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Tag: Occupy Wall Street

  • The jury has spoken

    I wasn’t there; I didn’t attend the trial; so far be it from me to assert “the truth” of what happened at an Occupy Wall Street gathering in March, 2012.

    From the video, she sure looks guilty as sin (bottom left of the frame, at 22 seconds):

    A jury of 12 thought similarly, and found Cecily McMillan guild of felony assault on a police officer, which is a pretty serious offense.

    Can’t you be pro-Occupy and also not pro-elbowing cops?

    Like all trials, the problem, if it is problem, is the trial isn’t about greater issues. It’s about the person on trial and the single criminal act they are being tried for. That’s it. Despite the efforts of Cecily’s supporters, this trial wasn’t about Occupy or the police.

    From the Times:

    A video corroborated Officer Bovell’s account. Ms. McMillan is seen bending her knees, then throwing her right elbow into the officer’s eye. She lurches forward, runs a few steps, then is tackled by several officers.

    Ms. McMillan testified she had no recollection of hitting the officer, but recalled what she thought was someone trying to grope her. “All of a sudden I feel somebody grab me from behind, from my right breast, and pull me backward,” she said.

    …

    Erin Choi, an assistant district attorney, in her summation accused Ms. McMillan of lying about Officer Bovell groping her for the sake of publicity. She showed stills from the onlooker’s video, and called Ms. McMillan a manipulator “constantly scheming” to gain attention…. “That’s how she benefited from this nonsense. She wanted to become the face of Occupy Wall Street.”

    …

    She was one of the few protesters arrested during three months of Occupy Wall Street protests who opted for a trial. She said she did so because the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., would not agree to let her plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and a felony conviction would linger on her record, hampering her career for the rest of her life.

  • Judge Rules Against NYPD in Brooklyn Bridge Arrests

    From the Times:

    A federal judge ruled Thursday that the police did not sufficiently
    warn Occupy Wall Street protesters against walking on the roadway of the
    Brooklyn Bridge before arresting about 700 of them in October.

    The ruling, by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, allows a class-action suit filed by protesters
    to proceed against police officers and other police officials involved
    in the arrests. But the ruling dismissed the mayor, the police
    commissioner and the City of New York as defendants in the suit, saying
    that there was insufficient evidence that those parties were responsible
    for any misconduct by the police.

    This may be one of those cases were both sides are right: The police did warn; the protesters couldn’t hear. The burden is (and should be) higher on the police.

  • Happy May Day?

    Destruction in Seattle. Destruction in Oakland. All pretty peaceful in New York, more or less. Kudos to all who kept the peace.

    And I like the one cop in this video who doesn’t even flinch when a guy kicks out the window of a squad car right next to him.

    Bad ass.

    Respect.

  • Occupy Federally

    An interesting development in the Occupy movement is the presence on 25 protesters on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street (with live stream). Federal Hall is is policed by the National Park Service Police and not the NYPD. I assume the NYPD could have jurisdiction. But I’m not certain. And it’s not clear if Park Police (and there aren’t that many of them in NYC) were policing the protesters or keeping the NYPD away from them (initially the latter). When the protesters first appeared, Park Service Rangers (who are not police) could do nothing but say, “Er, we kinda don’t want you here, but there’s nothing we can do to stop you.”

    Here’s some coverage from Gothamist.

    And I like that there’s a noise limit. I’m much more sympathetic to protests that do not involve damn drum circles!

    And a bit advice: more American flags (respectfully displayed). Maybe put a few on the police barricades. What is the NYPD going to do, take them down?

  • What day is it?

    “I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police,” said Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.

    OK. But can’t we at least Saturday-evening quarterbackthe police? See, the problem is that these police did notmake bad split-second decisions in the heat of the moment. Technically, tactically, and legally they did nothing wrong (which doesn’t make it right). (Of course had students rioted and attacked them, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a tactically harmless maneuver.)

    Using force against passive-resisters is a logical decision based on their training. It can, will, and shouldn’thappen again.

    And, uh, also, anybody who dismisses pepper mace as a “food product” is an idiot.

  • Dumb-ass Training and the U.C. Davis Pepper Spray Incident:

    I’m in Dublin. I love Ireland (though England was great, too).

    I received an email from the Washington Monthly (you may remember them as one of the first magazines to publish a Flogging piece) asking my opinion about the UC Davis pepper-spray incident. I hadn’t heard of it. But ignorance is not bliss.

    So now I’ve watched the video. I wasn’t there, but here are my thoughts (best read at the Washington Monthly):

    This UC Davis pepper-spray incident from yesterday, in which campus police sprayed a group of protesting “Occupy” students who were sitting on the ground, was just brought to my attention. I don’t know all the facts, but as a former cop-turned-academic, there’s one thing I can say.

    In the police academy, I was taught to pepper-spray people for non-compliance. Ie: “Put your hands behind your back or I’ll… mace you.” It’s crazy. Of course we didn’t do it this way, the way were taught. Baltimore police officers are too smart to start urban race riots based on some dumb-ass training. So what did we do to gain compliance? We grabbed people. Hands on. Like real police. And we were good at it.

    Some people, perhaps those who design training programs, think policing should be a hands-off job. It can’t be and shouldn’t be. And trying to make policing too hands-off means people get Tased and maced for non-compliance. It’s not right. But this is the way many police are trained. That’s a shame. (Mind you, I have no problem using such less-lethal weapons on actual physical threats, but peaceful non-compliance is different.)

    When police need to remove protesters—whether that’s even the case here I don’t know—it needs to be crystal clear who gives the order, be it the president of the university or the ranking officer on scene. Officers on the scene shouldn’t be thrown under the bus because their superiors gave stupid (albeit lawful) orders. Accountability matters.

    And if police need to remove these students, then the police can go in four officers to one protester and remove them. Lift them up and take them away. Maybe you need one or two more officers with a threatening baton to keep others from getting involved. It really can be that simple.

    People don’t hate the police for fighting off aggressors or arresting law breakers. They do hate police for causing pain—be it by dog, fire house, Taser, or mace—to those who passively resist. And that’s what happened yesterday at U.C. Davis.

  • Police vs. Occupy Wall Street

    Turns out I dohave a few thoughts about police and Occupy Wall Street. Read all about it on Slate.com:

    If cops could wave a magic wand, the protesters would simply go away. But if cops could wave a magic wand, the whole damned city would probably disappear. Police relate to the demoralized employees in the film Clerks: “This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers.” Occupy protests are certainly seen as a nuisance, but this is more work-related than deep-rooted ideology.

    I’m also quite pleased to get Lucky Pierre in the lede.