An Occupy Wall Street protester says police gave demonstrators little warning before kicking them out of a New York City park overnight and that officers beat many of them during the arrests.
After NYPD raided Zuccotti Park on March 17 2012, about 100 people were arrested. Among them a young girl suffering a seizure and panic attack as she was being brought to the bus. The cops not only handle the situation wrongly, carrying her by the head as she's seizing, it also takes 17 minutes until professional help arrives. Protester standing outside the barricades had to make the 911 call to get EMT to come .
The videos above apparently show occupy activist Cecily McMillian, who was once profiled in Rolling Stone Magazine. Initial reports from the scene indicate that police broke her ribs; and just as troublesome, were further reports that police denied McMillian access to the outside world while in the hospital early Sunday morning. She apparently was denied a phone call to her lawyer or doctor, as well as access to her friends who had followed her to the hospital.
From the livestream, at the 3:40 mark, police take an Occupy Wall Street medic and slam his head into a glass door. No word on the medic's condition yet, but it did this to the window.
Ryan Devereaux of the Guardian tweeted at one point, "The sergeant who throw the girl is the same one that punched my cameraman and told me he "didn't give a f*ck" about my press pass. #m17"
I wonder at what point an event is decided to be a "riot." The NYPD antagonized and attacked protesters and media alike, and arrested people on trumped up charges (standing on a sidewalk too long?!?) and this sounds like a riot, if not an all-out war on freedom of expression.
Occupiers have begun to circulate a petition calling for an investigation into NYPD violence, it's available online here if you'd like to sign on.
