When the Occupy movement launched a few weeks ago, they immediately got a boost from Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.

We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity.

And now, in Ben and Jerry’s home state of Vermont, another senseless #Occupy-related tragedy has occurred.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A 35-year-old man was shot and gravely wounded Thursday in an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Vermont’s largest city, police said.

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“He was my buddy,” Joe Edwards, of Burlington, said of the victim, who had been at the encampment for about a week. Edwards, sitting on a bench in the park about two hours after the shooting, said he did not know the victim’s full name.

The encampment has been in the park since Oct. 28. The city had threatened to evict the protesters because the park is closed from midnight until 6 a.m., but city officials made special accommodation for the protesters.

Almost two dozen tents have remained in the park, and the number of protesters has varied.

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Richard Nixon had advertising executive H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Reagan had image master Mike Deaver; Barack Obama has public relations guru David Axelrod.

(The Oval Office, December 29, 2009. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

All three men understood the power of visuals in communicating the strengths of the presidents they served on the campaign trail and in the office of the presidency.

I don’t know where David Axelrod has been since President Obama began his ten-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but it is safe to say he is goofing off as much as his boss.

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