Ever since the retirement of Joe Arpaio, a laughably (cry-ably?) racist sheriff in Arizona, the police department in Rochester, NY has been vying to take over his mantle as the nation's most vicious local law enforcement agency.
Last September, Rochester police dealt with a mentally ill man, Daniel Prude, by restraining him and putting a "spit bag" over his head (the bags keep suspects from spitting at officers). Prude died on the street, in handcuffs, at least in part from asphyxia "in the setting of physical restraint." A police cover-up followed.
In January of this year, they dealt with a 9-year-old girl with emotional problems, whose mother had phoned for help, by handcuffing and then pepper-spraying the child as she resisted being put in the police car.
Yesterday, the police chased a mother with her toddler -- a supposed shoplifter -- across a street and into a parking lot, where they pulled the child away before pepper-spraying the mother, pushing her to the ground, and handcuffing her.
This all happened despite significant efforts to reform the department since before Daniel Prude's death. We suspect that because both the mayor and the police chief are Black women, they have had little buy-in or compliance from the majority-white, male, police officers.
Rochester has had this problem for many decades. Check out Wikipedia for a casual history.
As Bob Dylan sang, “How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?” For “he,” substitute “the Rochester police.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/nyregion/rochester-police-woman-pepper-sprayed.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=929147629&impression_id=8b73c651-800e-11eb-bb1e-7bca316a991f&index=4&pgtype=Article®ion=footer&req_id=645732721&surface=more-in-new-york&variant=1_bandit-all-surfaces&fbclid=IwAR3iZYpgNyNDUgIR3V8lCbPqVrPoKZu2VO_DbV90BD_pZBhAouh8lHwRtM8
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