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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrue Feminists Should Find this Incredibly Horrifying........Can We Unite in Support?
Cecily McMillan: 'I stand resolved to keep fighting because your love ethic props me up and allows me to do so'- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street organizer convicted of felony assault of the police officer she says sexually assaulted her, was sentenced Monday to three months in prison, five years of probation and community service.
In a case that has shined a spotlight on what critics charge are systemic failures in the U.S. justice system, the sentence was met with immediate condemnation on Twitter:
--snip---
Now 25 years old, McMillan was one of approximately 70 people detained late the night of March 17, 2012, when police violently cleared a memorial event marking the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. McMillan, who had stopped by the park to meet a friend, says she was sexually assaulted by police officer Grantley Bovell while she attempted to leave the area.
"Seized from behind, she was forcefully grabbed by the breast and ripped backwards," according to a statement by support group Justice For Cecily. "Cecily startled and her arm involuntarily flew backward into the temple of her attacker, who promptly flung her to the ground, where others repeatedly kicked and beat her into a string of seizures." Following the attack, McMillan underwent treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Despite numerous allegations that Bovell has inflicted excessive force while on duty, as well as photograph and video evidence of injuries sustained by McMillanincluding a hand-shaped bruise on her chest, it was McMillan who was put on trial for felony charges of assaulting Bovell.
According to McMillan's supporters, what followed was a trial riddled with injustice, in which Zweibel showed repeated favoritism towards the prosecution. Zweibel imposed a gag order on McMillan's lawyers, excluded key physical evidence, and ruled that information about Bovell's past violent behavior, and violence the night of McMillan's arrest, was not relevant to the case.
Upon her guilty verdict, McMillan was denied bail and immediately sent to Rikers Island, where she is currently detained.
According to Justice for Cecily, "The message this verdict sends is clear: What Cecily continues to endure can happen to any woman who dares to challenge the corporate state, its Wall Street patrons, and their heavy handed enforcers, the NYPD."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/19-3
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)Would she be able to appeal?
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)The DA and judge just made an example out of her on flimsy evidence.
NYPD sucks, and so do the judge and DA who pushed this bullshit trial.
may the felon, boob-grabbing cop AND the DA AND THE JUDGE be cursed for life
Poor kid...this is your punishment, people for protesting!
The cops in NYC can sexually assault you and YOU go to prison!
YAY freedom!
KoKo
(84,711 posts)show something terrible happened to her. I posted the video from Democracy Now where she had to expose her breasts (pulling down her bra because she felt so violated) in the Police Video which showed Bruises.
There's NO WAY I could (in custody manage to beat my breast side into bruises the way NYPD said because it couldn't haven happened.
Yet...there are folks accusing her of beating herself to make bruises appear when she was handcuffed and evidence that the Cop had been Agressive before was witheld from Jury. according to the reports of the Trial.
They wanted to make THIS FEMALE a VICTIM to show that "women who don't want to be assaulted by police" should Not Take a Chance in Protests against INJUSTICE.
Female Victim...at RIKERS ISLAND for Three Months..!
EXAMPLE to Other FEMALES who go to High Profile Colleges to NOT get INVOLVED. (And those who Protest without "High Profile College" should expect to be Teated Worse! Expecially if they have Huge College Debt they owe. So it's a SILENCING OF FEMALES for Protesting...because the Warning Is: THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU and YOUR STUDENT LOAD DEBT...IF...IF ...You PROTEST!
It's Dreadful!
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)To first, allow a cop to treat someone this way, secondly to demonize her, the victim?
That is some screwed up justice.
I hope that judge, DA and NYPD know that this kind of stuff just makes people angrier and more likely to film cops every chance they can.
It will not stop people from protesting, but I know if I'm ever around the pervert Bovill, I will wear body armor! And if I'm gonna be charged with a felony assault for reacting to his sexual assault, I'll kick the jerk right in the nuts as hard as I can.
Again, New York just proved it is a cesspool.......
Raksha
(7,167 posts)from watching the Arab Spring demonstrations in Tahrir Square and how they were suppressed. It happened not only to female demonstrators but to reporters as well; i.e. brutal sexual assault as a way of silencing and intimidating women. And then putting the VICTIM on trial on top of that! Our homegrown fascists were taking notes, all right.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)The ties between the Egyptian military and the U.S. are well documented. We trained them, paid them billions, and used them for one of the secret detention/torture centers for people we rounded up through extraordinary rendition.
The Traveler
(5,632 posts)just makes me wanna beat my head against the wall.
Anyone opposing this miscarriage of justice has my support. It is emblematic of how shoddy our criminal justice system has really become.
Trav
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)I bet he, the judge and the DA all laughed it up after the sentencing
Bovill "Hyuck Hyuck I gots to smash a girl's booby so hard I left bruises! Thanks guys for having my back!"
Judge: "No problem man, we gotta stick together when it comes to abusing protesters!"
DA: 'Right to peaceably assemble my ass! Hope the b------ likes Rikers!"
Hyuck hyuck, these three are the face of what is wrong with our Justice system. They are the poster children for police brutality, abuse of process and kangaroo courts.
I won't say what I wish would happen to all of them......
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)I feel so much outrage at the kangaroo court that heard her case.
I do feel some relief that she will only have to serve some three months. i really thought she would get a very harsh sentence.
hue
(4,949 posts)Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)brutalizers have no specific race, but the RW is sure standing up for THIS black dude
It would be refreshing if their disdain for OWS wasn't the motivation.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)been this shoddy, for some. I hope Ms. Mcmillan does well. Maybe an appeal will work for her miscarriage of justice. I saw those bruises and marks. Not pretty.
G_j
(40,367 posts)written the judge saying they believe she should not serve any time in jail.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)there was a post about it from NYT or WaPo here on DU about this.
I'd look it up...but, think those interested probably read it...and those not interested wouldn't bother if I dug it up.
But...it was posted here that many jurors were shocked at the 35 years Proposed Sentence. But, even Three Months at Rikers Island hopefully will get them speaking out.
She spent TWO YEARS with her life on hold trying to deal with this Legal Case. That is too long for anyone to suffer through for such a minor situation where she was the won who had to be photographed "frontally" for her bruises and find lawyers and put her life on hold when she was the victim not the Perpetrator...and the evidence is there in the photos.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Fuck the crooks in the NYPD.....and every other big city PD at that! Time to clean house, and take them back, for the people.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Shouldn't be using this horrible misogynist/ police-state decision as a litmus test for feminists.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Where is the outrage here from Women's Rights Supporters?
I've not seen it and hoped my post would encourage the to reach out and join efforts to support McMillan.
Why is that?
gollygee
(22,336 posts)but I don't usually get involved in threads that refer to "true feminists." They're usually created by people looking for a fight.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)I can only speak for myself; I'm not always in talking/typing mode.
And I don't catch every post that goes on here.
kcr
(15,317 posts)sufrommich
(22,871 posts)jawed assholes at the Bundy camp who pointed rifles at federal marshals are roaming free.It makes me sick.
Supersedeas
(20,630 posts)ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)Here is a link to the incident:
LOOK VERY CLOSELY
Who struck the first blow?
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
/ this is why the hyper-radical left doesn't have much sway in the Democratic party
KoKo
(84,711 posts)her to the ground where she was defenseless.
You say you are a "Proud Member of the Reality Based Community" yet the bruises on her body and the video show an overpowering force.
Where are the photos of her doing a "Karate Chop" to the Policeman where he needed Medical Attention?
Nothing in this video shows what you are trying to portray.
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)...after she attacked a cop completely unprovoked.
She's walking along. No one is touching her. And she smacks a cop with her handbag. Then tries to run off.
What do you think is going to happen?
She got bruised when she was tackled in a completely lawful reasonable arrest. Whoop tee bleeping do.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
/ Again. This is why the radical left doesn't hold much sway in Democratic circles. Anyone who isn't blinded by ideology would drop it
// Even Rand Paul was smart enough to back away from Clive Bundy. Can you be as smart as Rand Paul?
Cleita
(75,480 posts)Those were grab from behind marks, not "my hand fell on her breast because I fell on her".
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)...of the three choices: a) scream loudly when it happens, b) file a complaint or go to another cop, or c) walk up 20 seconds later and smack the cop out of the blue, which do you think is least productive if you want to retain any sort of legal standing?
Once you do option c), you really don't have a leg to stand on. She was convicted based on overwhelming evidence.
I will say that the sentencing is absolutely absurd.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
Cleita
(75,480 posts)at this website but other actual news' sites, you are not a member of the reality based.
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)* Prior to the swing, wou clearly see that she is moving freely.
* You then see her take a big windup, which she could not possibly have done if she was being grabbed.
* You fully see her whack the cop.
Even granting absolutely every other dubious premise, there is no way that is an "involuntary reaction". Period.
She was convicted in court by a jury of New Yorkers, many of whom are clearly liberal Democrats.
Again, the sentencing is absurd. But she is obviously guilty.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
Cleita
(75,480 posts)the incident that shows her bruises. It's in the V & MM forum posted by KoKo.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)Look between the 15 and 18 second marks. Right after the two people in white in the background skip across the screen from right to left her face becomes visible. She seems to be immobile. Then she walks across the screen also from right to left. When her body becomes visible, a larger figure already seems to have her by the right arm. Then she swings up at the guy and breaks free. That's the best I can tell from this video. It just isn't enough to see what happened between them prior to her swing at him.
ETA: I originally conflated two figures, hence the original disagreement with your conclusion. I simply can't see what happened prior to the swing.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)using this woman to promote it.
You have no credibility.
Oh by the way get real!
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)are you going to stop and ask for their badge number, or defend yourself?
ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)It is a video directly of the event.
Seriously. Look at it with your eyes, not your ideology.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)If he doesn't have his hands on her, he certainly must be stepping on her heels.
Methinks you're the one who is watching it with his ideology.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)slit skirted blond and bow-tied, Armani suited, toupee'd "reporters " on Fox New claim.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)and then they separate and she elbows him at 17 seconds.
The slowed down, close-up versions start after they have separated, so you can't see if he grabbed her or not.
I would call that very selective editing.
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)WCLinolVir
(951 posts)Yeah we should just all man up and take the abuse. Feminists, adult that is, do not think of themselves as children. I'd have to say this post speaks volumes about your beliefs and little about the reality of this situation. Your video clarifies nothing. The officer is seen approaching her from behind before there is any action on her part. And "this is why the hyper-radical left doesn't have much sway in the Democratic party" is your swan song. Is there a bridge you need to protect?
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)upaloopa
(11,417 posts)What went on before we don't see.
The evidence suggests something other than the few seconds shown here.
You don't have a case here just a few seconds of something much bigger.
mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)There might have been more evidence, but this alone? I don't see it. What the jury saw was a lot of cops in the courtroom day after day.
Felony assault? No way.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)At the point labeled "look again in slow motion," one can see that the brute already has his arm tightly around her chest from behind and is lifting her, exactly as she alleged. There's no predicting how a woman in the midst of a sexual assault might respond. Her blow and attempt to escape are entirely justified. This video has been edited with text suggesting exactly the opposite of what is visible on frame.
Shame on you!
Cleita
(75,480 posts)This is an abomination and true feminists should band together to get those who are involved in the mistreatment and abuse of this woman thrown into prison and the key thrown away. This starts with the cops involved all the way up to the judge who sentenced her.
In truth though look for more mistreatment of the 99% who are actively trying to get our country back for the people not the global corporate interests behind this. As we struggle to gain back what is ours, look forward to more and more injustice and persecution of those who dare stand up to tyranny.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)I can't understand the lack of support for here on DU from the Strong Voices of folks who Declare they Support Women in all walks of life for freedom from ABUSE.
There are strong voices here on DU...but, when it comes to this...they stay silent or in some cases want to say SHE was the Perpetrator of the Violence the Cop did on her.
Is it because she is a POLITICAL ACTIVIST that they SEEK to make her into some kind of LAWLESS WOMAN who STRUCK A COP when Video shows else wise and when the videos of her bruises prove that she was ATTACKED?
Three Months at Rickers Island. The only Occupy Wall Street Activist to be sentenced like this?
Why is she less important to be Supported?
Cleita
(75,480 posts)before she went on trial. The real evidence shows she was not at fault and that she was assaulted. The video should still be available on the Democracy Now! website. I can't post links right now on a mobile device.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)It's somewhere here.
And, thank you for remembering watching it. Amy got into the fact that her Attorney was barred from mentioning that the Cop had been involved in other abuses. It seems to go back into not allowing evidence to be presented about a person's "past deeds" to be entered into evidence because it could be seen as "previous offenses" prejudicing a jury...(which I can understand) but in this case if the cop had prior abuses against "Activist Protestors or Women" it would seem that as a Public Servant that that SHOULD have been entered into evidence. I
I can understand why when someone is a Victim that prior incidences they've been involved in might Prejudice a Jury...but she had no prior incidents but the Police Officer DID and that his record couldn't be put into evidence for the "Defense" seems to be some kind of backwards view of the law.
Why should a Police Officer (employed by Public Funds) not be allowed to have his own record entered when someone he arrested now faces a jail term when she has evidence that something was very wrong in his conduct to her before the arrest.
PotatoChip
(3,186 posts)Although, to be clear, I wish more folks (men and women) would get on board when it comes to issues of concern to feminists.
However, this case is not only about the sexual assault of a woman, but also police brutality -and- how the police are almost never punished for said brutality. In other words, several important issues that you seem to be trying to roll into just one, while blaming a subset of the DU community for supposedly not addressing.
I don't know if DU feminists have taken on this specific case or not, but I know that they are quite vocal about any and all sexual assault situations.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)probably be out of her 3 months at Rikers before she can get another hearing.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)But I must admit I don't see this particularly as a feminist issue. Is what happened to Cecily worse than what happened to Scott Olsen in Oakland?
Scott Olsen is in a "critical condition" in Highland hospital in Oakland, a hospital spokesman confirmed.
Olsen, 24, suffered the head injury during protests in Oakland on Tuesday evening. More than 15 people were arrested after a crowd gathered to demonstrate against the police operation to clear two Occupy Oakland camps in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/26/occupy-oakland-veteran-critical-condition
Cleita
(75,480 posts)everyone of that community vulnerable to abuses of all sorts. The fact that a white woman was brutalized like this means there will be no quarter for the rest of the activists, regardless of gender, age or race.
tea and oranges
(396 posts)it occurs to me that yes, the PTB are telling us how it's gonna be. The felons on the Bundy Ranch aren't challenging capitalism, just the folks in charge of it. Occupy, otoh, is all about questioning our prevailing economic system. They made the bankers nervous & nothing will get your ass quashed quicker than upsetting the delicate folk who steal our money for a living.
The gratuitous sexual violence? A horrifying wink/nod to all men. Getting away w/ it? This is a major problem. Sending the victim to prison? Absolutely terrifying.
That was kangaroo court, clearly. Where are the high profile lawyers wanting to challenge this? Where's the ACLU? If we could keep the story alive, it just might attract the right talent.
I chained myself to fences over passage of ERA, went to the mass No Nukes demonstrations around the Seattle Area, & it was peaceful, police presence at the rallies was minimal. When I went to an anti-Iraq War demo in downtown Seattle (& this was a pathetically small group of people attending) there were SWAT snipers on the rooftops, rifles at the ready, but the guys on the ground were cool. This violence is what I used to see on television when I was a child, this is Alabama, Mississippi, Civil Right's era violence. Then it was reported as horrific & brutal. (Note that diff.)
We are right to sound alarms.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)"we the people" supposedly are the government. So we were challenging the man controlled government to gain what we women owned but that we had been prevented from having full ownership of. We still haven't taken back what is ours completely to this day, but essentially we are in a power struggle for full equal rights our citizenship should give us.
The 99% challenged Wall Street. This is Game of Thrones territory. They challenged the Iron Throne or in this case Black Gold Throne and there is no hesitation in taking heads. The kings and lords of banks and global oil and industries aren't interested in peasant revolts about their injustices. They will make sure their liege lords, bought and paid for politicians and judges do their job to make sure we peasants are a squashed don't do it again. I'd say it's getting past time to storm the Bastille.
tea and oranges
(396 posts)But damn, Cleita, I'm not even sure how to get there, much less storm the Bastille.
I've seen for at least a decade none of the old tactics work. The press is disinterested, politicians unmoved.
A general strike, where we brought the economy to a halt & let them feel our power? I dunno, I never signed on as strategist, I'm a dreamer, thinker, but I can tell it's time to do something.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)govt. either works for them or those pols who try to bring them in line get pulverized. We have to take the fight directly to them. Until we get money out of government I think we are going to have to conduct a kind of guerrilla war against them, maybe a cyberwar. I think Occupy is going to have to do some strategic brainstorming on what to do. Getting abused and brutalized by the police on the streets is only going to net more casualties and no progress.
If Ghandi were alive and faced with this today, I wonder what he would do? Somehow I think in this day and age it wouldn't be marches and peaceful demonstrations, but technology instead. He was a very smart man and brought down the British Empire. I think he could being down today's global corporate monopolies too.
tea and oranges
(396 posts)what you said reminds me of our lack of leadership worldwide. I think of Mandela & Ghandi. Where are our monumental leaders now when we need someone to guide us through this wilderness, & while not a prayerful woman, I can tell we're lost.
Corruption is a powerful force, it's powerful twin, authoritarianism, little by little takes over. The political pendulum begins to sway rightward, you can see this trend rightward in the Dem party which is now ruled by corporate-Dems or what we old-timers called Republicans.
Honestly, coming of age in the sixties, there was so much hope, there was so much progress, we witnessed great things, the passing of the Civil Rights Act while a mofo of a Dem was president, but he had the guts to do the right thing. To see this happening is astonishing in the most gut-wrenching way possible.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)with Sputnik. But we caught up and surpassed them and went to the moon. Today the Russians are in charge of the space station and getting there and back.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)This verdict sounds like it is setting a precedent for those abused by Police at Demonstrations to get harsh penalties with evidence witheld by courts who may be biased against citizens defending their rights from police abuse when protesting peacefully. She was not armed and not threat as she was not physically comparable in strength with the officer who grabbed her. And, even if she was a female weight training expert...the bruising from his grabbing her would still be evidence that the force was on the police officer's part and not the protestors.
I chained myself to fences over passage of ERA, went to the mass No Nukes demonstrations around the Seattle Area, & it was peaceful, police presence at the rallies was minimal. When I went to an anti-Iraq War demo in downtown Seattle (& this was a pathetically small group of people attending) there were SWAT snipers on the rooftops, rifles at the ready, but the guys on the ground were cool. This violence is what I used to see on television when I was a child, this is Alabama, Mississippi, Civil Right's era violence. Then it was reported as horrific & brutal. (Note that diff.)
We are right to sound alarms.
tea and oranges
(396 posts)This has got to be stopped. I don't claim to know how, but this militarization, steriodization of our Peace Officers (hm-m-m, whose peace would that be?) was leading to this. We are the enemy. Some of us, of course, are enemier than others. That would be us.
mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)a comparison between these two incidents, I was slapped down but good! Wondering if the same condescending hand will slap you too. I was stunned because the comparison was an opinion based my observations as a woman, but, as a woman, I also wasn't surprised.
Realistically, this is a miscarriage of justice and in our hearts, we know that's true.
tea and oranges
(396 posts)Aren't we still waiting, somewhere inside us, isn't some part of us holding our breath waiting to see what will happen in Nevada?
Will there be subpoenas? Arrest warrants? Will cops come in & smash them all to the ground? Or more crickets?
Whereas we don't need to speculate on what would happen to a group of women who loudly protest the crippling effects of unregulated capitalism. I keep saying this, & am willing to repeat myself: the demotion of women to punching bags, empty vessels, sluts, & people who are to be controlled by men, is but one of the steps to fascism. Court-sanctioned brutality against young women is an especially telling step at that.
As far as I can tell there's no way into this world for our species other than the birth canal. When a culture turns against women, it's turned on itself.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/cecily-mcmillan-jurors-judge-occupy-activist-jail
Occupy Wall Street on Trial: Cecily McMillan Convicted of Assaulting Cop, Faces Up to Seven Years
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/6/occupy_wall_street_on_trial_cecily
Cecily McMillan's guilty verdict reveals our mass acceptance of police violence
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/05/cecily-mcmillan-occupy-guilty-police-violence
Truthdigger of the Week: Cecily McMillan
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_cecily_mcmillan_20140511#
Cleita
(75,480 posts)to us if we get out of line.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)that will follow her around for the rest of her life. Not an easy thing to get around, in the long run. Which is exactly why she was charged with it in the first place. Now those corporate kings and fat-cat overlords have the case of this poor girl to wave around...see what happens when anybody tries to stand up to them. So you're correct, but demonstrating peacefully in this country shouldn't ever even be considered "getting out of line".
Castigating a woman like this for exercising her right to protest free of harassment, sets us back to the days before we had the right to vote, sweat shops, chattel. The treatment of Occupy protesters the night that Ms. McMillan was arrested in Zuccotti Park, the lies upheld in the courtroom where she was tried, and the ridiculous sentence handed down by a prejudiced judge for a non-crime, a totally victimless offense, tells me that they are more than prepared to punish any dissent. That they singled out a fearless, vocal woman comes as no surprise.
It's the same as it ever was.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)being arrested and that would have been that, like with most arrest protests.
But the Zuccotti Park protesters challenged big corporations, "persons", according to the law now, who aren't into democracy and justice for all, just for themselves. When she ran afoul of that cop, the golden opportunity was there for them to rally their bought and paid for politicians, law enforcement and judges. If they could, they would have beheaded or hung her on the spot.
She was an example for the rest of the peasants to learn their place and not do it again.
Yes, it's unfortunate she will be marked as a felon for the rest of her life and so unfair. I hope in the future that injustice can be corrected.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)That's good to have in this thread.
Well worth the watch and read.
THANKS! I should have put the links in my post...but, figured that no one would bother reading the post this far..so it's much appreciated.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)that has been expressed will cause this verdict to be overturned. It is a travesty of justice.
'Don't challenge the corporate state'! She did as did others, and the brutal crackdown shows us one thing, they are SCARED of the people waking up to their crimes and will stop at nothing to crush any dissent.
Bloomberg called the NYPD 'his army'. As one of the privileged 1% I guess it's cheaper to buy our police departments than to hire a private corporation for his protection. Tax dollars are paying for 'his' army.
Shameful, what goes on in this so-called democracy.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Two years with this hanging over her and now the humiliation of Rikers Island and five years probation. How could the courts be so backed up that this would take that long for a trial? She's not a celebrity, she didn't commit murder or was involved in a complicated incident which would require finding and hiring high powered lawyers and two years to gather the evidence.
It makes no sense except making her an example sending a message/warning to caution other young women not to protest or you could ruin your life and any chance of starting a career with a prison sentence hanging over your head. It's Police Brutality and a manipulation of our justice system...imho. There's too much of this over-reaction by the police to their fellow citizens going on all over the country. And with men as targets, also. But, in this case, the grabbing of her breast which caused a retaliation seems to have been female targeted by this specific police officer.
.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)DhhD
(4,695 posts)see or hear him. It is like tripping someone while they are looking sideways to see if a car is coming before going out into the street, to cross the street.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)"RIKERS ISLAND, N.Y.Cecily McMillan, the Occupy activist who on Monday morning will appear before a criminal court in New York City to be sentenced to up to seven years on a charge of assaulting a police officer, sat in a plastic chair wearing a baggy, oversized gray jumpsuit, cheap brown plastic sandals and horn-rim glasses. Other women, also dressed in prison-issued gray jumpsuits, sat nearby in the narrow, concrete-walled visitation room clutching their children, tears streaming down their faces. The children, bewildered, had their arms wrapped tightly around their mothers necks. It looked like the disaster scene it was.
Its all out in the open here, said the 25-year-old student, who was to have graduated May 22 with a masters degree from The New School of Social Research in New York City. The cruelty of power cant hide like it does on the outside. You get America, everything America has become, especially for poor people of color in prison. My lawyers think I will get two years. But two years is nothing compared to what these women, who never went to trial, never had the possibility of a trial with adequate legal representation, face. There are women in my dorm who, because they have such a poor command of English, do not even understand their charges. I spent a lot of time trying to explain the charges to them.
McMillan says Grantley Bovell, who was in plainclothes and did not identify himself as a police officer, grabbed her from behind during a March 17, 2012, gathering of several hundred Occupy activists in Manhattans Zuccotti Park. In a video of the incident she appears to have instinctively elbowed him in the face, but she says she has no memory of what happened. Video and photographsmostly not permitted by the trial judge to be shown in the courtroombuttressed her version of events. There is no dispute that she was severely beaten by police and taken from the park to a hospital where she was handcuffed to a bed. On May 5 she was found guilty after a three-week trial of a felony assault in the second degree. She can receive anything from probation to seven years in prison.
I am prepared mentally for a long sentence, she told me this past weekend when I interviewed her at the Rikers Island prison in the Bronx. I watched the trial. I watched the judge. This was never about justice. Just as it is not about justice for these other women. One mother was put in here for shoplifting after she lost her job and her house and needed to feed her children. There is another prisoner, a preschool teacher with a 1-year-old son she was breastfeeding, who let her cousin stay with her after her cousin was evicted. It turns out the cousin sold drugs. The cops found money, not drugs, that the cousin kept in the house and took the mother. They told her to leave her child with the neighbors. There is story after story in here like this. It wakes you up."
<Snip>
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/19-0
Great OP KoKo.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)So glad he went there and interviewed her.
McMillan says Grantley Bovell, who was in plainclothes and did not identify himself as a police officer, grabbed her from behind during a March 17, 2012, gathering of several hundred Occupy activists in Manhattans Zuccotti Park. In a video of the incident she appears to have instinctively elbowed him in the face, but she says she has no memory of what happened. Video and photographsmostly not permitted by the trial judge to be shown in the courtroombuttressed her version of events. There is no dispute that she was severely beaten by police and taken from the park to a hospital where she was handcuffed to a bed.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)My guess is undercover police state forces had identified and targeted her as an organizer.
historylovr
(1,557 posts)It is indeed horrifying.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)I am old now, but I have two daughters who I fear for.
mathematic
(1,439 posts)Is there a point in the True Feminist platform that says video evidence must be disregarded if it contradicts a woman's claim of sexual assault?
To say that a feminist must not be convinced by the video evidence in this case is, quite frankly, ridiculous. It's quite possible and even believable, considering she was convicted, that a feminist sees the video and accepts the State's case that McMillan struck the cop unprovoked.
RVN VET
(492 posts)Any judge -- ANY JUDGE -- who would issue a sentence like this deserves public contumely and humiliation. Would that there were a hell for the dirt bag cop and this sickening example of the judiciary gone sour.
I am sick and tired of the obvious butt kissing the courts do for the 1%. I am frankly nauseated by the tolerance the courts show to excessive police violence and the repression of our rights as citizens.
But Mr. Carlin was right: they own us. We have no rights but the ones they deign to permit -- and they can revoke them on a whim. It's not something we can fight, except at the polls -- and even that is becoming increasing obstructed. And even if we do go to the polls, the choices are not always so great. Vermont gets to vote for Bernie Sanders; Massachusetts for Elizabeth Warren; Floridians for Alan Grayson. But the numbers of real progressives in Congress is pathetically small. The number of corporate Democrats is very high. Oh, I'll vote for the corporate Democrat over a Republican any day. But when i cast my ballot, I do so knowing that the best I can hope for is that the decay of our rights, the ruination of our environment, the wreck of our middle class will be slowed, ameliorated, not reversed. Because, when you come right down to it, the bastards just don't care.
A young woman is sexually assaulted by a sadistic bully in a blue uniform. She struggles. She goes to jail. Sadistic bully gets high fives all around. Yes, America, that's you -- that story epitomizes you.
Sorry for the rant. I'd rather be doing physical harm to the s.o.b.'s who attacked this young woman and sent her to prison. But I can't.
Anyone know if there's a legal defense fund for her? It sounds like her trial was enough of a farce that she should win an appeal.
Jamastiene
(38,187 posts)Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)Plenty of feminists, including me, think - based on video evidence of her doing it, not just unsupported prejudice like most of her defenders - that McMillan probably attacked Bovell, and was rightly convicted.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)That's an incredibly lame statement you're making there, and also contrary to the video evidence even as presented by the prosecution (see above). And while you may be a feminist, I think a different philosophy is guiding your reflexive-seeming statement, much as with ConservativeDemocrat's baseless propaganda above.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)There's a hell of a lot more to this story than just what she claimed happened and that video which does not show her being grabbed by the officer until after she decked him. It was also the prosecution that brought in that video evidence and the defense that argued against it.
The officer was entirely too harsh in his tackling of her and slamming her to the pavement after she hit him, but that's not what the case was about.
She gambled that the jury would believe her story. They didn't, and frankly neither do I.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)And therein lies the big problem.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)The case was about her hitting an officer in the face after she claimed he grabbed her breast. Didn't have anything to do with tackling her after she hit him. Kind of odd that she never said anything about that bit, and her attorney doesn't seem to care either yet that's how she got all the injuries she complained of.
If you want to talk about "the big problem" count me out. I'm talking about the specific case and specific set of circumstances involved which didn't have anything to do with the officer tackling her after she hit him and tried to run away, and not even she nor her attorney have anything to say about that despite it being how she got her injuries and the supposed seizure she claimed was the result.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)I'll take part or not in any discussion I wish, and I'm not getting into the one you want that's other than what the thread is about.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)And it's not "other than what the thread is about."
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)dilby
(2,273 posts)Because if she would have been a black man she would be dead or in Prison for 25 years like she was facing.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Three months after a cop assaulted her. In a case pursued as an example to all other street protesters.
(By your logic, if only he'd gunned her down in cold blood, as has happened to many black men, that would be equality and justice.)
Response to KoKo (Original post)
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