Janet Allon — Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan Sentenced to Three Months in Prison

 Amerikan justice. Proves Occupy's point.

Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street activist, was sentenced to three months in prison and five years probation on Monday morning after being found guilty of deliberately elbowing an officer in the face in March 2012.

McMillan, 25, and her attorneys had argued that the elbowing occurred after Officer Grantley Bovell grabbed McMillan's breast from behind and she was simply reacting. After her arrest, McMillan appeared on Democracy Now, looking both shaken and bruised, including a bruise shaped like a handprint abover her breast.

However, the prosecution accused McMillan of attacking Bovell, 35, as he walked her out of Zuccotti Park in March, 2012, and showed the jury grainy footage of the elbowing incident. The Manhattan jury apparently believed the prosecution's account and and found McMillan guilty of second degree assault.

AlterNet
Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan Sentenced to Three Months in Prison
Janet Allon

Occupy Protester Cecily McMillan’s Statement From Rikers

AlterNet — Occupy Protester Cecily McMillan’s Statement From Rikers
Good morning. I’m writing from the Rose M. Singer Correctional Facility, dorm 2 East B on Rikers Island – where I’ve been held for the past 4 days.

Admittedly, I was shocked by the jury’s verdict on Monday, but was not surprised by the events that followed. An overreaching prosecutor plus a biased judge logically adds up to my being remanded to Rikers.

I was prepared then, as I am now, to stand by my convictions and face the consequences of my actions – namely that of refusing to forsake my values and what I know to be true in exchange for my “freedom.”

Packed into a room with 45 other women – often restricted to my cot – I’ve had nothing but time to measure the strength of my beliefs alongside that ambiguous concept – “freedom.” (I’ve come to the conclusion that it is far easier to weigh such tradeoffs from the comfort of one’s own bed.)

At Rikers, the day begins with 4:30am breakfast. Milk cartons in hand, the women echo a common set of concerns – “can’t reach my lawyer, my family won’t speak to me, no commissary” – and I become painfully aware of how privileged I am, despite what is supposed to be the great equalizing suffering of the prison experience.

Unlike my peers, I have a hell of a lawyer – Marty Stolar – who made the long journey to hold my hand and promise “I will not stop fighting for you.” I also have a gifted team of friends and organizers – #Justice4Cecily – that continue to provide around-the-clock care and mobilize public support. Finally, I’m incredibly lucky to have a vast and very much alive movement at my side, sending me “Occupy Love” from across the world.

Despite how obscenely unbalanced our circumstances are, my new-found friends – who have quickly become my comrades – are outraged by my story and resolve to do their part to keep me out of prison. After lunch, they spend their free time writing letters to Judge Zweibel, defending my character and pleading for leniency.

At 6:00pm dinner, the cramped circle of ladies ask me “What exactly is social justice organizing?” Over the complex choreography of food trading I tell them about Democratic Socialist leader Eugene Victor Debs. How nearly 100 years ago he publicly criticized U.S. involvement in WWI – in violation of the Wartime Sedition Act – and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for exercising his constitutional right to free speech. “Sort of like that,” I explain, “But he’s way out of my league – he’s my hero.”

By lights out, a subtle peace has begun to wash over me. I page through a book stopping at Debs’ speech to the Federal Court of Cleveland, Ohio – I read and reread, as if a personal mantra, these opening lines -

“Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said it then, as I say it now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

At the close of the night, I smile and shut my eyes. As I drift off, “Somehow,” I think, “this is all a part of the plan.”

Truthout — Cecily McMillan Verdict Proves Dissent Is Dangerous

The conviction of Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan for assault on a police officer shows that the judiciary is corrupt and dissent will not be tolerated. We can no longer call ourselves a democratic society, and as Chris Hedges says, we are living in the “post-constitutional era.”

Since 9/11, the justification given for incremental loss of our freedoms has been “keeping us safe from terrorism.” But in truth, governments always seek to accrue more power to control their populaces in service to elite economic interests. It is an imperative which pre-dated 9/11, but one that afterwards spiraled out of control.

A heightened state of fear, a subliminal awareness of being expendable in the neo-liberal economy and the distraction of consumer culture have kept the majority of Americans in paralysis. In the meantime, institutions which protected our rights have been systematically undermined. This, unfortunately, is the regime we now live under:

The Authoritarian State

The Police State

The Surveillance State

The Post-Constitutional State

The Totalitarian State

The Corrupt State

The Corporate State

Pretty good rundown of fascism. But that only goes for the left. Meanwhile, on the right militias threaten federal agents with impunity.

We must champion people like Cecily McMillan, John Kiriakou and Chelsea Manning who have gone to prison for their courageous acts. It’s time to wake from our dream and resist.

Truthout
Cecily McMillan Verdict Proves Dissent Is Dangerous
Anne Meador, DC Media Group | Op-Ed

Kevin Zeese — Breaking News: Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan's Trial For Police Assault Postponed Again

I can't believe that this trumped-up charge is being taken seriously by the prosecutor. Apparently, the court may agree. Hopefully, this will eventually result in dismissal, followed by a successful suit against the city for damages. It's too bad that the buck doesn't stop at the top so that the major and police commissar at the time could be sued personally. 

By the way, is fascism even a crime in the US or the state of New York?

AlterNet
Breaking News: Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan's Trial For Police Assault Postponed Again
Kevin Zeese