Reprinted from dissenter.firedoglake.com
Former CIA analyst and activist Ray McGovern was arrested by New York police on October 30, as he attempted to attend an event featuring former CIA director and retired military general, David Petraeus. He was charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. This week a judge dismissed those charges, and a recently posted video shows some of what happened during the arrest.
The video recorded and uploaded to YouTube by April Watters shows McGovern, a 74-year-old, outside 92nd Street Y, the venue where Petraeus was scheduled to speak.
Police have McGovern's arms pulled behind his back. They are trying to put him in handcuffs as he screams.
One officer holding a pair of handcuffs looks into the camera and claims he is not screaming from pain. It is difficult to hear, but he says something about how the officers are not even pulling on him. McGovern lets out another scream, and the officer says, "See? Look at that. I'm not even pulling and he's screaming."
However, there is a white shirted officer with his arm up holding Ray's left arm back and other officers do have a hold of him. They go in to cuff him and his screaming gets even louder.
An officer moves Watters back and demands that she let the cops do their job. She tells the officer to "wake up and smell the coffee." To which the officer fires back, "You should smell the coffee!"
Someone off-camera, possibly an officer, is asking why Watters is recording. She explains she is recording because she is afraid the police are going to hurt an "old man." The person dismisses the idea that cops would hurt an old man.
A few seconds later, an officer can be seen pushing one of McGovern's friends back and facing off with him. He asks the officer what the NYPD are doing to McGovern. The officer orders him to back up now. He later leans and yells at people who are upset saying, "You don't know what's going on."
Police move McGovern nearby a police car. A white shirted officer asks an activist to move back. She is with McGovern and is pleading with the officers to go easy on him because he is old.
When the officers go to move his body the rest of the way to the car, they push down on his shoulder and he lets out a blood-curdling shriek. McGovern looks up into the air and shouts, "Ahh! My shoulder!" He continues to shriek. He tries to explain that his shoulder is broken but the officers do not stop. They keep holding his arm back as they carry him to the car and shove his body into the vehicle.
McGovern had fallen a few days ago and severely hurt his shoulder. He even had a bruise around his eye from the fall. This is why he was screaming as the officers were roughly handling him and chose not to even ask if he needed medical attention.
Activists from World Can't Wait, the Granny Peace Brigade, Brooklyn for Peace and a chapter of Veterans for Peace called on people to protest Petraeus. Some tickets, which cost $45 each, were bought so people could attend the event and potentially participate in a question and answer portion of the event.
As previously reported here at Firedoglake, McGovern was told by a guard when he tried to enter the event with a ticket, "Ray, you're not going in."
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