A federal civil lawsuit was filed Monday against city and police officers in Rochester, New York, alleging decades of ‘inhuman’ and racist police violence against protesters and residents. The lawsuit comes more than a year after Daniel Prude killed in police custody, which led to national condemnation of the use of police in the city.
“Simply put, a beautiful historical report spanning more than four decades shows that the use of force in Rochester police is still inhuman, racist and antithetical to the functioning of a civilized society,” the lawsuit reads.
The case, filed by a group of lawyers, activists and people who attended protests in the city, alleges that Rochester police regularly use excessive force against minorities, especially during protests, and that department officials and such officials were largely left unpunished. The nearly 100-page document contains more than 50 cases of alleged police abuse against people of color, for which the vast majority of officers have never been formally disciplined.
As an example of the pattern of alleged behavior, the lawsuit strongly focuses on the use of force against protesters, medics, journalists and legal observers who took to the streets in September 2020 to protest the death of Prude.
Prude, a black man, died in March last year after suffering a mental health episode and his family called police for help. On March 23 at about 3:15 a.m., Rochester police said Prude was lying naked in the middle of the street.
While Prude was fulfilling their orders to lie in his stomach and allow himself to be handcuffed, he sat up straight and started yelling at officers, according to the camera footage of the interaction. Police then put a spittoon over his head and pushed his face into the ground for more than three minutes. Prude eventually stopped responding and later died at a hospital.
The medical examiner ruled that his death was a homicide, attributing it to ‘complications of asphyxia in the area of physical control’, as well as ‘excited delirium’ and PCP intoxication. A grand jury refused to charge the officers involved in the death of Prude in February.
The circumstances surrounding Prude’s death only became public in September 2020 when the family of Prude released the footage of the incident at a September 2 press conference. The news provoked immediate outrage and the first demonstration took place later that evening.
During the rally and the protests in the ensuing weeks, the lawsuit alleges that Rochester police used ‘extreme and unnecessary violence’, including tear gas, pepper spray, blunt projectiles, peppercorns and other ‘less than deadly’ weapons. The lawsuit deployed 77 tear gas cans and 6,100 peppercorns in the first three nights of protests.
“To be blunt was what I saw was nothing more than serious terror, carnage and unfounded brutalization,” Rochester photojournalist Reynaldo DeGuzman, who attended the protests, said at a news conference.
MARANIE R. STAAB / AFP via Getty Images
The lawsuit contains dozens of cases of alleged police violence during the protests, including an incident on September 3 in which an officer allegedly shot a man with a pepper ball in the eye at close range, leaving him permanently blind. Officers are accused of then “intentionally” shooting at the medics who were trying to provide assistance – despite the medics allegedly wearing bright red jackets to identify who they were.
On September 4, Rochester looks like a war zone, with officers “dropping flash grenades, tear gas and thousands of peppercorns on the crowd,” the lawsuit said.
That night, police allegedly trapped a group of protesters on a bridge – a tactic commonly known as ‘kettle’ – before attacking them with a number of weapons. “In that night’s videos, heavily armored police phalanxes use peppercorns, 40mm kinetic bullets, tear gas and batons to attack diverse groups of protesters, equipped only with umbrellas, cardboard boxes and plastic sleds for the RPD’s military arsenal.” the lawsuit says.
“In New York, for example, where thousands of protesters took to the streets, NYPD officials did not fire a single pepper ball,” the lawsuit added. “On the other hand, one RPD officer fired 148 peppercorns in the span of just twenty minutes on the evening of September 4, 2020.”
Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The lawsuit also accuses city officials of operating a “sham internal disciplinary system” and refusing to hold officials who used excessive force during the protests or in their daily work.
Of the 923 civilian allegations of excessive violence between 2001 and 2016, the police chief gained only 1.7%, according to the lawsuit. The most severe punishment applied in the 16 persistent cases was 6 suspensions, most of which were between 1 and 20 days. ‘
“By not training, supervising and disciplining officers who use excessive force, and instead suppressing evidence of misconduct by officers and attacking critics of the department, the City has a culture of violence and cultivated impunity in his ranks, ”reads the lawsuit.
In a statement to CBS News, the city said Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren had “welcomed” an inquiry into the Justice Department over the police department and cited recent reforms the city has carried out, including that new officers had to live in the city and allowed the mayor to fire officers for cause.
In the lawsuit, Rochester city officials and police, as well as hundreds of police officers, are named as defendants, and are seeking, among other things, monetary damages and the appointment of an independent police monitor.
“In the absence of external enforcement, the system will not change by itself: to date, the Department has not fired or disciplined any of the officers known to be using excessive force against Daniel Prude or any of the officers involved. blatant display of force during the September 2020 protests, including those captured on video, “the lawsuit said, adding:” lives, more black and brown lives, are lost. ‘
Neither the Rochester police station nor the union representing the officers responded immediately to CBS News’ request for comment.