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| Miracle Boyd wants to smile again. She will when the feds indict the cop who sucker punched her. |
An activist is filing a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Police after a longtime cop served her a knuckle style chilli.
Miracle Boyd was filming police arresting protesters at Grant Park in 2020. This was around the peak of the George Floyd protests. The corrupt cop, Nicholas Jovanovich rushed the line and slugged a hot plate into her mouth. She ended up getting a few of her teeth broken from that.
You are allowed to film the police. The police are public servants. The only thing that is not allowed is when they are conducting intense investigations or it impedes on their duty when dealing with an arrest. It is a slippery slope. But it also is a line of understandable circumstances.
Jovanovich has been with the department since September 2005. Last May, COPA concluded its investigation of the incident and recommended he be fired for excessive force and other violations. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown objected, suggesting he be suspended for a year instead.
He is still in the freezer after this encounter. The freedom of information release shows the moments where he physically assaults the then-18 year old during the protests.
Eighteen of the people Jovanovich reported using force against were Black, and four were Latinx; four, including Boyd, were women; two, including Boyd, were only 18 years old at the time of the attacks. At least six required medical attention.
In the report about the Grant Park incident, Jovanovich apparently conflated a confrontation between police and protesters that had occurred earlier in the day with the incident in which he struck Boyd. He checked boxes indicating Boyd was “armed with a weapon” he described as “cans [and] explosive devices” that she attacked police with. He also checked boxes indicating she committed “assault or battery” against him, and that he responded with an “open hand strike.”
In the narrative of the incident involving Boyd, Jovanovich wrote that during the protest at the Columbus statue, he was struck in the head, chest, and shoulder with frozen drink cans, and that two explosive devices went off near his head and feet. He describes “maneuvering” his way out of the melee with fellow officers while unopened cans, rocks, and fireworks continued to rain down on them.
Some protesters did throw fireworks and other objects at police officers near the Columbus statue. The police initially retreated before returning in force and indiscriminately attacking protesters and journalists alike with fists, batons, and chemical irritants, confiscating cell phones and bicycles, and making mass arrests.
Jovanovich’s report says that “a short time later,” after he had regained his composure and caught his breath, he first saw Boyd.
Jovanovich wrote that he “observed an unknown subject who was moving towards the back of the arresting officers who could not see the highly agitated person swinging and flailing their arms with an unknown object in their right hand. [Boyd] was yelling profanities and walking quickly toward the back of the arresting officers. [Boyd] continued to walk toward the officers extending the unknown object with their right hand. The officers were unaware of [Boyd] approaching them from behind and [Jovanovich] believing [Boyd] was going to batter the arresting officers or attempt to defeat the arrest [Jovanovich] immediately approached [Boyd] and with an open left hand struck [her] right hand knocking the object from [her] hand. [Boyd] then fled the scene.”
The report doesn’t mention that the “object” was a cell phone.
