Tonye Iketubosin Arrested At Occupy Wall Street For Alleged Rape and Sexual Assault

A 26-year old man from Crown Heights was arrested on Tuesday for charges of sexual assault including allegedly raping a fellow Occupy Wall Street protestor and groping another in separate incidents.

According to police officials, Tonye Iketubosin allegedly raped an 18-year old woman from Massachusetts who took up Iketubosin's offer to let her stay in his tent on Saturday, following an argument with a male friend whom she had originally been sharing her tent with.

Iketubosin is also being connected for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year old female after helping her set up a tent on October 24th. The Wall Street Journal writes:

Early the next morning, she went inside and found him there. She told police that he ignored her repeated requests to leave. Then he groped her until the pushed him away.

Iketubosin had been working at the protest's kitchen and sleeping in the park for more than a week.

Another protestor, Beau Sibbing, who has also been working at the kitchen said that Iketubosin "was a genuinely nice guy...he came to get shit done."

Sibbing says that as rumors started swirling about the connected assaults on Friday, Iketubosin was asked to stop working at the kitchen, but he kept showing up. A group of protestors attempted to remove him from the park when police officials arrived to eventually arrest him.

 

 

Comments

[Frog in a pot]

03:59 AM on 11/21/2011

Too many "homeless " vagrants show up daily for the free food etc.I wonder if he was one.They arent "protestors" .

[stekathy]

10:53 PM on 11/20/2011

I do not condone any form of violence anytime and anywhere. Someone posted that the OWS movement has been infiltrated by those who aren't there for the same cause as the original OWS members and you may even have some implants to disrupt or destroy the movement. I agree with that assessment, thus you have scattered cases of violence. Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Romney and Mr. Joe Walsh (the official that wouldn't pay his child support) and many others have classified the people in the OWS movement as bums, rapist, thugs, criminals, groupies and drug addicts, which in my mind is stereotyping people they don't even know. Those in opposition to the movement always tell the occupiers to get a job. They don’t know if most or all of the people have a job or not. Why is it that those who oppose the OWS movement can’t understand why there is a movement, yet you have some Millionaires that understand, agree and sympathize with the movement? The movement must go on, but without the violence, so those that commit such need to be weeded out and handed over to police. Rape, com’on, that’s not indicative of those that want to express their frustration with the economy and the government!

[revmama]

02:47 AM on 11/16/2011

I guess I'm not surprised although I am disappointed. Men can posit themselves as 'progressive' in certain arenas in life and be completely non-progressive, even uber-aggressive in others. I worked in international human rights NGOs and was sexually assaulted by a well-respected male colleague; I went on to a supposedly enlightened seminary and experienced the same. I've also been around plenty of conservatives and been treated similarly appallingly, all in the course of being a well-educated, articulate, modest female. I went to a moderate college where many female friends were sexually assaulted. I appreciate the comment from the person who said the burden of preventing rape really should fall on men/perpetrators, although it's true, regardless of their political persuasion, that the perpetrators will probably laugh and think it doesn't apply to them.

[stemloop]

08:57 PM on 11/06/2011

To those who are trying to make a point about how no allegations came out about rapes at Tea Bag protests, I just want to point out that the demographics are all wrong for that to occur: Teabaggers are a bunch of old people and housewives, while the Occupy Wall St trend to a much younger demographic. Rape is much more common amongst younger demographics.

Additionally, I'd point out that the Teabaggers weren't camping out to protest, more like marching and then driving home, so there was less opportunity; finally, Teabaggers were less likely to include members from the margins of society, like homeless people, some of whom may be on the margins for good reason.

Regardless, it's sad that people are gleefully trying to turn these individual criminals into a political win.

[muzjik]

05:32 PM on 11/07/2011

True. The Tea Party pulled permits for a rally at certain day and time, made their point, cleaned up after themselves, and went home.

[stemloop]

11:49 PM on 11/07/2011

Yes, they could rest assured that wealthy lobbies in Washington would take over where the Koch's astroturfers left off.

[kelleytom]

12:36 PM on 11/05/2011

Another conservative expressing his "Family Values" mantra.

[MINDGAMES 2011]

12:44 AM on 11/05/2011

The same thing alledgedly happened here in Cleveland last week. A 19 yr.old female claims that she shared a tent with a male stranger who raped throughout the night.

[BabaLou7]

10:13 PM on 11/04/2011

terrible writing

[Cat9]

08:30 AM on 11/04/2011

Quinnipiac has polled the American people about Occupy Wall Street. The numbers are not what Adbusters would have hoped for. Thirty percent overall view them favorably, 39% wish to see the occupation ended. 31% could care less!
The negativity ratio is highest for people making $30K

[misterknowitall]

11:03 PM on 11/04/2011

Heh, yes, I think this is the most I've disliked a group of people I essentially agreed with.

[goozled]

06:01 AM on 11/04/2011

Damn, its not enough that these wall street tycoons have raped the American worker, now they send one of their own to rape a poor protesters...Have they no shame......

[eclipse535]

10:21 AM on 11/04/2011

You might want to actually read the article.

[giftsthatpurr]

02:27 PM on 11/04/2011

That is a disgusting response to rape.

[SevenUPtheUNCOOLA]

07:18 PM on 11/04/2011

if they cant keep it in their pants perhaps they need to stay home with their VCR and their stack of old well worn movies. a protest isnt where one goes to get laid.

[hiredshoe]

11:43 AM on 11/06/2011

Guess you weren't around in 66,67,&68!!

[fuster]

10:13 PM on 11/03/2011

it's about time that the OWS folks swallowed their aversion to allowing the cops to do their job. OWS has been infiltrated by some creeps and they either can't or won't remove them by themselves.

[SevenUPtheUNCOOLA]

07:19 PM on 11/04/2011

well you have a point there. police are hired to 'protect and to serve'. that should not include mace, zip ties, or riot gear.

[DoctorBri1776]

09:38 PM on 11/03/2011

Your tag line says "Truth, Justice and the American Way" but your post is anything but that. You also can't spell correctly. Your comments make clear that you are hopelessly ideologically bound and have no space in what appears to be a small mind for facts. Your perceive liberals and Democrats as beneath contempt enemies when the long history of the USA has included them, often in power, and clearly the ones to save capitalism under the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We do share disdain for President Obama though despotic seems overreaching even in light of his endorsement of the Bush violations of our Constitutional freedoms. Your categories are meaningless when the top .1% and corporations and powerful banks bankrupt the country and throw millions out of work and out of their homes (often illegally).

[hein]

06:45 PM on 11/06/2011

Would somebody please explain to me how banks bankrupt the country and throw millions out of work. Throwing people out of work is the specialty of unions; go see what they did to Detroit, Flint etc.

[rickmail6]

02:16 AM on 11/04/2011

Avantguard, you really need to lighten up.

[NikitaAhn]

04:45 PM on 11/03/2011

I see lots of "ladies, here's how not to get raped" comments on these stories, so I thought I'd add some rape prevention tips of my own:

1.) If you're walking alone at night and you see a woman walking alone, DON'T RAPE HER
2.) If you come across a girl who is too drunk to consent, the safest course of action is to NOT RAPE HER
3.) If you see a woman in a short, tight skirt - even if she's not wearing underwear - DON'T RAPE HER
4.) Don't put drugs in women's drinks.
5.) If you pull over to help a woman who's car is broken down, try to remember to NOT RAPE HER.
6.) Carry a rape whistle, so that if you feel as though you are about to rape, you can blow it and call for someone to come stop you.
7.) Use the buddy system! If you're unsure you'll be able to keep yourself from raping, go with a friend who can step in and stop you from assaulting women!
8.) Just to be safe, never climb through a woman's bedroom window, jump out at her from an alley, or stalk her on a dark street with the intention of raping her.
9.) If a woman yells STOP, DON'T, or RAPE, take this as a cue to STOP RAPING HER.

[MamacitaOfLove]

07:17 PM on 11/03/2011

Loving you.

[NikitaAhn]

10:10 PM on 11/03/2011

LOL thanks!

I just get so sick of all the focus for rape prevention being on what WOMEN are doing "wrong", as though there's some unspoken assumption that "boys will be boys" and rape no matter what so why bother trying to focus programs on men. The sad fact is, we can't ever fully protect ourselves from the risk of rape no matter what we do. Why isn't there more focus on the people who are doing the actual RAPING, and programs to educate men about issues of consent etc? There are genuinely men who don't seem to understand that having sex with an unconscious woman is rape. I've had young men say to me 'well, if she isn't saying "no"...' which is terrifying! But all the rape prevention programs on our campus where aimed at women, which seems to imply that somehow WE are the ones who control rather or not we're assaulted (and are therefore to blame if we are raped), rather than the people actually committing the crime.

[demsrsilly]

09:54 PM on 11/03/2011

If you are a flea bagger and get a woman into a tent with you, DO NOT RAPE HER.

[Max Shaw]

02:59 PM on 11/03/2011

I feel like OWS is a hot bed for that kind of behavior. I dont know if its being underreported, but be careful out there people!

[MamacitaOfLove]

07:17 PM on 11/03/2011

I feel like you are wrong.

[BabaLou7]

10:18 PM on 11/04/2011

I know he's wrong.

[DoctorBri1776]

09:39 PM on 11/03/2011

I feel like you don't know what you are talking about and waste time and space by posting this

[Jeffrey Bryson]

02:35 PM on 11/09/2011

Also, I feel that I wasted time by reading it.

[pezmusic]

02:57 PM on 11/03/2011

Support will continue to drop till its less than 20%.

[MamacitaOfLove]

07:17 PM on 11/03/2011

Just went up. CNN reported.

[Taymullah]

06:31 PM on 11/09/2011

funny because support only continues to grow tardokid.