Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
I was going to write this last weekend on the actual 44th anniversary of a very sad event. For some reason, I had a hard time focusing on what I wanted to say, in light of the many emotions that were going through my head. I don’t want the anniversary to go by without writing about the personal significance that day in May had on my life, and I believe on the lives of many in my generation. The Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by John Filo, included above from Wikipedia, is one that I have never forgotten. Nor should anyone forget it.
I can’t believe that 44 years have elapsed since that fateful day in May, 1970. On May 4th, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired upon unarmed student protesters, killing four of them and wounding and maiming several others. I will never forget that day because I was a Freshmen at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and when the news of the student killings broke, I thought a bomb had gone off in my head. I wasn’t overly political at that point in time, but that somber event changed all of my prior thinking.
I was just short of my 19th birthday and I remember that day as my personal coming of age experience. I was no longer just a young college student. I was now a member of a class that was shot down by soldiers on a campus not too far away from mine, and in many respects, very similar to mine. The fact that agents of the government could fire upon peaceful protesters was so extraordinary that it felt like a kick in the groin to myself and many other students on my campus and on campuses throughout the country. Along with the killing of two students at Jackson State University(f/k/a Jackson State College) around May 14th, it looked and felt like it was open season on college students.
Indeed, I was “watching” a protest that turned ugly on May 11th, 1970 when elements of the Illinois State Police and the Illinois National Guard attacked the crowd of students that I and friend were in the middle of and chased down and beat some of us and arrested a large group of innocent students. I can still smell the pepper spray from that warm evening. I was one of the unlucky ones who were arrested that night. That event which started as a protest against the killings at Kent State turned into a night in Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro, Illinois.
After getting arrested and fingerprinted and receiving my first full body cavity inspection, I was literally thrown into a cell designed to hold 4 prisoners, which was already holding 8-10 of my fellow students when I was thrust upon them. After spending most of the early morning of my 19th birthday in the lockup, my head was spinning from the tear gas and pepper gas used by the authorities the night before and from the lack of sleep in that overcrowded cell. I realize that my little experience pales in comparison to what the students at Kent State and Jackson State had to endure, but the whole event opened my eyes to something that I have never forgotten.
My country and my state would not allow me and my college classmates and friends to express ourselves as the U.S. Constitution provided in the First Amendment. I felt like I was a second class citizen in my own country and state. Shortly after my arrest, Southern Illinois University was closed down for the semester and many students grades were negatively impacted by the decision to close down early. Many other campuses across the country also closed down early in response to the demonstrations and protests that were being held on a daily basis. So once again, my grades were impacted negatively because of the closure and I was placed on social probation by the university, all because I was expressing my Constitutional rights. Did the Government or the Illinois State Police care about my rights? No, because I was just a student who got in their way.
After the summer ended and I was acquitted of the charge of “unlawful assembly” in a court of law, I was still left on social probation by my university even though I was found not guilty of any wrongdoing. Once again, I felt helpless in my own university because I was labeled a trouble maker even though I had done nothing wrong or illegal. It took many months and years for an investigation into the Kent State killings to take place and as you might have guessed, it was pretty much a whitewash job. The National Guard claimed that they were fired upon even though there was little or no evidence backing their claims.
Even President Nixon lambasted the students in interviews following the sad event. I saw this as another example of the college students being treated as if they had less rights than the National Guardsmen or any other citizen. (I highly recommend a book titled, “Kent State, What Happened and Why”, by James Michener, which discussed all of the evidence and facts surrounding the shootings and came down to the conclusion that the Guardsmen illegally and improperly fired upon the unarmed students.)
The events surrounding the Kent State killings still resonate in my head and I became more politically involved and aware because of Kent State and my arrest shortly after. My big brother was in Vietnam at the time and this weighed heavily upon me, but I had just been slapped in the face by my University, my State and my Country and I now had a duty to expose any and all wrongdoings of our government in prosecuting the war in Vietnam. After all, the students at Kent State and Jackson State were killed while protesting our country’s immoral actions in Southeast Asia.
I made a pledge to myself that I would not allow any government of this country take advantage of any so-called “lesser” citizens for any reason. I also promised myself to never trust my government again without verifying the facts. The phrase heard a lot during those “Days of Rage” was “My country, love it or leave it”. Well, it was my country too and I wasn’t about to leave it just because my rights were being violated. It became my duty to do whatever I could to right the wrongs and to help the disadvantaged overcome the odds. It was also critical in my decision to become a lawyer.
Have I been able to help “right the wrongs” by my country since 1970? I may have helped some, but probably not as many as I would have liked, but every day I attempt to even the odds against the little guy. It has been 44 years and I am physically not the same person, but it feels as if it was just yesterday. I often relive the events of May of 1970 and as I pledged to myself 44 years ago, “never again”. The Occupy Wall Street protests reminded me of the anti-Vietnam war movement in some ways. Those protesters were also mistreated and maligned by an ever-growing police presence. They too may have been changed forever by their experience standing up to governmental power.
Never again will I sit and let someone else stand up to a government gone astray. I can still hear the screams of the students in the video of the event and I can still see the picture of the young girl kneeling over a dead student and I can still hear the words of the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song of the day, “Four Dead in Ohio”. Peace to all of you and I hope that the parents and loved ones of the victims have been able to find some peace in the past 44 years. I hope the Mothers of those lost or maimed, if they are still with us, can also find some peace on this Mothers Day.
I will continue to remind everyone that I can, every year, that those students did not die in vain. They did not die in vain because they spurred on an anti-war movement and they altered my life forever and I believe the life of our country. Their fate is a stark reminder of what kind of power a government has and an example of what a government should not do. What do you think?
“The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.”
The Outrageous Trial of Cecily McMillan
Michelle Goldberg
April 14, 2014
http://www.thenation.com/blog/179330/outrageous-trial-cecily-mcmillan#
Excerpt;
Two years ago, a young activist named Cecily McMillan attended a protest at Zuccotti Park marking the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. When police moved in to clear the demonstrators, a cop roughly grabbed her breast—photos show an ugly bruise—and she ended up being injured so badly that she had a seizure and ended up in the hospital. In a just world, she would be getting restitution from the City. Instead, in a grotesque act of prosecutorial overreach, she’s currently on trial for assault and facing up to seven years in prison.
According to prosecutors, McMillan, now 25, intentionally attacked her arresting officer, Grantley Bovel, by elbowing him in the face, and was then hurt when he tried to subdue her. She says that she instinctively struck out when she felt his hand on her breast, not knowing that he was a cop, and was then further assaulted.
Her story is more convincing for a number of reasons. McMillan, a veteran of the anti–Scott Walker protests in Wisconsin, was a dedicated pacifist; in Dissent, her masters thesis adviser Maurice Isserman writes about the “many and long discussions Cecily and I have had about nonviolence.” Her injuries, which you can see in this Democracy Now! piece, are indisputable, particularly the hand-shaped bruise on her right breast.
Meanwhile, The Guardian, which has covered McMillan’s case closely, reports that Bovel has twice been investigated by Internal Affairs, including for one incident in which he and his partner were alleged to have run down a 17-year-old on a dirt bike. He received a “command discipline” for failing to radio that they were in pursuit. In another case, he was filmed kicking a suspect on the floor of a Bronx bodega. (Unfortunately, the judge in McMillan’s case has ruled against turning Bovel’s internal disciplinary file over to the defense.) Austin Guest, a protester who was arrested the same day as McMillan, is currently suing him, claiming that Bovel purposefully bashed his head into the seats of a police bus as he was dragged down the aisle.
In her opening argument last week, assistant district attorney Erin Choi tried to use McMillan’s outcry during the arrest against her. Choi quoted McMillan asking onlookers, “Are you filming this? Are you filming this?” Choi’s implication was that McMillan didn’t want her premeditated attack on tape. But anyone who has ever covered a protest knows that this is what demonstrators say when they feel they’re being mistreated—it’s a call for documentation, not for turning the cameras off.
what economic strata does Cecily McMillan inhabit? I am thinking it is above the average.
Cecily McMillan Jurors’ Remorse Is Not Good Enough
By Natasha Lennard
May 9, 2014 |
https://news.vice.com/article/cecily-mcmillan-jurors-remorse-is-not-good-enough
Excerpt:
Aghast at the realization that their guilty verdict against Occupy activist Cecily McMillan could land the 25-year-old up to seven years in prison, a number of jurors in the case have written to the presiding judge to ask for leniency in sentencing.
Their letter is a sliver of silver on a coal-black cloud hanging over McMillan, who is currently locked up in Rikers Island, denied bail twice. In their letter, the anonymous jurors note, “We would ask the court to consider probation with community service. We feel that the felony mark on Cecily’s record is punishment enough.” They urge against any further incarceration. With the grim prospect of two to seven years in prison, it would be the best of a bad scenario if the jurors’ pleas are heeded.
The jury was banned from investigating the details of possible sentencing for McMillan’s case until after offering a verdict. Their shock and remorse, however, is unacceptable. Lives are in your hands, jurors. Know better.
The jurors are right that a felony record alone — with or without attendant jail sentencing — is an indelible mark with ruinous consequences for those who carry it and must then navigate the contemporary world. The great lie is that justice materializes in the binary determinations of guilt or innocence.
As my friend and colleague Molly Crabapple noted for VICE, “the criminal justice system gets mixed up with justice. Square-jawed prosecutors will punish the wicked. The innocent will be redeemed.” But owing to US prosecutors’ immense power to garner plea deals, often leveraging the threat of lengthy minimum sentences if a defendant loses in trial — as McMillan well knows — 95 percent of criminal cases don’t even go to trial. The courtroom and the verdict are only a patina of justice. McMillan’s jurors’ remorse offers a crucial lesson: “justice,” and all its cruelties, does not reside in the proclamation of “guilty” or “innocent.”
McMillan’s juror’s are not the first to be disturbed on learning the grave consequences of their convictions — “tough-on-crime” sentencing laws, with results including life sentences for non-violent crimes like drug offenses, mean convicting juries can do more harm than they know. Take, for example, the life sentence with no chance of parole for a non-violent burglar Troy Ellis, in Louisiana.
“Clearly this was a situation where the punishment does not fit the crime,” said Randy Waller, one of the jurors who voted to convict Ellis by a 10-2 verdict and who came to regret his decision in light of the sentencing.
Similarly, Sharanda Purlette Jones has been incarcerated for more than 14 years in Texas, serving life without parole for a non-violent crack cocaine-related charge.
An ACLU report in 2012 noted that 3,278 prisoners are serving life without parole sentences for “drug, property, and other nonviolent crimes in the United States.”
The prevalence of excessive sentencing in the US should give all potential jurors pause for thought. It is my view that jury nullification is ever preferable to condemning another human to years behind bars on the belief they have committed a minor offense.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/09/pussy-riot-cecily-mcmillan_n_5297932.html
Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova visited Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street protester convicted Monday of second-degree assault for an incident in which she elbowed a New York City police officer. In an interview with HuffPost via a translator following their hours-long visit, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova said they believe there are similarities between their imprisonments and McMillan’s.
Elaine,
Why must we put up with this foolishness?
It must have been a terrible injury that Officer Bovell suffered! He couldn’t even remember which eye McMillan poked with her elbow.
Paul,
You should have checked that AlterNet source more closely. It was an article reprinted from a source you used up-thread–The Guardian. The AlterNet article is the same as the article that was published by The Guardian–except it has a different title. Here…check this out:
Cecily McMillan’s guilty verdict reveals our mass acceptance of police violence
The hyper-selective retelling of events mirrors the popular narrative of Occupy Wall Street – and how one woman may serve seven years while the NYPD goes free
Molly Knefel
theguardian.com
Monday 5 May 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/05/cecily-mcmillan-occupy-guilty-police-violence
Excerpt:
The verdict in the biggest Occupy related criminal case in New York City, that of Cecily McMillan, came down Monday afternoon. As disturbing as it is that she was found guilty of felony assault against Officer Grantley Bovell, the circumstances of her trial reflect an even more disturbing reality – that of normalized police violence, disproportionately punitive sentences (McMillan faces seven years in prison), and a criminal penal system based on anything but justice. While this is nothing new for the over-policed communities of New York City, what happened to McMillan reveals just how powerful and unrestrained a massive police force can be in fighting back against the very people with whom it is charged to protect.
McMillan was one of roughly 70 protesters arrested on March 17, 2012. She and hundreds of other activists, along with journalists like me, had gathered in Zuccotti Park to mark the six-month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street. It was four months after the New York Police Department had evicted the Occupy encampment from the park in a mass of violent arrests.
When the police moved in to the park that night, in formation and with batons, to arrest a massive number of nonviolent protesters, the chaos was terrifying. Bovell claimed that McMillan elbowed him in the face as he attempted to arrest her, and McMillan and her defense team claim that Bovell grabbed her right breast from behind, causing her to instinctively react.
But the jury didn’t hear anything about the police violence that took place in Zuccotti Park that night. They didn’t hear about what happened there on November 15, 2011, when the park was first cleared. The violence experienced by Occupy protesters throughout its entirety was excluded from the courtroom. The narrative that the jury did hear was tightly controlled by what the judge allowed – and Judge Ronald Zweibel consistently ruled that any larger context of what was happening around McMillan at the time of the arrest (let alone Bovell’s own history of violence) was irrelevant to the scope of the trial…
You are already in the water Nick.
raff, I’m only making general comments, I decided not to wade into this specific controversy. One must reserve their energy for important stuff @ my advanced years.
Paul and Nick,
The only problem with your concern for the officer who grabbed Cecily McMillan from behind as she was leaving the area was that he had his police jacked turned inside out and then did not identify himself as an officer prior to grabbing a women’s breast from behind. I do not consider it fru-fru when the fru-fru evidence his bad intent. Paul, if you are so concerned about the women’s safety tent, how can you not be upset a sexual assault from behind by an unidentified officer?
This uncontrolled police behavior is similar to what the Vietnam war protestors faced. I guess we haven’t learned much since 1970. Sad.
rafflaw – we both know that assaulting an officer does not mean the officer has to be clearly identifiable. Now I do not agree with that, but it is the law. How McMillan got the bruise on her chest is in question and still does not give her open season on the officer or another officer. The jury of her peers decided that she intended to injure the officer and did. He had his hand on her shoulder, not a Vulcan Death Grip.
Paul, LOL! Wouldn’t you love to see the favorites list of some of the folks here?
The OWS folks in Madison were almost all homeless and junkies. I spent time talking w/ some.
Why Occupy Protester Cecily McMillan’s Guilty Verdict is a Travesty
She might serve 7 years after cop grabbed her breast. The cop? Nada.
The Guardian / By Molly Knefel
http://www.alternet.org/occupy-wall-street/why-occupy-protester-cecily-mcmillans-guilty-verdict-travesty
Excerpt:
May 6, 2014 |
The verdict in the biggest Occupy related criminal case in New York City, that of Cecily McMillan, came down Monday afternoon. As disturbing as it is that she was found guilty of felony assault against Officer Grantley Bovell, the circumstances of her trial reflect an even more disturbing reality – that of normalized police violence, disproportionately punitive sentences (McMillan faces seven years in prison), and a criminal penal system based on anything but justice. While this is nothing new for the over-policed communities of New York City, what happened to McMillan reveals just how powerful and unrestrained a massive police force can be in fighting back against the very people with whom it is charged to protect.
McMillan was one of roughly 70 protesters arrested on March 17, 2012. She and hundreds of other activists, along with journalists like me, had gathered in Zuccotti Park to mark the six-month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street. It was four months after the New York Police Department had evicted the Occupy encampment from the park in a mass of violent arrests.
When the police moved in to the park that night, in formation and with batons, to arrest a massive number of nonviolent protesters, the chaos was terrifying. Bovell claimed that McMillan elbowed him in the face as he attempted to arrest her, and McMillan and her defense team claim that Bovell grabbed her right breast from behind, causing her to instinctively react.
But the jury didn’t hear anything about the police violence that took place in Zuccotti Park that night. They didn’t hear about what happened there on November 15, 2011, when the park was first cleared. The violence experienced by Occupy protesters throughout its entirety was excluded from the courtroom. The narrative that the jury did hear was tightly controlled by what the judge allowed – and Judge Ronald Zweibel consistently ruled that any larger context of what was happening around McMillan at the time of the arrest (let alone Bovell’s own history of violence) was irrelevant to the scope of the trial.
In the trial, physical evidence was considered suspect but the testimony of the police was cast as infallible. Despite photographs of her bruised body, including her right breast, the prosecution cast doubt upon McMillan’s allegations of being injured by the police – all while Officer Bovell repeatedly identified the wrong eye when testifying as to how McMillan injured him. And not only was Officer Bovell’s documented history of violent behavior deemed irrelevant by the judge, but so were the allegations of his violent behavior that very same night. ..
To the jury, the hundreds of police batons, helmets, fists, and flex cuffs out on March 17 were invisible – rendering McMillan’s elbow the most powerful weapon on display in Zuccotti that night, at least insofar as the jury was concerned.
That hyper-selective retelling of events to the jury mirrored the broader popular narrative of OWS. The breathtaking violence displayed by the NYPD throughout Occupy Wall Street has not only been normalized, but entirely justified – so much so that it doesn’t even bear mentioning.
After the police cleared the park that night, many of the remaining protesters went on a spontaneous march, during which a group of officers slammed a street medic’s head into a glass door so hard the glass splintered. It is the only instance of which I know throughout New York City’s Occupy movement where a window was broken.
Still, it is the protesters who are remembered as destructive and chaotic. It is Cecily McMillan who went on trial for assault but not Bovell or any of his colleagues – despite the thousands of photographs and videos providing irrefutable evidence that protesters, journalists and legal observers alike were shoved, punched, kicked, tackled, and beaten over the head. That mindset was on display during the jury selection process at McMillan’s trial, when juror after juror had to be dismissed because of outright bias against the Occupy movement and any of its participants.
Elaine – you are now using alternet?
50 years ago today was the first draft card burning, it was in NYC. Bra’s would follow a decade later. I think raff and Elaine should co-author a compare and contrast draft card/bra burning post. Hopefully some visuals of women freeing themselves of their bondage would be included.
I was not in favor of burning draft cards, but I was in favor of burning bras. 🙂
Cop elbowed in eye by Occupy protester repeatedly mentioned wrong eye in testimony
Defense attorney Martin Stolar on Friday read from minutes that revealed the cop, Grantley Bovell, said multiple times under oath that the wrong eye was injured when testifying in front of a Manhattan grand jury.
BY Shayna Jacobs
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, April 19, 2014
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/elbowed-eye-occupy-protester-cited-wrong-eye-article-1.1761842
Excerpt:
A cop who was elbowed in the eye by an Occupy Wall Street activist in 2012 repeatedly cited the wrong eye when testifying in front of a Manhattan grand jury, it was revealed Friday….
Elaine – people do make human mistakes under stress. Don’t I remember a lot of rapes going on with the Occupy movement in NT. Didn’t the women set up their own ‘women’s only’ safety tent?
Paul, The far left Nation is the source du jour.
Many people find many things in life frustrating. McMillan was said to have had a seizure after her arrest. Would you call that collapsing like she was supposed to?
“Another short clip was only allowed without sound—this one shows McMillan convulsing on the ground after her arrest.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/179768/editors-dont-belong-courtrooms-and-cecily-mcmillan-doesnt-belong-prison
Elaine – two things 1) protesters are known to over-react to everything, they are little drama queens. 2) Was there any evidence that McMillan had a history of seizures before or since?
If there is a problem with police violence, and I do believe that in some cases there is, then that should be dealt with, but McMillan’s trial is not the place. I am sure the attorneys are capable of filing suit in either state or federal court alleging violations of civil rights.
http://www.therobingroom.com/newyork/Judge.aspx?id=691
Feynman said, “I confess that I find it inexplicable that ‘Charming. Perfectly charming’ is deleted.”
As do I.
As you noted, feynman, “Charming. Perfectly charming.”
And LBNL, thanks, rafflaw, for the heartfelt posting… and for being one of the good guys.