Two days earlier, just after the raid on Zuccotti, retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith had a similar experience when says she was pushed up against the wall by a police officer while trying to help woman he was allegedly beating.
“I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested,” Smith told Democracy Now!. She says she witnessed an African-American woman, who claimed her daughter was inside the Park, being thrown to the ground by a cop after she started crying.
“I walk over, and I say, ‘Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that’.” The officer then allegedly threatened Smith with arrest, despite her status as a legal observer being printed on her hat. “He said, ‘You want to get arrested?’ And he pushed me up against the wall.”