Citizens of this Earth

Cecily McMillan Released: Reads Statement to Press Challenging NY Department of Corrections http://t.co/RtDm9AmIF7 pic.twitter.com/yH7MmqwLj1
— The Sparrow Project (@sparrowmedia) July 2, 2014

Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily Mcmillan was released from Rikers Island prison, Wednesday, July 2nd;  in the press conference below, she describes the grisly experience of being dropped off by the Department of Corrections from a dark van in the middle of an unknown Queens neighborhood, in fear that it was "another set-up."  Fortunately, an immigrant rights activist spotted her, let her use his phone, and waited with her until help arrived.   

Full transcript of Ms. McMillan's press statement here at the Sparrow Project.  Locked up for 58 days after a felony conviction for elbowing a police officer who grabbed her breast, the former nanny and graduate student basically stated that, as a result of this unjust incarceration, she was even more committed to fight the corrupt powers that be, her press statement focusing particularly on women's rights in prison, and especially sufficient access to medical care for those women.  Standing in the same spot Pussy Riot activists spoke after visiting her at Rikers, Ms. McMillan described a prisoner named Judith with hepatitis C and cancer, coughing up blood and chunks of her liver, and who later died as a result of inadequate health care. Even though Judith was covered in her own blood, the prisoners were told that this "wasn't an emergency," and she was denied access to a doctor.

Ms. McMillan delivered a list of demands compiled by herself and women at Rikers including sufficient access to health care, educational and rehabilitative services, and more strictly enforced rules against abuses by corrections officers. She stated,

“Working with my sisters to organize for change in the confines of jail has strengthened my belief in participatory democracy and collective action. I am inspired by the resilient community I have encountered in a system that is stacked against us. The only difference between people we call “law-abiding” citizens and the women I served time with is the unequal access to resources. Crossing the bridge I am compelled to reach back and recognize the two worlds as undivided. The court sent me here to frighten me and others into silencing our dissent, but I am proud to walk out saying that the 99% is, in fact, stronger than ever. We will continue to fight until we gain all the rights we deserve as citizens of this earth.”

 

Who Goes To Jail

From FreeSpeechTV, an update from the Cecily McMillan case and how no Credit Suisse executives will be heading to jail for facilitating widespread tax evasion, while the Occupy Wall Street protester was sentenced to three months in Riker's Island and five years of probation.



Justice4Cecily reports that the soft-spoken social justice activist has since been brought into court on an additional charge of obstructing a police investigation when two people jumped a turnstile at NYC's Union Square Station.  The prosecutor's office has offered a plea bargain of no additional jail time, community service, and anger management classes. The website reports that Ms. McMillan rejected that deal;  the next court date is scheduled for July 17th, at which time she is expected to be released for good behavior. 

Editor's Note. 6/2/2014 Update.  Occupy Wall Street reports that Cecily McMillan is now scheduled to be released on parole July 1st. 

OWS prisoner @CecilyMcMillan is free on July 1. Celebrate with us on July 4: http://t.co/5qFSERndVb #Justice4Cecily pic.twitter.com/t6xhwsd954
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) June 2, 2014

Parallels

Petition signatures are growing in the #Justice4Cecily campaign on behalf of Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan.  She faces sentencing Monday following her arrest on the 6 month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and a subsequent conviction on felony charges that can carry up to a 7 year sentence.  Here is May 7th coverage and discussion of the case with her attorney Martin Stoler and Justice 4 Cecily activist Lucy Parks.

Twitter indicates petition signatures tripling after an Occupy Wall Street photograph was shared;  at the time of this posting, Change.Org shows 141,705 signers at their site alone.

If you haven't had a chance to express your support yet, go this a-way to change.org, or that a-way to the Justice 4 Cecily website where you can send a courteous letter to the judge.  9 of the jurors have taken the highly unusual step in writing to the judge to request that he not give her any prison sentence at all.

“We feel that the felony mark on Cecily’s record is punishment enough for this case and that it serves no purpose to Cecily or to society to incarcerate her for any amount of time,” wrote one.

Cecily McMillan is presently in prison at Riker's Island where she was visited by Pussy Riot activists Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, jailed in Russia for two years after staging an anti-Putin protest in a Russian Orthodox church.

“Society must organize to save Cecily because she’s really a hero,” Ms. Alyokhina told reporters for the New York Times. “She is very similar to us. We also did time and went to prison for our beliefs. We see a lot of parallels.”

From Mashable:


 

*Photo credit, top, via shirts_tops_tees, "FREE CECILY AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS @ VIRGINIA BEACH."

#Justice4Cecily

 
Jury selection underway in the case of Occupy protester Cecily McMillan  who went into a seizure while witnesses reported on youtube (March, 2012) seeing her dragged and beaten by police at demonstrations against Wall Street corruption of the government and economy.

 

Two years later, police have not faced any charges.  Ms. McMillan, however, faces a felony that can lead up to seven years in prison after reflexively back-arming a police officer who aggressively grabbed her breast.  She has published photos taken of her bruises after her arrest.

Ms. McMillan is a labor organizer who was a nanny and graduate student at New School during the massive Occupy Wall Street protests that reached national and international proportions.  The New York Times reports that jurors are being questioned about their views of the protests, Wall Street, and the police.  

On the day in question, Ms. McMillan was not participating in the protests, but meeting a friend to go out and celebrate Saint Patrick's Day.  Her attorney, Martin Stolar, told the Guardian that she is well known in activist circles as a proponent of non-violence.

 

 
The officer in question, Grantley Bovell, has been accused in 4 previous incidents of violence.  In one, he is being sued by another Occupy protester, 33 year old Harvard graduate Austin Guest, 'who alleges that the officer dragged him down the aisle of a bus while "intentionally banging his head on each seat” while removing him and dozens of other protesters from the demonstration, which marked six months of the Occupy movement.' 

Guest is joined in his case by 8 other protesters who also say that Bovell, several other officers, NYPD, and the city violated their constitutional rights.

More about jury selection and the Cecily McMillan case at Alternet.
 


Below, a February 2014 interview with attorney Martin Stolar:


 

Jury selection resumes Friday, April 11th, with supporters invited to attend in the court room.  Supporters have shown up wearing a picture of a pink hand pinned to the breast.  

Protesters were reportedly instructed by the judge to remove the pink hands.

More information on courtroom etiquette and how to help at Justice For Cecily. 
 

*Photo credit, top, via Occupy Wall Street, photographer: Andrew Gombert/European Pressphoto Agency, Cecily McMillan; bottom, via theguardian, photographer: Andrew Gombert/EPA, "Cecily McMillan and attorney Martin R Stolar during a press conference at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York."

Interview

Amy Goodman interviews Cecily McMillan. 

Teach In

John Stewart takes on another Big Q:  America's confusion over the meaning of socialism.  Also seeming like an appropriate enough teach-in topic given Cecily McMillan's association with Democratic Socialists of America.  If I hadn't read Rolling Stone, I would have missed this gem ..

The Daily Show
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Cecily

More information coming in about the OWS protester - Cecily McMillan - who had a seizure while in police custody.  Prior statements that she was beaten by police appear confirmed by more video that has surfaced, shown below - one police officer can be seen swinging a club;  also, a witness known only as "Anne" reports seeing her clubbed and kicked by the police at close range.  It also turns out Ms. McMillan has been targeted for police brutality previously, as reported in a November 10, 2011 Rolling Stone article, "Inside Occupy Wall Street," and when, after engaging in a attempt to "charge Wall Street," a police officer pepper sprayed her, then 'knocked her down, stepped on her head and snarled at her, "Shut up. You get what you deserve, cunt bitch."'  A former cheerleader, Ms. McMillan is Northeast regional organizer for the youth section of the Democratic Socialists of America.  She is a twenty-three year old graduate student at the New School, and she is also employed as a nanny.  The Guardian reports that she was transfered from the hospital to NYPD's midtown south precinct where she was kept in a 6' X 21' cell with twenty-one other women.  Cell mates say that she was so badly bruised, they tried to give her as much room as possible because it was too painful for her to be touched at all, and they just took turns holding her hand to try to comfort her.  "She was just crying hysterically and showed us all her bruises all over her body," stated Jennifer Waller who also saw her convulsing in the street.  "They told her at the hospital that she would be brought back to the precinct for 20 minutes and then she would be seeing her personal doctor.  Twenty minutes turned into many hours."  Ms. McMillan was eventually transfered to Bellevue with the extent of her injuries and treatment not yet released to the press.  Her attorney was unable to speak with her privately until shortly before a court appearance.  In court, Ms. MacMillan's face was visibly quite bruised and the attending police officer told people waiting for her to have pain killers immediately available.  The judge released Ms. McMillan after denying the D.A.'s request to have bail set at $20,000. and after confirming that a police officer elbowed by Ms. McMillan when her arm swung behind her was not even injured.

Here are the additional videos;  footage also shows her having the seizure, her head hitting the sidewalk repeatedly, and confirming numerous reports that police did not provide first aide - indeed, people even scream repeatedly for her to receive assistance, telling the police that she is having a seizure, and demanding that the police call a medic and an ambulance for her, but New York's Finest does not.  People also yell at NYPD:  "Shame!  Shame!  Shame!"  You can hear the earlier reported phone conversation to 911 made by the witness who said he telephoned, and that it did not appear from the conversation that the police had contacted paramedics at all.  Witnesses also time the appearance of an ambulance as taking 17 minutes.

*  Inset photo/Cecily McMillan via Facebook