Cecily McMillan’s trial for assaulting a police officer started Monday at the Manhattan Criminal Court. McMillian, the Northeast regional organizer for Young Democratic Socialist for America and a graduate student at the New School for Social Research, was beaten after a male police officer grabbed at her right breast during the arrests, leaving a black-and-blue handprint.

In a “Democracy Now!” interview a week after the attack, McMillan is seen with a bruise over her left eye, bruising around both elbows, finger marks to both arms, bruised ribs and trauma to her back. McMillan was jailed for more than 40 hours without access to an attorney.

McMillian is currently being charged with felony assault of a police officer in the second degree, which can bring a seven-year prison sentence. Prosecutors have indicated that they will seek the maximum sentence. Some have argued that the heavy-handed prosecution of McMillan represents the city’s and its police department’s attempt to displace blame for the police violence onto the protesters.

“The main issue here,” said Martin R. Stolar, McMillan’s attorney, “is the heavy-handed, over-policing by the NYPD during the Occupy Wall Street protests, which lead to crimes where none existed. It was a normal reaction for a woman to react, to be startled after having her right breast grabbed.”

The assault on McMillan was videotaped and photographed.

McMillan is not the only occupier that the NYPD attempted to prosecute for assault. Michael Primo, who was arrested on Dec. 17, 2011 during an attempt to occupy Duarte Square, was found innocent of charges of assaulting a police officer when it was found that the reporting police officer lied about Primo’s alleged assault. On May 21, 2013, Nkrumah Tinsley plead guilty of riot offenses and assaulting a police officer during the Zuccotti Park encampment.

McMillan’s troubles started when protesters gathered in New York City’s Wall Street district’s Zuccotti Park — now Liberty Plaza — based on a call to action from the Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters on Sept. 17, 2011. Hoping to call attention to the gross social and economic inequalities in America, the Occupy Wall street movement held the park for nearly two months under the slogan “We are the 99%” — referring to the notion that the wealthiest one percent of the population controls 19 percent of the nation’s earnings. This is the highest level of income inequality since the Roaring ‘20s.

During the occupation, however, the protesters were forced to deal with continuous pressure from the Bloomberg administration to disperse. Starting on Oct. 13 with an order to vacate in order for the park to be cleaned, clashes between the occupiers and the police escalated until it came to a head on Nov. 15, when police in riot gear cleared the park, arresting nearly 200, including journalists.

The protesters returned to the park on Mar. 17, 2012 in an attempt to celebrate the six-month anniversary of the original occupation with a second occupation. This was met with violent opposition by the NYPD, who made over 70 arrests and was alleged to have physically assaulted and beaten the protesters.