occupy the UN?
Watch
this site.
, 
