By now, you have probably heard about how the Washington Post decided to illustrate a news story about the Oakland police using tear gas on peaceful demonstrators, breaking skulls, etc., with a picture of a police officer "pet[ting] a cat that was left behind by protestors". There is now an Oakland Riot Cat tumblr, naturally (this is my favorite so far), and I wouldn't be surprised if the animal becomes a minor icon of the movement — and Scott Olsen, the veteran of our war in Iraq who got his head cracked open by the police, becomes a major icon.
What I keep thinking though, is that somebody in Oakland must be very upset not just at having been assaulted by the cops while exercising their rights, but at losing their cat at the same time. How is that cat ever going to get home? Is anybody even trying to get it back to its owner?
— The Oakland Riot Cat tumblr is via Jon Wilkins, who has a rather more important message about helping Olsen pay his medical expenses (!), and who is himself doing his part back east.
Friday Cat Blogging; The Beloved Republic; The Progressive Forces
Posted at October 28, 2011 23:00 | permanent link