She’s privileged. She’s arrogant. And she’s damn lucky.
That’s the best way to describe Cecily McMillan — the Occupy Wall Street demonstrator sentenced Monday to 90 days behind bars and five years’ probation for elbowing a cop in the eye as police cleared Zuccotti Park in 2012.
Given her conduct and ongoing defiance, the judge could easily have gone for a harsher sentence.
Make no mistake: McMillan is not the peaceful protester exercising her First Amendment rights she claims she is.
Rather, this is a woman whose lies, law-breaking and anti-cop outbursts highlight, as prosecutors put it, a desire to “gain fame” by claiming “martyr” status.
Remember, giving Officer Grantley Bovell a black eye was not her only offense.
Prosecutors say she perjured herself in court when she falsely accused Bovell of groping her breast.
Last December, she was arrested in another incident, this time for falsely claiming she was a lawyer and cursing cops (she wished their wives and children dead) in an attempt to prevent them from issuing a summons to a third party.
She has shown not the slightest remorse. According to statements attributed to her just before sentencing, McMillan acknowledged her “white privilege” but defiantly blasted “police violence,” “sexual violence” and “violence of the justice system.”
She said she had “exchanged militancy” for “the love ethic” — an odd claim for someone who gives a cop a shiner.
Under the law, McMillan’s felony warrants a minimum of two years in prison and as much as seven.
But even though she also rejected a plea deal, prosecutors asked for a lighter sentence, noting both the “charged” conditions at the time and that this was her first brush with the law.
In any event, McMillan will be spending the next few months in a small space with other anti-social types surrounded by law enforcement — much like at Zuccotti.
And she may do even more time. Because she’ll be back in court next week to face the charges from her December arrest.