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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTruthdigger of the Week: Cecily McMillan
from truthdig:
Truthdigger of the Week: Cecily McMillan
By Alexander Reed Kelly
[font size="1"]Occupy Wall Street activists Eric Linkser, center left, and Cecily McMillan, far right, take turns shouting information to fellow protesters preparing to return to Zuccotti Park in 2011. AP/Bebeto Matthews[/font]
Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, were looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth celebrating.
Feelings of dread took hold around the nation May 5 as reporters announced that a Manhattan jury had found Occupy Wall Street organizer Cecily McMillan guilty of assaulting an NYPD officer. Since the incident two years ago, McMillans case has become a hallmark of the U.S. governments ongoing use of the law to suppress dissent, and for many observers, news that the 25-year-old graduate student could serve up to seven years in jail for self-defense was a chilling confirmation of the desertion of ordinary citizens by officials.
What exactly did McMillan do? According to prosecuting attorney Erin Choi, McMillan committed deliberate assault. Choi told the court that as Officer Grantley Bovell proceeded to remove McMillan from Zuccotti Park, McMillan crouched down, then bent her knees, and then aimed her elbow at the officer and then jumped up to strike. Photographs showed Bovell developed a black eye. He told the judge and jury that he went on to suffer headaches and sensitivity to light.
McMillans defenders told a different story. On March 17, defense attorney Martin Stolar said, McMillan had taken a day off from protest. She stopped by the park to pick up a friend she planned to celebrate St. Patricks Day with. McMillan got caught up in the NYPDs manufactured need to clear the park on the sixth anniversary of the start of the occupation. During the sweep, Bovell grabbed McMillans right breast from behind, and she, without seeing him, swung her elbow and hit Bovell in the eye. Then officers pinned McMillan to the ground, and as she claims and video footage seems to confirm, she then endured a seizure. She woke up in a hospital with a black eye, bruises on her arms and back, and another that could correspond to the shape of a hand on her breast. She was one of roughly 70 people arrested as police cleared the area of protesters, journalists and bystanders.
Exactly what happened between Bovell and McMillan may be impossible to say. The grainy video shown to the court confirms the elbowing. But as Stolar pointed out, it does not show what happened to his client just before. And Bovells history is suggestive. According to the NYPDs own files, Bovell was twice investigated by the forces bureau of internal affairs. In 2009 he was suspected of kicking a man on the floor while arresting him in a Bronx bodega. In 2010 he received a command discipline for failing to tell his supervisors that he and a partner were chasing a 17-year-old boy who was riding a dirt bike through the Bronx. The boy sued Bovell, claiming he was intentionally run down and sent flying head-first into a street lamp, The Guardian reported. He said he was left with broken teeth and a wound requiring stitches in his head. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_cecily_mcmillan_20140511
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Truthdigger of the Week: Cecily McMillan (Original Post)
marmar
May 2014
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. du rec.