Protesters Arrested

Guilty Verdict For Occupy Activist An “Attack On Dissent”

May 8, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Educate! Occupy, police brutality, Protesters Arrested

Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore. So you may have heard of Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan. She was allegedly assaulted by a New York police officer on the six-month anniversary of the Occupy movement two years ago. That night, police moved in to clear the park and make arrests, and during the chaos, McMillan's defense says that an officer grabbed her breast from behind, swung her around, and threw her to the ground. You can see here a picture of some of what her defense says were bruises from that night. Now her trial has come to a close, and Cecily was found guilty of assaulting an officer, which is a felony. She faces up to seven years in prison. Now joining us to get into this case and discuss more is an attorney, Kevin Zeese. He's been following the case closely, and he's one of the original organizers of the national occupation of Washington, D.C. Thanks for joining us, Kevin.

Outrage And Protests Follow Guilty Verdict For OWS Activist

May 7, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Resist! Occupy, Protesters Arrested

People across the United States responded with outrage after Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan was found guilty Monday afternoon of "assaulting" the very police officer who she says sexually assaulted her. Over 100 people rallied in New York City's Zuccotti Park Monday night and, according to advocates, messages of support immediately began pouring in from across the country. "I know Cecily would be in gratitude for how much people care," Stan Williams of support group Justice for Cecily told Common Dreams. "But this has become something bigger than Cecily. It's about protests and dissent." McMillan's supporters on Monday filled a New York court room with cries of "Shame!" when the 25-year-old organizer was handed a guilty verdict and then promptly handcuffed and taken away to Rikers Island, where she is currently detained pending sentencing. In a Democracy Now! interview Tuesday morning, Martin Stolar, criminal defense attorney affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild and co-counsel for McMillan's case, derided her felony verdict—that could land her a sentence of two to seven years with a chance of parole—as "ridiculous" and vowed an appeal.

Occupy Trial Juror Shocked At Activist’s Potential Prison Sentence

May 7, 2014 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com Educate! Occupy, Protesters Arrested

As Cecily McMillan was led to a cell in handcuffs amid uproar from her supporters, the 12 jurors who had just convicted the Occupy Wall Street activist of assaulting a New York police officer were whisked away in a police van. On the two-mile trip north through Manhattan to Union Square, where they were deposited well away from Monday's courtroom commotion, some pulled out mobile phones and began searching online for news on the trial they had just spent a month of their lives considering. Finally freed from a ban on researching the case, including potential punishments, some were shocked to learn that they had just consigned the 25-year-old to a sentence of up to seven years in prison, one told the Guardian. “They felt bad,” said the juror, who did not wish to be named. “Most just wanted her to do probation, maybe some community service. But now what I’m hearing is seven years in jail? That’s ludicrous. Even a year in jail is ridiculous.”

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

May 3, 2014 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com Educate! Occupy, Protesters Arrested

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."

Why Getting Arrested To Resist The Keystone XL Is Legally Justified

April 28, 2014 Jeremy Brecher, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Keystone XL, Protesters Arrested

Nearly 100,000 people have pledged to risk arrest if the Obama administration appears poised to give approval to the Keystone XL pipeline. While it would be difficult to prove, it seems likely that the specter of tens of thousands of Americans committing civil disobedience around the country may have influenced the Obama administration to further delay its decision on the pipeline last week. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell attributed news of the delay to the “weight” of “radical activists.” Still, with the pipeline not yet rejected, the KXL Pledge of Resistance will have to be kept trimmed and burning. I am one of those who has signed the pledge. I believe our action, while making a personal moral statement, will also help initiate an effort to hold our governments accountable for complicity in the most heinous crime in history — the destruction of the natural conditions on which we and our posterity depend for our lives. Whether or not the courts that try protesters initially accept such an argument, I believe that we will ultimately win vindication in the court of public opinion. If I am arrested and have an opportunity to address a court, here is how I would explain the purpose and significance of our action.

Who Is Cecily McMillan?

April 15, 2014 Maurice Isserman, www.dissentmagazine.org Educate! Occupy, Protesters Arrested

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.

Protest Against Police Brutality Ends In Arrests

April 9, 2014 Michael Roberts, www.blogs.westword.com Resist! Occupy, Police, Protesters Arrested

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.

Occupy Activist Facing 7 Years: ‘Promoter Of Non-Violence’

April 8, 2014 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com Resist! Occupy, Protesters Arrested

An Occupy Wall Street activist charged with assaulting a police officer is a “promoter of non-violence” who wandered into a tussle with law enforcement while celebrating St Patrick’s Day, her lawyers plan to argue in court this week. Jury selection began on Monday morning in the trial of Cecily McMillan, who denies assaulting Officer Grantley Bovell as he arrested protesters from the anti-capitalist movement in New York’s Zuccotti Park on 17 March 2012. “An innocent woman is being accused of something that could send her to prison for seven years,” McMillan’s attorney, Martin Stolar, told reporters outside the state supreme courtroom in lower Manhattan. “She was leaving the park pursuant to the police department’s orders when she was brutally assaulted by a police officer and subsequently accused of assaulting that police officer.” McMillan told a small group of supporters: “Thank you for being here today.”

Cecily McMillan Felony Trial Begins Today

April 7, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! NYPD, Occupy, Protesters Arrested

After two years of delays, the trial of Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan will begin in Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday April 7th at 9:30am, 100 Centre St. – Room1116 Part 41. In a notorious high profile incident Ms. McMillan, a New School University graduate student, was arrested, sexually assaulted and beaten into a seizure by police on March 17, 2012. Turning a blind eye to obvious police misconduct, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is prosecuting McMillan; she faces a 2nd degree felony assault charge with a possible seven (7) year prison sentence. This is one of the last unresolved Occupy Wall Street-related criminal cases. Before court begins Justice for Cecily will hold a press conference at 9am Monday April 7th outside 100 Centre St.; Cecily McMillan and her attorney Martin R. Stolar will discuss the case. DA Vance has adamantly insisted on harsh treatment – a felony prosecution – for McMillan while ignoring NYPD wrongdoing.

NYPD Arrests Veterans Protesting At Vietnam War Memorial

April 5, 2014 Renee Lewis, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Occupy, Police, Protesters Arrested

Three military veterans were arrested at New York City’s Vietnam Memorial after taking part in a protest that activists said was part of an attempted revival of the Occupy movement, a push that began Friday with events planned worldwide. About 100 protesters at the New York memorial shouted “shame” and “no justice, no peace” as police loaded the three veterans and two other protesters into the back of a van. Activists said they had planned to read the names of fallen U.S. soldiers at the memorial in lower Manhattan, but police said the park had closed at 10 p.m. so the public was not allowed to be there. The rally was organized by Veterans for Peace (VFP), a nonprofit organization that says it is dedicated to educating the public about the costs of war.

At Age 92, Arrested For Protesting Mining

April 4, 2014 Bill Ryan, www.theguardian.com Resist! Direct Action, Mining, Protesters Arrested

The coal industry gets enormous subsidies from the government. We need to take them away from the mining industry, with their lobbyists galore in Canberra, and use that money to assist in the development of our renewable energies. Otherwise, what is the future for my children? I’ve only got a few years left, but I feel in my conscience that I have to take this stand. I’m happy to say that I’ve been here on four occasions, and each time, the numbers are increasing. This sort of direct action is the way of the future. The people have got to take action because the governments have been completely ignoring them and listening only to the big end of town. So I’ll continue to protest. The next oldest person in this camp is 84 years old. And when I talk to him, he too says he’s concerned about the future for his children. Something is wrong. We’re faced with a catastrophe. I owe it to my grandchildren, and I owe it to all children. I was willing to put my life on the line in the second world war, so putting my body on the line here is a small inconvenience.

Trial For Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan Begins Monday

April 4, 2014 the sparrow project, www.sparrowmedia.net Resist! Occupy, police brutality, Protesters Arrested

After two years of delays, trial will begin for Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan. Set for this Monday, April 7th at 9:30am at 100 Centre St Room 1116 Part 41, Cecily’s case marks the last ongoing Occupy trial. On March 17th, 2012 Cecily was sexually assaulted by a plainclothes NYPD officer and then beaten unconscious by police when she attempted to leave a gathering marking the 6 month anniversary of the inception of Occupy Wall Street. In the wake of this attack she endured, Cecily faces a charge of 2nd degree assault on a police officer. The heavy-hand of Cecily’s prosecuting attorney has led some activists to speculate that her political organizing within Occupy Wall Street plays a role in the prosecutor’s unwavering position. Others attribute the city’s stance to an unwillingness to admit guilt in the grotesque display of police misconduct on the night of Cecily’s arrest. Cecily’s firm commitment to nonviolence makes these charges even more absurd.

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