KEITH OLBERMANN: Let's talk about Denver. And I'm joined from there by Jeannie Hartley who witnessed those "unruly" -- that word is in quotes -- protesters on Saturday. Thanks for your time tonight.
JEANNIE HARTLEY: Thank you so much, Keith, for having me here. Much appreciated.
OLBERMANN: You're very welcome. Tell me about the scene on Saturday. The protesters were described as "unruly." Are the police being truthful in that statement?
HARTLEY: I have to tell you -- to speak, to be honest -- I have to tell you what I saw. What I witnessed was not anyone being unruly. What I saw was several police officers chasing -- en masse, into the park -- running towards a man in a tree -- one little guy in a tree. And then, chasing after another man and throwing him down onto the ground and putting him in a chokehold, with officers surrounding him.
I saw tear gas being dispersed. I saw rubber pellets -- these pepper-spray pellets being shot into the crowd towards people that, from my vision, were not being unruly. To be fair, I couldn't see everything that was going on everywhere. But -- from where I was standing -- the people were not being unruly at all. We've had a perfectly peaceful march, a perfectly peaceful rally and it turned into something much worse.
OLBERMANN: Lieutenant Matt Murray was quoted in the Denver Post as saying "We're reacting to what they do. As long as they are legally protesting, we will protect their right to do that. The officers today did a great job of showing restraint."
And yet -- something was tweeted today, which I think seems apropos in this, "When figuring out who's looking for a riot, check to see who came dressed for one." Did you have a sense of the police instigation, merely by preparation? I think I may have just made that up on the spot, but I think you know what I'm saying here. That if you -- go ahead.
HARTLEY: I think you -- that was very well put, just the way you said it, Keith. First of all, it was extraordinary -- the amount of police force that were present before anything was, by their definition, I am guessing, unruly -- I mean, the governor complained, a week or so before, that we cost the -- $365,000 to the city of Denver. It was his decision to release that mass of force to be available in the park. It's my understanding that he's claiming now that the cost was $500,000. They had hundreds of police force, Keith, surrounding a food table. Hundreds of them, in riot gear. This was an unnecessary expense to -- to Denver by far.
OLBERMANN: As I just mentioned, protesters in Nashville were successful in the courts. Is there any thought of going to the courts in Denver, or to the state courts in some way?
HARTLEY: Yes, that is actually something that is in the works. We have a legal team -- an amazing legal team, I must say. We're also working with the National Lawyers' Guild, and there are things in the works. I can't address that specifically because I'm not an attorney. But I can promise you that efforts are being made towards that end, to be sure.
OLBERMANN: Give me a philosophical answer to this one, if you can, Ms. Hartley. The mess we saw in Oakland, the smaller messes we have seen in New York and elsewhere -- how is it that, rather than taking the prudent method of suffering the protests as best they could, everybody involved in a government somewhere, or a police department somewhere or a state level somewhere -- seems to think that the best way to make this go away is to provide all of the videotape that any news broadcaster could ever want to show ordinary citizens getting pummeled by police. Has that occurred to you yet -- how ridiculous a response this is, purely from a public-relations standpoint?
HARTLEY: Yes, it is. And I also think that, on a grander scale of things -- which makes that even more absurd -- is that people have taken to the streets because of so many injustices that have been in place for far too long. You know, with the issues of the underwater mortgages and the corporate greed and the student loans -- the $100,000 dollar students loans and they graduate from college and there's no jobs in sight -- and the cost of the wars, unending costs of precious lives. People are in the streets because of injustice. So, for the police force to inflict more injustice upon us is not going to make us leave the streets. It's going to make more people come into the streets.
OLBERMANN: Well said. Jeannie Hartley from Occupy Denver, great thanks for some of your time tonight.
HARTLEY: Thank you so much, Keith.
