5 Exciting Verdicts: Occupy Keeps Winning in Court

[Fire Walk With Me]

IO: (InterOcc) ‏@InterOcc

5 Exciting Verdicts: #Occupy Keeps Winning in Court http://www.care2.com/causes/5-exciting-verdicts-occupy-keeps-winning-in-court.html …
Retweeted by NATGAT2013

http://www.care2.com/causes/5-exciting-verdicts-occupy-keeps-winning-in-court.html

1. Last week, a jury acquitted a dozen Philadelphia Occupy activists charged with conspiracy and trespassing for holding a sit-in at a Wells Fargo bank. Apparently, the jury agreed with the protesters that the message of the protest was important enough to override the trespassing charges. But it was the judge, Nina N. Wright Padilla, who seemed most impressed with the twelve people on trial. Calling them the “most affable group of defendants [she’s] ever come across,” she shook all of their hands after the trial and said, “I hope you continue your work in a law-abiding way.”

2. Michael Premo was found innocent in New York City’s first Occupy trial to go before a jury. Police had trumped up charges against Premo, alleging he had rushed at an officer and knocked him over, breaking one of the officer’s bones. When Premo insisted he did no such thing, his lawyer asked for the police’s video footage of the incident, which they claimed did not exist.

So instead, she turned to citizen journalist footage and found a clear shot of the arrest. The video showed that it was the officer who violently tackled Premo, not the other way around, and that the officer’s account was fabricated. Moreover, the footage shows a police officer nearby filming the scene.

Will the police be tried for lying, creating false charges, and obstructing evidence? Don’t hold your breath. As Premo declared after his trial, “There is no justice in the American justice system, but you can sometimes find it in a jury.”

(More at the link.)