The issue speaks to the fact that while the U.S. must be held accountable, and show a great sense of responsibility for its role in fostering unsustainable economic, political, and environmental decision-making across the world, at least in theory, the people are allowed to voice dissent.
Now we all know spying, terror lists and the like have been in place for decades meant to keep a watchful eyes on those who choose to actively show their disdain for war, oppression and unsustainable actions. It seems in the spirit of the law, that those in the U.S. can protest, write advocacy letters, and seek various ways to make their perspectives heard in an attempt to better craft policy and provide critique where its needed. But in reviewing this case, thoughts of suppressing the basic core of the democratic right to offer such dissent in clearly alive and well. Are there other motives at hand with this case? A message to the 99%, capitalism can't be shaken? Your voice will not break down the confines of the systems that organize U.S. hegemony? Don't Occupy? Don't Protest?
From Democracy Now:
An Occupy Wall Street activist has been found guilty of assaulting a New York City police officer in a trial that critics say should have been about the police assaulting her. Cecily McMillan was arrested in March 2012 as protesters tried to re-occupy Zuccotti Park, six months after Occupy began. McMillan was convicted of deliberately striking Officer Grantley Bovell with her elbow, leaving him with a black eye. McMillan says she swung her arm instinctively after being grabbed in the right breast from behind. To support this claim, defense lawyers showed photos of bruising to her chest during trial. In addition to her injuries, McMillan says she went into a seizure as officers pinned her down. She was later treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. After a four-week trial, the jury took just three hours Monday to deliver a verdict. The judge in the case rejected defense pleas to allow her release on bail. McMillan was placed in handcuffs and taken to Rikers Island, where she’ll remain until sentencing in two weeks. She faces up to seven years in prison.
We speak to McMillan’s attorney Martin Stolar and her friend Lucy Parks, field coordinator for the Justice for Cecily Support Team.
AARON MATÉ: An Occupy Wall Street activist has been found guilty of assaulting a New York City police officer, but critics say the trial should have been about the police assaulting her. Cecily McMillan was arrested in March 2012 as protesters tried to re-occupy Zuccotti Park six months after Occupy began. McMillan was convicted of deliberately striking Officer Grantley Bovell with her elbow, leaving him with a black eye. McMillan says she swung her arm instinctively after being grabbed in the right breast from behind. To support this claim, defense lawyers showed photos of bruising to her chest during trial. In addition to her injuries, McMillan says she went into a seizure as officers pinned her down. She was later treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
AMY GOODMAN: But prosecutors rejected Cecily McMillan’s claims and suggested she may have even caused the bruises to her body herself. After a four-week trial, the jury took just three hours Monday to deliver a verdict. The judge in the case rejected defense pleas to allow her release on bail. As outraged supporters chanted "Shame," McMillian was placed in handcuffs and taken to Rikers Island. She’ll remain there until sentencing in two weeks, when she faces up to seven years in prison. In a moment, we’ll be joined by her attorney and a friend, but first I want to turn back to our interview we did in 2012 that we did in 2012 with Cecily McMillan when she joined us on Democracy Now! just six days after her arrest. This is part of that interview.
AMY GOODMAN: We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Cecily, you limped in here. You’re very bruised. You have a bruise over your left eye. And I can see, with your—the scoop neck of your T-shirt, you are scratched and it is black and blue. It is— CECILY McMILLAN: A handprint. AMY GOODMAN: —the shape of a hand. Black and blue, the shape of a hand. CECILY McMILLAN: Yeah. AMY GOODMAN: That is above your right breast. And then your arms. Your arms are black and blue around both elbows. You’ve got finger marks of black and blue on both arms. And you’re clearly— CECILY McMILLAN: My back. AMY GOODMAN: —in a lot of pain on your back, and we can’t show those bruises now. Your ribs—what happened? CECILY McMILLAN: My ribs are really bruised. AMY GOODMAN: What happened to you? You went out on Saturday, six-month anniversary of Occupy, with hundreds of other people to Zuccotti. And what took place? CECILY McMILLAN: Like I said, I haven’t seen any of the videos yet. I ended a 40-something-hour stay in jail and ended up with all these bruises. I mean, that’s—I have an open case, so I can’t talk more about it, and I’m sure you can tell that it would be difficult for me to remember some things. But I have these.
Read the rest and watch video here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/5/6/occupy_wall_street_on_trial_cecily
