KEITH OLBERMANN: Sergeant Shamar Thomas, the Iraq War veteran who marched with Occupy Wall Street last night -- took a few blows to the back from police for his efforts -- joins me once again. Good to see you, sir.
SHAMAR THOMAS: How you doing, Keith?
OLBERMANN: Were you part of an organized veterans group last night? Were you there for Oakland? Why were you there last night?
THOMAS: Well, I was there in support of Oakland and because a Marine was injured -- Scott Olsen. What happened was -- I actually have a different account set up, and I set up accounts were -- I told people I am gonna -- you know, go down there in support of Oakland. So, there were veterans, you know, in uniform and not in uniform that met me down there and -- you know, marched with me.
OLBERMANN: How many roughly -- do you have any idea how many of you guys were there?
THOMAS: The rough number -- I would say at least 25 veterans. But a lot of them weren't in uniform, and a lot of them didn't stand just in, you know security. There were certain veterans that were like, "We'll just stand in the back just to keep your back." So--
OLBERMANN: Did you -- have you heard the criticism from the right wing that there can't possibly be any military people involved in this? That those must just be uniforms bought at an Army Navy store?
THOMAS: That -- that has been a really big deal. Especially over the Internet that -- that we are all fake veterans. That we were there and planted. But -- my whole family has served, I have served. I don't lie about my service. And the veterans that were down there are true veterans and have -- you know, a lot of them have served in Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
OLBERMANN: I was a little confused -- and I'm sure you're even more so, having been there -- I was a little confused at the police response last night. 'Cause there seemed to be two different parts of it. They seem to be just as willing to crack batons -- as you would know, much more than I. But at the other part, they didn't -- they did not succeed in stopping the protesters from going on the street without a pre-planned schedule and permit and everything else.
So, they were -- were they being, like, very concerned about the small details of individual people but not that concerned about the whole march?
THOMAS: Well, what happened initially was that -- the people that were out there, we were peacefully protesting -- honestly, staying on the sidewalks and say somebody would take -- you know, slip off of the sidewalk -- I saw a police officer, you know, push a man down for, you know, slipping on the street.
And so, what happened was -- there were different acts of brutality from the police. And people decided that we were just gonna to take it to the streets -- and that's were the street came from -- just the brutality. Honestly, being there and seeing what was going on -- I even stood in the street and told people, "Hey guys, get on the sidewalk. Get on the sidewalk. We don't want any of this." And when -- I saw the police continue -- they started bringing out the nets, everybody was like, "What are these nets for?" -- and different things like that. It just incited people. Their actions incited people.
OLBERMANN: It was amazing, though, that -- at that point, when everybody went into the street -- that's when the police got out of the way, right? Towards -- the last part of that march was fairly free-form, wasn't it?
THOMAS: Well actually, we were going against traffic. So, they couldn't -- they couldn't amass anybody to stop us. So -- and we kept -- we didn't have a planned route. So, we just kept making turns to -- they couldn't keep up with us, pretty much. It wasn't that they didn't want to, they tried. And they even had, like, different barricades at certain points where -- they had motorized scooters come in. And I actually saw a policeman rev up his scooter to try to hit one of the protesters from getting by. So, the actions out there last night were -- it was unbelievable
OLBERMANN: Yeah, they didn't, so -- they didn't back off? They just failed, essentially, last night?
THOMAS: They just failed. Yes.
OLBERMANN: And to that point, there's some -- there's some level of people not listening that we've seen throughout this, in many different stages -- from mayors to presidential candidates to all sorts of others. The NYPD Sergeants' Union threatened to sue people if anybody gets hurt. That's one of the craziest sounding things I've ever heard. What's your reaction to it?
THOMAS: My reaction to it is -- you know, if you're willing to sue people, you should be more willing to do your job more professionally. Not to say that all cops aren't professional. But, what I saw last night just reaffirmed why I do what I do, and why I'm speaking out. Because, honestly, you know -- I thought what I said would have an effect -- honestly, because it got so much attention -- but to see the faces of anger on these cops hitting people, I had to -- you know, I stood in front of some protesters there -- I saw, like, women and I stretched my arms out and the cops started beating me in the back -- and I was holding the protesters back. So, you know, to be a part of that was like -- "Come on, is this really professionalism? Is this really what you're really out here doing?" It's unbelievable.
OLBERMANN: They will be the last to hear you, but everybody else has already. So, congratulations on that and be of good cheer with the rest of it. Sergeant Shamar Thomas, the Iraq war veteran who's now defending his country men at Occupy Wall Street from the NYPD. Thank you, sir.
THOMAS: Thank you.
