It’s a sad commentary on her leadership skills, but I believe Oakland Mayor Jean Quan meant well. She doesn’t seem like someone who would tell weasel-y lies (hello, Mitt Romney) about her words and actions. Well, maybe one or two lies:

After a violent, nationally televised clash between police and Occupy Oakland protesters on Tuesday, [Quan] is facing a growing list of heated voices recommending — or demanding — that she step down…

… Quan, who was out of town at a meeting in Washington D.C. during the clash, authorized the morning raid of the Occupy Oakland campsite but has been stumbling over the incidents that occurred at the violent protest following night. “I don’t know everything,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday, when asked if she was satisfied with how police handled the incident…

… In response to the incident, MoveOn released a video showing clips of the protests and tear gas raids, climaxing with footage of the critically injured Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, being carried to the medic. A narrator asks, “Mayor Quan, is this your city? Is this how we treat free speech in the United States of America?”

For her part, Mayor Quan has been aggressively attempting to amend the situation. On Thursday, she granted the protesters access to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Later that day, she personally visited Olsen in the hospital, shook his hand, apologized and promised an investigation.

It seems Quan is simply in over her head and needs to take a crash course on our rights to assemble and petition without fear of attack from police departments that turn into goon squads when dispatched to protest sites.