Olsen becomes Occupy movement rallying cry

Occupy activists held vigils in several U.S. cities for an Iraq War veteran hit in the head by a police projectile in an Oakland, Calif., melee with protesters.A New York vigil for Scott Olsen, 24, a U.S. Marine Corps corporal, brought several hundred protesters Thursday night to the Financial District despite near-freezing temperatures and occasional rain.The protesters marched for 2 hours from the Wall Street area north into the city's Greenwich Village and SoHo districts, accompanied by drums and a bagpipe. Police said they arrested about a dozen people.Other vigils were held in at least six other cities, including Oakland, as Olsen, who did two tours of duty in Iraq, awaited surgery. He suffered a fractured skull and brain swelling after police shot "non-lethal" projectiles into an Oakland crowd after midnight Tuesday.Olsen remained in intensive care early Friday. His condition improved to fair from critical and he was alert but unable to talk, an Oakland hospital spokesman said. Doctors planned surgery if the swelling in his brain eased, the spokesman said.Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had promised to meet with Occupy Oakland protesters Thursday night but sent a written message instead.She said she had met with Olsen and his parents earlier in the day and promised to work with Occupy protesters to ensure future demonstrations are peaceful."We are a nation in crisis," said Quan, a Democrat. "Oakland more than most cities faces budget cuts, unemployment and foreclosures. We are also a progressive city. And as a longtime civil rights activist and union organizer, I want my city to support the movement."She said officials would support the movement if activists keep communication channels open with city officials, maintain healthy and safe conditions where they gather, keep streets clear for emergency vehicles and limit their encampment to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.Occupy Oakland had no immediate comment.Organizers earlier said they would stage a general strike over what a spokeswoman called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters.Occupy Atlanta protesters -- forced from their park encampment shortly after midnight Wednesday -- gathered at the 35-acre Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site Thursday night, vowing to remain all night long at the foot of a Mahatma Gandhi statue.An inscribed plaque at the statue quotes Gandhi as saying, "If we bear malice and hatred in our bosoms and pretend not to retaliate, it must recoil upon us and lead to our destruction.