OAKLAND
-- A police officer fired for throwing a tear gas grenade into a crowd
of Occupy Oakland protesters who were tending to a wounded comrade is
getting his job back.
An arbitrator on Wednesday overturned the Police Department's
termination of Officer Robert Roche and ordered him reinstated with back
pay.
Roche became the lightning rod over police handling of the 2011
Occupy protests when he was caught on camera tossing the grenade into a
crowd of protesters trying to assist Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen.
The grenade incident came less than a minute after a police
officer who has never been identified struck Olsen in the head with a
lead-filled beanbag, fracturing Olsen's skull and causing him permanent
brain damage. Olsen received a $4.5 million settlement from the city
earlier this year.
Scott Olsen listens as one of his attorneys, James Chanin, speaks to
members of the media at a press conference at Frank Ogawa Plaza in
downtown Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 21, 2014. (Dan Honda/Bay Area
News Group)
The incident, which made international headlines, turned many
citizens against the Police Department and turned many officers against
their commanders,
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_26246227/oakland-officer-fired-over-occupy-is-reinstated?source=rss
