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Rape Alleged At Occupy Cleveland

» 78 comments

A 19 year-old student in Cleveland is telling police that she was raped in a tent at an Occupy Cleveland rally in Public Square by a man known as “Leland.” The accuser alleges that she attended the Occupy Cleveland protest on Oct. 15 and was directed by organizers to sleep in Leland’s tent. Rally organizer Rebecca Hawkins questioned the report,telling FOX 8 that Occupy Cleveland is a leaderless movement and, “your assignment would be your own choice of what you want to do.”

Erin McCardle, another organizer of Occupy Cleveland, added that, “we are cooperating completely with the Cleveland Police Department,” but also said that, “this is all about personal decision and consent and we offer tents and that’s all.” They also said they had no knowledge of anyone named Leland at their camp.

The alleged rape came to light when the victim told one of her teachers at Summit Academy in nearby Parma, Ohio, about the incident. The police report noted that the school is for children with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and autism. The teacher then contacted police.

Video of the local reports, courtesy of News Net 5 and FOX 8, are below:

News Net 5:

FOX 8:

 

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  • RACE BAITING@6 RESIST WE MUCH!

    Lets hope this didnt happen … no jokes here

  • Anonymous

    Rapists, thieves, felons, and general ne’er do wells!  Just like the tea party!

    No, but seriously, hopefully he’s caught.

  • Anonymous

    It’s nice to see that these idiots are stealing from each other (in Hartford, one attacked another with a knife for not wanting to share blankets) and now a rape. I guess that that will be blaming Bush, not “leland”.

  • Anonymous

    *yawn*

    I SUPPORT OCCUPY WALL STREET!

  • Michelle

    Wow, a rape makes you yawn.  Not surprising. 

  • Texan

    “Leaderless.”

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZIQS6YEA47QFXGOR4JWUBU2QRM Shark City

    Typical liberal, its all about their idiot ideology. Could careless about anything. Rape, what rape? Keep going. It just one person, right snow man?

  • Chayal Boded

    Hope this 19 yo learns her lesson and doesn’t continue to hang with LLLs, they don’t care about people, just ideology and their selfish desires . . .

  • Michelle

    Speaking of rape, listen to this absolutely vile comment from Joe Biden:

    [Opponents of Obama's jobs bill say] this is just temporary. Well, let
    me tell you, it’s not temporary when that 911 call comes in and a
    woman’s being raped if cop shows up in time to prevent the rape–it’s not
    temporary to that woman. It’s not temporary to the guy whose store is
    being held up and has a gun pointed at his head, if a cop shows up and
    he’s not killed, that’s not temporary to that store owner… I wish they
    had some notion what it’s like to be on the other side of a gun or a
    200-pound man standing over you telling you to submit.

  • Anonymous

    You gotta love how MediaiteMatters “reports” on things they don’t really want to report, but are forced to cover, like this “alleged” rape. If rapes were occurring at a Tea Party event, the headline would blare “THERES A RAPIST RUNNING WILD AMONGST THE TEABAGGERS” or “FIRST THE TEABAGGERS SPIT ALL OVER BLACK PEOPLE AND NOW THEY ARE RAPING CHILDREN”. There would also be alot more than three paragraphs of coverage.

  • Me1Ranger

    That’s all they got. Divide and fail seems to be the game plan this time around. This is going to turn into Greece when they don’t get their way. I, for one, am ready and anxious for the festivities to begin. The Liberty Tree needs watering..hang in tere Michelle.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_A4OJ2F7ADXSD7OMEUUEQDQDZ2Y Dustin Baker

    If even a fraction of the disgusting things that happen at OWS rallies happended at any Tea Party rally there would be outright condemnation and slanderous coverage 24/7.  What kind of deep denial does the mainstream media have to practice to avoid admitting this insane hypocrisy.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3VUFTUN5223ITCWO7CHS2CI44A David

    Summit Academy in nearby Parma, Ohio, The school is for children with attention deficit
    disorder, hyperactivity, and autism.

    The far right has been lying for so long, I have to think these smear stories are just bull. Was there any carvings on her cheek.

  • HawkCW4

    It becomes more and more amazing just how far Liberals will go to protect stupid ideology.  In their clueless elitist attitudes they believe what ever done by a Liberal must be ok,  Hey he/she is one of us, a Liberal.  Then the pathetic two faced hypocrits come unglued if and when someone on the right happens to be accused, and I use the word loosely as liberals deal strongly in innuendo and what ifs, but if they can they will crucify anyone on the right for even appearing to have done what one of theirs was given a free pass for.   They have no values and no morals and they lack honesty believing from birth they are the chosen people.  By whom I have no clue as they mostly put down A God as a bad Myth.  In short, simply they suck and believe only they have a right to determine what should be and by whom. 

  • Anonymous

    Ahhhhhhhhh, more peaceful libs doing what they do best: rape and pillage.

  • Jason

    What the hell does any of that have to do with a hippy rape?

  • AliveStillKickin

    RAPE is the only way a lib can get laid….unless you consider sex with a pig as getting laid

  • AliveStillKickin

    I agree…RB6RWM….AND:
    Any female who would crawl into a tent with a strange man in a park full of liberal animals has some serious mental issues also.

  • C’Mon Man

    Veiled threats of bloodshed.  Nice.  Stay classy ranger…

  • Michelle

    Then the actual threats of violence come from OWS must really be outraging you. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LDO6LIQBI2JQ4Q5MWLWBKGKSJY bensanity

    That’s what I don’t get. How can the girl who’s title is “rally organzier” claim that the occupation is “leaderless.” Somebody f’d up. N’er do wells indeed

  • Sean68

    The difference in mainstream coverage of the tea party and OWS is not terribly surprising. But then the mainstream media can’t be expected to play fair. They never have and they never will.

  • Sean68

    Exactly.

  • Sean68

    I don’t think that all the OWS protesters are rapists, but clearly some are and they should be condemned.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_35AUAS4525FVFYNPRKECNNW6GE Libturd Flagger

    more like occupying a hippy ch ick

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3VUFTUN5223ITCWO7CHS2CI44A David

    Was there a rape.

  • Anonymous

    I miss the 1960s when women would just sleep with anybody and never cry rape because sex is something to be enjoyed baby!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3VUFTUN5223ITCWO7CHS2CI44A David

    Everyone here believes everything they read?

  • Anonymous

    Correct, the misdirection is the fact that nobody has to lay off police officers or teachers.  That’s the choice they are making.  They could cut off the welfare to people who are using drugs, popping out multiple children and refusing to look for work instead of laying off police.  There dishonesty is so blatant it’s disgusting. 

  • Anonymous

    I missed something.  Did someone say they were all rapists?  

  • Michelle

    The part that really makes me mad is a ton of money was earmarked in the first stimulus to keep teachers and police on the job, when in fact, it went to pay outrageous pensions and now we are told they need more or we are responsible for rapes and murders.  Haven’t seen much media coverage of that. 

  • Anonymous

    Blaming victim = not okay.

  • Jason

    Yes.

  • Jason

    Not all OWS protestors are rapists, but all rapists are OWS protestors.

  • Jason

    Hey, were just playing by the rules the left created.

    If someone says a rape occured, a rape occured. Deal with it, rapist.

  • WordSmith

    Jason’s apparently ‘lost.’

  • Anon

    crawl into a tent with a strange man in a park is how you were conceived

  • Hugo Daun

    Don’t worry, dummy…you should be safe in your bunker.

    The stench alone is protection enough.

  • Anonymous

    You remember when I called you and all “progressives” monsters? It still stands.

  • WriterRip

     Agreeing with TiernaFeminista – Blaming the victim is NOT okay. Yes, perhaps she should have been more cautious about where she slept and ‘rooming’ with a stranger, but that still doesn’t make her at fault in any way, shape, or form in regards to what happened to her.

  • WriterRipley

    WOW.  The original poster was an ass for his/her thoughtless comment, but your comment is just about as thoughtless. Way to generalize all liberals, and treating us as though we all agree with this guy. And thanks for telling me that I have no values or morals and that I believe I’m ‘chosen’ by a myth (even though I’m a Christian).  And brilliant ending, btw – Liberals Suck. Catchy.
    I feel like I just lost brain cells even bothering to reply to such idiocy -.-;

  • WriterRipley

    Again, way to generalize all Liberals. The majority of people down in that park, the ACTUAL people behind Occupy Cleveland, are trying to help the police catch this guy and are supporting this girl. But of course you all would rather focus on the one asshole to post a thoughtless comment and use his words to define us all. Bravo.

  • WriterRipley

    And organizer (helping to make sure things are kept neat and ORGANIZED) and a Leader (someone who leads and makes decisions and speaks for the movement) are two very different things. It frightens me that so many people don’t understand that.

  • WriterRipley

    Lol it amazes me that people think the media LIKES us, when they refused to even recognize OWS existed for weeks and continue to focus only on the sensation. But yes, they are clearly biased and support us. *logic?*

  • WriterRipley

    The only pigs here are assholes like you.

  • WriterRipley

    I am both disgusted and stunned by the idiocy in these comments. You people need education, BADLY. And maybe a crash course in being a decent human being. It’s actually terrifying.

  • david r

    Did you hear the one about the hipster who burned his mouth?  He ate pizza before it was cool.

  • Anonymous

    Spoken by a dumb teabagger.  

  • AliveStillKickin

    It’s true….Believe it or not….Ripley :)
    Deal with it

  • guest

    YES.

  • AliveStillKickin

    I didn’t blame her….Asshole

  • AliveStillKickin

    Please read comment to Ripley just above and ‹^› ‹(•¿•)› ‹^›

  • AliveStillKickin

    This clown is all over the place calling folks “assholes” and then whines about others…ROFLMAO!!!
    Liberals are so predictable and hypocritical

  • Michelle

    Yeah because liberals never painted the Tea Party with a broad brush.  Hypo, thy name is liberal!!  You guys made the rules, we are just playing by them. 

  • Michelle

    Please they are doing their best to keep the crazy out of their reporting, but there is so much of it, it isn’t always possible. 

  • Michelle

    Just curious,. did you say this when your liberals buddies were calling the TP’ers murderers and terrorists?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LDO6LIQBI2JQ4Q5MWLWBKGKSJY bensanity

    Organizer=person in charge. Leader=person in charge.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3GW74JZEMX2DHQOOYMNQWKEQRU stangace20

    Pelosi endorses this

  • AliveStillKickin

    A kid with a cap gun scares you, Ripley.
    Poosey

  • AliveStillKickin

    Ripley’s a liberal Christian….LOL!!!
    Baby killers can’t be Christians, Ripley…..(DUH!!)
     

  • Robert Thomas

    It frightens me that a leaderless organization is quickly becoming a ruse to duck accountability.  It’s a social construct that twists the concept of “blame society” when things go wrong so no one is responsible because no one is actually in charge.

    The apparent beauty of the Occupy movements is that everyone brings their own message to the protests.  What appears to be a unification of people who see a problem is also something that will fall apart quickly once people begin focusing in on a solution.  Occupy isn’t community, this is a loose forum for pub politics.

  • Robert Thomas

    I still haven’t figured out the defining point when OWS went from being a flash mob that refused to disband to a full-on political demonstration.  Honestly, the Occupy movements still have a certain NYU Kimmel Center occupation feel to them, where the occupiers themselves did more harm to their cause than the NYU administration or anyone reporting from the outside.

  • Robert Thomas

    The idiocy is gathering a large group of people with no leader, no focus, and no clear goal other to complain.  Umbrella protests don’t work, they didn’t work in the 60s and 70s, and it’s apparent they aren’t working now.  Something bad will eventually happen, and anyone who participated in this movement will do everything and anything to distance themselves from ever taking part in it.

    Even if you can make the claim that all of the 1% are nothing but ruthless opportunists, you can make a pretty solid claim that the sheer volume of opportunists in the 99% outnumbers those in the 1%.  While the 99% may agree that something needs to be done about the economy, there’s a percentage of those 99% who aren’t waiting around for changes on Wall Street or the White House to take what they feel entitled to by any means necessary.

    Seriously, what is it about the true believers in the Occupy movement that blinds them to history and the fact that these umbrella approaches have failed in the past.  The only time there are safety in numbers is when those numbers are focused on specific solutions, not when a bunch of warm bodies are complaining about different problem with radically different solutions in the same geographical area.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6O4WMB3SWJDGUFTWGDGUWQWENM R Sila

    Sure sounded like it…or at least an excuse for him…ASSHOLE

  • Red

    Judging by some of these posts, people like to think their intelligence (especially in a forum) far outweighs any other poster. Man, the Hypocrisy, Irony, and just plain Ignorance displayed by these children is appalling.

    You do realize that the Corporate BOUGHT media is going to try and slander every angle of OWS, right? You know why they’re trying to do it? Fear. Fear of losing their jobs. Losing their easy money. Fear of being demonized by the Society they’ve tried to trick (and successfully did for a time) for decades. And they’re gonna use EVERY trick in the book. You think they’re not gonna try and plant people within the movement, PAID to be a disturbance to make OWS look bad? Wake up. Or dont, maybe when the fighting breaks out, you’ll realize. As if Police Brutality on OWS wasnt already a big enough wake up call. Peaceful protests + Violent Body Guard of the 1% = A big red flag.

    All this bullcrap about how OWS are just a bunch of opportunists waiting to get their easy ride, is exactly what the 1% wants you to believe. THEYVE GOT YOU BY THE BALLS. Youre the idiot they wanted to shape you into because youve been brainfed all their propaganda through their garbage news. Void of any truth.

    So, its pretty simple. When the police force realize that their fighting a battle that they dont want to fight, BECAUSE THEY REALIZE THEIR GOING TO GET JUST AS FU*#*$ AS THE ONES THEIR FIGHTING, suddenly the 1% BOUGHT bodyguard doesnt wanna do their job anymore. When that happens, Im gonna predict Civil War.

    We’re gonna have those who know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and we’re gonna have those that are so Brain-locked into the system, that they’ll die protecting what they believe to be the only way to live. Life without Money for the Rich, is no life they want. At all. At all. AT ALL.

    THATS why they fight OWS. They cant possibly fathom any life without their greed.

  • Anonymous

    I can see your point of view because…to a liberal…..everything is viewed with only 50% of their brain cells still functioning.
    See it any way you want and just shove it….LIBERAL asshole.

  • http://www.facebook.com/of.nothinginparticular Jessica Elle Bee

    Ummm so, I’m from Canada, where, believe it or not, there is more than
    two choices in political ideology (but just barely so,) so I’m not
    exactly sure if you would fit me into “Liberal” or….Republican? But
    anyway, all I wanted to point out was AliveStillKickin’s quote

    “Any female who would crawl into a tent with a strange man in a park full
    of liberal animals has some serious mental issues also.”

    in contrast with the article’s quote

    ” . . . . the school is for children with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and autism.”

    . . . so yes, apparently the victim DOES in fact have a serious mental issue of some sort.

    Is your point in judging her as “mentally unstable” justify rape? Are
    the mentally ill exempt from protection? Or were you “just sayin’ ?”

    I’m not trying to be antagonistic, I just would like you to re-clarify the point of that statement.

  • Rebecca

    Unfortunately, sexual assault is widespread in society, and happens even in activist groups. The Occupy Movement (which I’m part of in NY) would do well to learn from past activist communities about how to deal with sexual assault (as well as other abuses) within their groups. There’s no way to make these open encampments very safe, but they can do things to make them safer. They can hand out flyers. They need to come up with policies for dealing with assaults, survivors, and the assaulters. So many other resources are out there, here’s just one page that lists lots of groups that have had to confront sexual assault in their activist communities, and the methods they’ve found for healing, accountability. I’ve seen sexual assault destroy movements, as well as the people involved. They need to take these seriously, take steps to educate every person taking part in the encampments on what consent is ahead of time, and tell people their fucked up behavior will not be tolerated. Here’s the page with lots of good-seeming links from within other activist groups. Consider these resources: http://neanarchist.net/sexual-assault-resources

  • Anonymous

    Hmmmmm. Seems like someone’s brain cells need a little workout if your response to comments are the following:

    ‹^› ‹(•¿•)› ‹^›
    &
    Asshole
    &
    shove it….LIBERAL asshole.

    Although, the little finger guy is pretty cute. Did you make that yourself?? Impressive!!!!!!

  • Pam

    How sad that you would have to hand out fliers and develop policies to let people know they shouldn’t rape. Tells you what kind of morals these people have.

  • Anonymous

    ” Organizer=person in charge. Leader=person in charge.”

    Logic!
    A leader has authority, usually central authority; an organizer doesn’t- that is they cant mandate whatever they feel is right.

  • bird

    truly astounding.

    morality defined solely as raping or not raping.

    but it’s ok when some rw garbage screws workers or passes off their pension obligations on the taxpayer. or demolishes the bond markets with unintelligible garbage. that’s just capitalism and isn’t it wonderful.

    try and get a handle on this rw-ers. rape is unacceptable no matter the circumstances. it has nothing to do with political beliefs. it has to do with power over the victim. and it occurs all over the political spectrum. but that doesn’t fit into your distorted worldview so you ignore it. or bleat pseudo-contempt as though you are actually concerned for the victim. better make sure she pays for her rape kit.

  • Anonymous

    These rapes in the obamavilles remind me of the terrible crimes that happened in the TEA Party rallies:

    1. There was that guy who double-parked.

    2. Some people didn’t take their hats off when the Star Spangle banner was played — turns out they were Jews, though.

    3. Sarah Palin ended a sentence with a preposition.

    When will this madness end?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christine-Lund/100002663931295 Christine Lund

    Sounds more like one of those bankers snuck in.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christine-Lund/100002663931295 Christine Lund

    Many Americans have serious mental issues but we should still be able to protest without being raped and verbally abused by you.  Maybe you just didn’t make yourself clear?     

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christine-Lund/100002663931295 Christine Lund

    Are you aware if what ‘vile’ means? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christine-Lund/100002663931295 Christine Lund

    Are you offering?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Christine-Lund/100002663931295 Christine Lund

    Is it a selfish desire to want a job after 16 years of school, a student loan and a desire to eat daily?  Is it selfish to object to paying people $2 an hour plus tips (minus tipshare and taxes-about 6-8% of each check) and no benefits?  Is it selfish to expect the entitlements we were promised and paid for?  Entitlement, look up the definition.  Is it selfish to expect a living wage and a living retirement?  How can any one person live on $928 a month Social Security?  Entitlements haven’t kept up with the cost of living.  The 99% in America is just one illness or accident from bankruptcy. 

    Learns her lesson?  I don’t know what to say to this.  Why not tell your Mom or sister about this and ask their opinion? 

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