Cecily McMillan: Offender or Victim?

By Sophie Clarke z3460475

The recent case of Cecily McMillan has garnered various international media attention and incited divided opinion about the nature of offenders and victims. Cecily McMillan was sentenced to three-months incarceration in 2014 for assaulting a police officer, following her arrest in March 2012. Ms McMillan alleges that while protesting her breast was groped from behind by a police office, and in self-defense, she reflexively elbowed the police officer in the eye. She was then wrestled to the ground by surrounding police officers. Reports have emerged that she suffered a seizure whilst being held down by the officers, during which, she was refused medical treatment for approximately 15-20 minutes. Ms McMillan was treated for post-traumatic stress following the incident. (Swaine 2014).  

Cecily McMillan after her sentencing hearing. Source Andrew Gombart.

 A number of reports recognise the illegality of Cecily’s actions, holding her offender status in tension with suggestions of victimisation. Marsh and Melville identify the gendered discourse that media reports often use to describe female offenders focus on the “emotional and irrational nature of female crime” (2009, p.78).

However, the reports that suggested that Ms McMillan was an offender did not necessarily rely upon the construction of an irrational female perpetrator. Rather they cultivated an offender narrative through presenting Cecily as the sum of her actions; any mitigating or circumstantial information was not dwelt upon. These articles often cited quotes from the judge and the district attorney to reinforce the black and white nature of actions in the eyes of the law; such as ““A civilized society must not allow an assault to be permitted under the guise of civil disobedience” the judge said … Assistant District Attorney Shanda Strain said Ms. McMillan’s actions necessitated punishment, “An appropriate deterrent message needs to be sent that anyone who intentionally hurts a police officer,”” (Pinto, 2014).

Conversely, the other media reports have more emphatically portrayed Cecily as the “worthy” victim in the case - falling prey to police brutality. But these reports often go further, rejecting that Ms McMillan’s actions qualified her as an offender.  A majority of the articles and the public have supported the view that Cecily is the ‘unrecognized victim’ of the case, such as Australian journalist Clementine Ford (available at: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/cecily-mcmillan-faces-seven-years-jail-after-being-brutally-assaulted-20140512-385ee.html).

News articles that engage with Cecily as a victim tended to focus upon the circumstances of the crime, rather than the crime itself. These articles also widely made use photographs of the injuries sustained by Ms McMillan during the altercation, furthering the victim status of Cecily:

(Image depicting the bruising Ms McMillan sustained during the protest)

 The victimization discourse in the articles also differed in terms of presenting simplistic binary opposites between innocent female protesters and violent male police officers. This discourse appears to reflect Meyers’ ideas about a gender bias and construction of ‘innocent females vs. guilty male perpetrator’ in the reporting of victims (Meyer, 1997).  However, this method does seem to polarize the situation (similar to constructions of Cecily as an offender), not accounting for the various ‘shades of grey’ in the case.

Cecily McMillan’s arrest during the protest. Source: Dave Lindorff

In presenting Cecily as a victim, the question begs, whether Cecily would have received as much attention or ‘victim status’ if she was not a young, attractive, college educated woman? Would an unattractive, educated male protestor receive attention (Marsh and Melville 2009, p.104)? Ms McMillan appears to tick all the boxes to become a poster girl for a revival of radical victimization, in particular victims of the police force (Quinney 1972, p. 316).  

The media coverage of this case raises interesting questions and apparent contradictions about the media coverage of females. Both approaches appear to be somewhat reductionist and simplistic in their coverage and framing of the case. Personally, I do not think Cecily is entirely a victim or an offender, and treating her as either one or the other is not helpful in understanding the complex and multidimensional nature of both victims and offenders.

   

References:

Marsh, I. and Melville, G 2009 Crime, Justice and the Media, 1st edn, Routledge, London.

Meyers, M 1997 News Coverage of Violence Against Women: Engendering Blame, Sage, Thousand Oaks California.

Pinot, N 2014 ‘Final Occupy Defendant, Cecily McMillan, is sentenced’, Wall Street Journal, 19 May. Avaliable at: http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/05/19/final-occupy-wall-street-defendant-cecily-mcmillan-is-sentenced/http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/05/19/final-occupy-wall-street-defendant-cecily-mcmillan-is-sentenced/

Quinney, R 1972, ‘Who is the victim’, Criminology, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 314-323.

Swaine J, 2014, ‘Occupy activist Cecily McMillan sentenced to three months in jail’, The Guardian, 20 May. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/19/occupy-cecily-mcmillan-sentenced-three-months-prisonhttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/19/occupy-cecily-mcmillan-sentenced-three-months-prison