Rochester mayor promises police reforms following Daniel Prude's death
07 September, 2020
The mayor of Rochester promised reforms are coming to the city's police department as community elders sought to bring calmer minds to a fifth night of demonstrations over the March death of Daniel Prude, who lost consciousness after police held him down with a hood over his head.
Mayor Lovely Warren announced at a news conference on Sunday that the crisis intervention team and its own budget would move from the authorities department to the city's department of youth and recreation services.
Warren didn't provide specifics, but said the move will be part of a number of reforms planned for "the coming weeks, months and years".
"We had a human being in a need of help, in need of compassion. For the reason that moment we had an possibility to protect him, to keep him warm, to bring him to safety, to commence the procedure of healing him and lifting him up," Warren said. "We have to own the actual fact that in as soon as we did not do this."
Police Chief La'Ron Singletary, who joined Warren at the news headlines conference, said he supports the need for reform in his department and is working with professionals and clinicians in getting outpatient services for folks with mental medical issues that bring them into repeated police contact.
Warren suspended the seven officers involved in Prude's death the other day after his family released police video from the March night when he was restrained on a city street.
The video shows the officers covering Prude's head with a "spit hood" made to protect police from fluids, after he complied with being handcuffed, then pressing his face in to the pavement for just two minutes.
Prude, 41, was naked during his arrest on the light-snowy day in March. He died seven days later after he was removed life support. The police union head said the officers were following their training.
Protests have followed everyday since the family released the video on Wednesday, sometimes spawning confrontations with demonstrators and the authorities.
Three officers were treated at hospitals for injuries they suffered when "projectiles and incendiary devices" were hurled at them during Saturday night's protests over Prude's death, Lt Greg Bello of the Rochester police said in a news release.
Nine protesters were arrested. The Democrat and Chronicle reported that some protesters were hit by projectiles along with thousands marched through the streets of New York's third-largest city. No information about injuries to protesters was provided by police.
The Reverend Myra Brown needed about 50 church elders to assemble at Spiritus Christi Church in downtown Rochester on Sunday evening to serve as a "buffer" so protesters are absolve to express themselves without police interference.
"We elders have volunteered to put our bodies at risk to make sure that happens," Brown said at the news headlines conference with the mayor and police chief Sunday.
The New York Civil Liberties Union criticised the police make use of "military tactics", including sound cannons, flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper balls against the demonstrators.
"People speaking out are not enemy combatants, and to fire flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper balls at demonstrations against police violence only proves the idea," NYCLU Genesee Valley chapter director Iman Abid said in a statement Sunday. "The mayor and RPD must stop these warfare tactics now."
The marches occurred as New York's legal professional general announced Saturday that a grand jury would investigate Prude's death.
"The Prude family and the Rochester community have been through great pain and anguish," Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Saturday. She said the grand jury will be part of an "exhaustive investigation".
Prude's death came after his brother, Joe Prude, had called 911 seeking help for his erratic behavior.
Prude had run away from his brother's home late in the night time, about eight hours after officers had already taken him into custody for a mental health evaluation as a result of suicidal thoughts.
Prude spent a couple of hours in the hospital for the evaluation and then premiered, Joe Prude told officers.
The Monroe County medical examiner listed the manner of death as homicide due to "complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint." The report cited excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.
A police internal affairs investigation cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, concluding in April that their "actions and conduct displayed when coping with Prude appear to be appropriate and regular with their training". The seven officers were suspended Thursday.
Protesters have called on Warren and Singletary to step down over the delay in releasing information on Prude's death. They've also demanded police accountability and legislation to improve how authorities react to mental health emergencies.
The mayor and police chief said Sunday they had no plans to resign.
Warren didn't provide specifics Sunday about how precisely the crisis intervention team's move would change the policing of a person going through a mental health crisis.
But she said the location will double the availability of mental medical researchers and use Rochester's Commission on Racial and Structural Equity, or RASE, to re-envision the police department and how it responds to mental health crises.
"The principle and I, we love our city. We were born and raised here," she said Sunday. "We are committed to making the required changes to make sure this community moves forward."
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