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Cecily McMillan Jury Told: ‘Send Her Back To School’

May 3, 2014 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com ,
A jury in Manhattan was asked on Friday to decide whether an Occupy Wall Street activist intentionally elbowed a New York police officer in the face, or might have reacted instinctively to having one of her breasts grabbed from behind. Making their closing arguments at the end of a three-week trial, state prosecutors and lawyers for Cecily McMillan painted sharply contrasting pictures of the night of 17 March 2012, when she is alleged to have assaulted Officer Grantley Bovell. Bovell, a 35-year-old who usually patrols the Bronx, alleges that McMillan deliberately struck him as he led her out of Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan, where protesters had been marking six months of the Occupy movement. McMillan, a 25-year-old graduate student at the New School, denies the charge. She faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. "There is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Martin Stolar, McMillan's lead attorney, told the jury at Manhattan criminal court, during an exhaustive speech lasting two hours and 40 minutes. "So the only verdict that you can reach is not guilty. Send Miss McMillan home. Send her back to school, let her finish her thesis and move on, and become a teacher, or a politician, or president of the United States."

Occupy Founders Launch The After Party in Detroit

May 1, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Some of the founding members of the occupy movement are launching a new political party – THE AFTER Party. Carl Gibson is among them. He says, “What sets The After Party apart is that 365 days out of the year it is a humanitarian organization. The way we organize politically, what sets us apart is that we are finding needs within the community, and then working to meet them using the community's assets.” And, so is Radio Rahim, another After Party founding member and, yes the real life persona behind the character in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing says the following:

Cecily McMillan Testifies Officer Grabbed Her Breast, Threw Her To The Ground

May 1, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
Below are two articles describing the testimony of Cecily McMillan, the occupy protester on trial for assaulting a police officer. She testified that she was grabbed by someone from behind who pulled her down onto the ground by grabbing her breast. She does not remember hitting the officer with her elbow after she responded to having her breast grabbed. Below are two articles by The Guardian and The New York Times describing her testimony: "Cecily McMillan: I was labeled 'Paris Hilton of Occupy Wall Street'"; and "Protester Says She Doesn't Recall Hitting Officer With Elbow." Taking the witness stand for the first time in her trial for felony assault, Cecily McMillan told the jury that she advocated a course of peaceful demonstration and political engagement with the outside world that frequently set her apart from other members of the protest movement. “From the moment I showed up, I was very concerned that there was not some sort of mission statement – who we are and what we stand for – and particularly that we stand against violence,” she said, under questioning from her attorney, Martin Stolar.

Occupy The SEC Advocates in D.C. For Financial Reform

April 30, 2014 Charles Reinhardt, www.animalnewyork.com ,
On March 29th, 2014, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. received an aggressively written, pointed letter detailing weaknesses in the current regulations governing the largest banks’ commodities business. Ten days earlier, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had received a similar one arguing to strengthen the government’s ability to break up too-big-to-fail banks, a topic made even more relevant by the American megabank Citigroup’s failure to pass the Federal Reserve’s financial stability “stress test” on March 26th. Though both letters were written in dense technical detail, grounded in deep knowledge of their subjects, neither was written by a private organization or lobby group. Instead they were penned by an informal group of unpaid volunteers of various ages and professional backgrounds called “Occupy the SEC” — a diverse assortment of amateur and professional financial reform advocates who meet once a week online or occasionally in person on scrounged plastic chairs in the lobby of 60 Wall Street.

The Occupy Sandy Network: Still Working Tirelessly For A Just Recovery

April 30, 2014 Staff, www.OCCUPYSANDY.NET ,
In the eighteen months since Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast and forced the entire region to rethink our way of life, people on the front lines of the recovery effort have been working tireless to rebuild and restore hope to the community. Eighteen months later, The Occupy Sandy network is still working tirelessly for a just recovery and a more resilient future Whether it be developing youth programming, worker cooperatives, and political education and organizing for responsible development in the Rockaways; coordinating rebuilding crews and sharing stories in New Jersey; or building coordination systems for community-led relief, recovery and resilience efforts - our community coalitions are growing strong and there is still so much work to be done. Yesterday, a dedicated group will come together for a press conference in Staten Island to mark the 18-month anniversary, and to discuss progress and future plans. The group will gather at 706 Quincy Avenue at 2pm – an Ocean Breeze street virtually destroyed by the storm – in front of the home which was rebuilt by members of the Long Term Recovery Group’s rebuild committee.

The Crime Of Peaceful Protest

April 29, 2014 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com ,
Cecily McMillan, wearing a red dress and high heels, her dark, shoulder-length hair stylishly curled, sat behind a table with her two lawyers Friday morning facing Judge Ronald A. Zweibel in Room 1116 at the Manhattan Criminal Court. The judge seems to have alternated between boredom and rage throughout the trial, now three weeks old. He has repeatedly thrown caustic barbs at her lawyers and arbitrarily shut down many of the avenues of defense. Friday was no exception. The silver-haired Zweibel curtly dismissed a request by defense lawyers Martin Stolar and Rebecca Heinegg for a motion to dismiss the case. The lawyers had attempted to argue that testimony from the officer who arrested McMillan violated Fifth Amendment restrictions against the use of comments made by a defendant at the time of arrest. But the judge, who has issued an unusual gag order that bars McMillan’s lawyers from speaking to the press, was visibly impatient, snapping, “This debate is going to end.” He then went on to uphold his earlier decision to heavily censor videos taken during the arrest, a decision Stolar said “is cutting the heart out of my ability to refute” the prosecution’s charge that McMillan faked a medical seizure in an attempt to avoid being arrested. “I’m totally handicapped,” Stolar lamented to Zweibel.

Fighting Fascism in England

April 26, 2014 South London Anti-Fascists, www.theoccupiedtimes.org , ,
After the local elections on the 2nd May 2013, there was a certain level of satisfaction amongst some anti-fascists that the British fascist threat was in the process of being comprehensively defeated. Despite five years of national economic turmoil, the British National Party (BNP), riddled with splits and infighting, faced electoral oblivion. The strategic focus of the two most recognised anti-fascist organisations, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and Hope Not Hate, appeared effective, with the number of elected BNP councillors falling from its peak of 57 in 2009 to its current two. Their leader, Nick Griffin, MEP for the North West, is left to defend the BNP’s sole European Parliamentary seat in 2014. Andrew Brons, a former BNP and National Front activist, is also believed to be attempting to defend his European seat in Yorkshire and the Humber with the British Democratic Party, an organisation he set up last year. In November 2012, the English Defence League at Westminster were unable to mobilise 100 people for their national march and their “March for England” splinter group was chased off the streets of Brighton.The far-right seemed increasingly irrelevant. Then on 22nd May 2013, Lee Rigby was brutally murdered and everything changed.

Post-Occupy, #myNYPD Makes New York’s Blood Boil

April 26, 2014 Sarah Jaffe, www.inthesetimes.com ,
On Tuesday, April 22, the New York City Police Department had a very bad idea. Someone at the NYPD decided that the department could be doing better with its social media engagement and asked people to tweet photos of themselves with NYPD officers using the hashtag #myNYPD. Perhaps predictably, the photos were not what they wanted. Activists quickly flooded the hashtag with photos of violent arrests, many of them from the days of Occupy Wall Street. The result was that the hashtag trended, with activists around the world joining in, prompting spinoff hashtags and even garnering the notice of the tabloids and the New York Times. It seems the NYPD doesn't quite understand the depth of the city’s anger toward the department, even with a new (well, new-old) commissioner under a new mayor who ran a campaign against stop-and-frisk. Mayor Bill de Blasio even went so far as to declare: “Now that we've moved away from that broken policy, and we've settled the lawsuits, and we are changing the dynamics on the ground between police and community, I think the average officer's having a much better experience.”

Occupy Livestreamer Settles With NYPD For $55,000

April 25, 2014 Josh Boss, www.nydailynews.com , , , ,
Josh Boss, 26, says Thomas Purtell, an assistant chief and Patrol Borough Manhattan South commander at the time of the 2011 arrest, tackled him while shouting, 'Don’t resist!' Boss sued alleging false arrest, excessive force and nerve damage to his wrists from handcuffs . A Brooklyn man arrested by a top NYPD cop while live-streaming an Occupy Wall Street march with his cell phone has settled with the city for $55,000, he told the Daily News Thursday. Josh Boss, 26, says Thomas Purtell, an assistant chief and Patrol Borough Manhattan South commander at the time of the 2011 arrest, tackled him and roughed him up while shouting, “Don’t resist!” Boss’s disorderly conduct charge was ultimately dismissed — and he sued alleging false arrest, excessive force and nerve damage to his wrists from handcuffs. He turned around and sacked me,” the Bushwick man said in an exclusive interview with The News. “I was standing in the crosswalk … I was definitely not resisting. I had a 250-pound officer on me with his knee on my face and neck.”

Testimony Of Key Witness In Cecily McMillan Prosecution

April 20, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
The key witness for the government, Officer Bradley Bovell, was the main focus of attention all week in the Cecily McMillan trial. Since this is a one witness case, his testimony and credibility are critical to the result. This week it also became evident which side of the trial Judge Zweibel is on – he’s almost like having another prosecutor in the room. Throughout the cross-examination the prosecutor objected to defense attorney’s line of questioning, people in the court room say there were scores of objections. The judge ruled for the prosecutor and prevented Stolar from providing any context to what was occurring in Zucotti Park and in the conflict between Cecily McMillan and Bovell. Judge Zweibel is worrisome. In the pre-trial phase he urged Cecily to plea to a felony, telling her if she were found guilty the sentence would be more severe. Now, he is carrying that pro-prosecution attitude into the trial.

Arundhati Roy: Another World Is Not Only Possible…

April 19, 2014 Arundhati Roy, www.truth-out.org ,
Arundhati Roy's trenchant analysis of the destructive impact of global neoliberalism on India is available directly from Truthout by clicking here.Capitalism: A Ghost Story is a passionate, detailed journey through the injustices of systemic inequality. As an epilogue for Capitalism: A Ghost Story, Roy offers an eloquent tribute to the Occupy movement after it was evicted from Zucotti Park. Despite Roy's scathing analysis of the injustices and ravages of capitalism and its political puppets, she is filled with hope that "another world is not only possible, she's on her way." Speech to the People's University of the Occupy Movement Yesterday morning the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back. The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We're not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for Justice. Justice, not just for the people of the United States, but for everybody. What you have achieved since September 17, when the Occupy Movement began in the United States, is to introduce a new imagination, a new political language, into the heart of Empire. You have reintroduced the right to dream into a system that tried to turn everybody into zombies mesmerized into equating mindless consumerism with happiness and fulfillment. As a writer, let me tell you, this is an immense achievement. I cannot thank you enough.

Days of Action Against Wells Fargo, April 28th and 29th

April 15, 2014 FANG, www.docs.google.com ,
All injustices are inherently linked. In the 21st century one of the strongest links can be found in the massive financial institutions that fund myriad forms of economic, social and environmental destruction. In 2013 Wells Fargo became the most profitable bank in America, raking in $21.9 Billion. This money was largely made by taking advantage of working-class people, funding the prison/deportation industrial complex, and from investing in the fossil fuel industry. Wells Fargo is perhaps most notorious for their abusive and criminal housing practices - foreclosing on tens of thousands of people a year and doctoring paperwork to speed up this process. To call attention to these abuses, Occupy Our Homes and the Home Defenders League have called for National Days of Action against Wells Fargo on April 28-29th. The organizers for this mobilization are asking groups to hit Wells Fargo on all fronts.

Who Is Cecily McMillan?

April 15, 2014 Maurice Isserman, www.dissentmagazine.org ,
Cecily McMillan has had trouble concentrating on the master’s thesis she is supposed to be writing this spring under my direction at the New School in New York City, a study of the political beliefs and career of the late, great socialist, pacifist, and civil rights campaigner Bayard Rustin. It’s not that Cecily has writer’s block and has been avoiding the library (if only it were that). Rather, she is spending far too much of her time in the defendant’s seat in a courtroom in New York City Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan. There she is facing charges of felony assault on a police officer in Zuccotti Park, birthplace of Occupy Wall Street, on March 17, 2012. On that day a demonstration took place in the park to mark the six-month anniversary of the original occupation.

Two Versions Presented In Opening Argument Of McMillan Case

April 12, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
On Friday, opening arguments indicated this is a case of the credibility of two witnesses Office Grantley Bovell and Cecily McMillan. There are two different stories of the incident and no witnesses to confirm either version. A video tape of the incident is so unclear that both sides say it proves their case. McMillan has corroborating evidence for her story, photographs taken by her doctor that show bruises on her body, most importantly bruises showing fingerprints grabbing her right breast. McMillan's version is that Bovell violently grabbed her breast from behind and she instinctively reacted throwing her elbow around to hit her assailant. Bovell's version is that Cecily was screaming at a female police officer when he arrived and he went over to escort her out of Zuccotti Park. He will testify, according to the opening argument, that Cecily asked her if the cameras were on, then knelled down, came up quickly and threw her elbow into his face.

Protest Against Police Brutality Ends In Arrests

April 9, 2014 Michael Roberts, www.blogs.westword.com , ,
Although many in the public perceive Occupy Denver to be a thing of the past, the organization remains quite busy, staging regular protests that recently were dubbed "reprehensible" by the Denver Post. More evidence of ongoing activity: This weekend, a downtown march featuring OD and Anonymous resulted in a dust-up with Denver cops that ended with the arrest of six demonstrators and claims of police brutality -- the subject of the march in the first place. Get details and see photos and videos below. On April 5, the Post published "Shame, Occupy Denver, shame," an opinion piece by the paper's Jeremy Meyer that decried ongoing protests by the organization against the city's urban camping ban, passed in 2012.
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