Female Occupy Wall Street protestor found guilty of assaulting police officer, but is she?

[Dan Druff]

Meet Cecily McMillan, age 25:



She was in Zucotti Park in New York City on March 17, 2012, shortly after midnight, and was refusing to leave.

A female officer had instructed McMillan and others to leave the area, and she was screaming at the officer, according to police.

A 35-year-old male officer (Grantley Bovell) heard the screaming, and approached McMillan.

He claims that he put his hand on her shoulder, and she abruptly jumped up and elbowed him in the face.

A grainy Youtube video captured this. It is clear that McMillan did abruptly jump up and elbow Bovell in the face.

She claims that someone had grabbed her right breast, and this was her instinctive reaction. She said she didn't realize Bovell was a police officer. She showed photos of a bruise in the area of her right breast to the court.

Prosecutors countered that the bruise did not exist at the time she was examined by the hospital after arrest.

Here is the video:



I think she is guilty.

I cannot see any indication that the officer grabbed her breast. Also, if the account of her screaming prior to the assault are true, then it indicates she was already in an agitated and aggressive state.

I think she was probably freaking out about being told to leave (they needed to clean the park), and then flipped out when the officer put his hand on her shoulder, in the "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!" kind of fashion.

I don't think it was a premeditated assault on a police officer, but more of a reactionary thing when she was all riled up.

I do agree with the conviction, though. I think she deserves a short sentence, which is probably what she'll get.

I thought the refusal to leave the park in the first place was also ridiculous, as the city was already tolerating the mass protest there, and had a right to disperse the people after midnight for cleaning on occasion. The city could have evicted people EVERY night, as it was not zoned for overnight stays. The protesters should have worked with the city, instead of being intentionally difficult.

Here is an article about it: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...police-officer

[LLL]

Zucotti Park, LOL.

[4Dragons]

30 days, $1000 fine and perpetrator pays for costs of their incarceration. NEXT.

[PLOL]

Give them all the chair, imo

[shortbuspoker]

The police should have pulled out of the park and turned off all of the surveillance cameras. After a night or two of mass beatings and rapes, things tend to work themselves out and people disperse on their own.

[Corrigan]

I don't think it was a premeditated assault on a police officer, but more of a reactionary thing when she was all riled up.

I have read just a little about this, but wasn't he a plain clothes officer and there was no way for her to know she was police?

[Dan Druff]

I don't think it was a premeditated assault on a police officer, but more of a reactionary thing when she was all riled up.

I have read just a little about this, but wasn't he a plain clothes officer and there was no way for her to know she was police?

I can't find anything about that. I know she was insisting she didn't know he was a police officer, but it seems her excuse revolves around the "breast grab" claim -- that the officer grabbed her breast from the side, and she instinctively fought back, not knowing an officer was doing it.

And that would be a reasonable defense, except I don't believe it.

Here is a picture of the infamous breast bruise:



The problem here is that such a bruise would result front a blunt force hit to the breast in that area, not a grab. A grab (which is unlikely to result in a bruise anyway) would, at worst, injure the area around the breast. Furthermore, even though the video is grainy, you would think that you would see the officer's hand doing something hard and impactful enough to cause a bruise like that.

It was reported that she freaked out once handcuffed (a panic attack), eventually resulting in fainting. I am guessing that the bruise is either from the fainting, being tackled by officers after the elbowing incident, or something McMillan did to herself in order to create an alibi.

In any case, this just doesn't add up. The Occupy movement is throwing their support beyond the wrong "hero". This was an over-excited protester who snapped and swung her elbow at whoever was touching her. I believe she wasn't thinking, "Hey, I'm going to hit this cop", but I also don't believe that she was responding to a breast grope or thought she was being assaulted in any way.

I support the public's right to protest, but the protest should never trump existing city and state laws. You can't just decide to stay in a park overnight when it needs to be cleaned, and you can't elbow officers in the face when you're agitated about being asked to leave, even if you don't fully realize what you're doing.

[Corrigan]

mr_plow_plowing_hippies.gif

[GrenadaRoger]

Here is a picture of the infamous breast bruise:

She is telling a lie...

Her name isn't not McMillian, it's more like Mendelbaum---and that's as obvious as the nose on her face, wavy, dark hair and thick lips...

the tits are nice though...