(NYPD officer) Bovell, 35, testified earlier this month that he was left dazed and in pain after McMillan elbowed him in the face. He received a black eye and said that he had suffered headaches.



McMillan is expected to claim when she resumes testifying on Wednesday morning that she instinctively swung her elbow at Bovell after he grabbed one of her breasts from behind….

Taking the witness stand for the first time in her trial for felony assault, Cecily McMillan told the jury that she advocated a course of peaceful demonstration and political engagement with the outside world that frequently set her apart from other members of the protest movement.McMillan, 25, told the Manhattan criminal court that as soon as she became involved with Occupy in the summer of 2010, she urged her fellow campaigners to make a declaration that the organisation “stands against violence as a means of political action”.“From the moment I showed up, I was very concerned that there was not some sort of mission statement – who we are and what we stand for – and particularly that we stand against violence,” she said, under questioning from her attorney, Martin Stolar.McMillan, a graduate student at the New School, is accused of deliberately assaulting police officer Grantley Bovell as he removed Occupy protesters from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park late on 17 March 2012. She denies the charge and faces up to seven years in jail if convicted.

#Justice4Emily



Also see this extensive biography of Cecily McMillan by Chris Hedges tracing her life from childhood to Democratic Socialist Party Liberalism to now… A “Woman on Fire”