List member Rick Kissell was quoted in this column:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2011/11/03/142002422/non-lethal-projectiles-was-non-accurate-police-speak-in-occupy-oakland-clash
The "ombudsman" does his usual job of defending the indefensible. It reminds me of when I worked in state government - every single person employed by the state, despite how their job descriptions said they were neutral - personnel employees, ombudsmen, etc - always favored power, and regarded as wronged employees and the public as the enemy of agency management. That is how this guy views his job - to defend the propaganda arm of the government from taxpayers with complaints, preferably to weasil his way out of it, to distract and deflect.
In this case, it wasn't just the use of the phrase non-lethal to describe the weapon that almost killed Olsen, it was their neglect to mention that the weapon almost killed him. I raised the same point as Rick did, but I don't expect to get quoted, I've made it clear how much I detest NPR these days. I listen to NPR to find out what the propaganda line is for government and big business; I post on the NPR site to advise people to not pledge, to consider occupying NPR, and to steer them towards good stories on Counterpunch and Democracy Now! There is a certain amount of free speech there, but the moderation is quite arbitrary. If you leave a comment that doesn't violate their (mostly reasonable) posting guidelines, and they remove it, you know you are on the right track!
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