Naked BLM protesters sat in front of Rochester city building while wearing spit hoods following the death of Daniel Prude, who was naked at the time of his fatal arrest.
According to the video of Prude’s arrest, officers covered Prude’s head with a spit hood designed to protect cops from bodily fluids. The officers then pressed his face into the ground for two minutes until he lost consciousness.
One of the protesters who demonstrated on Monday, Paul Hypolite, told The Democrat and Chronicle: “It doesn’t seem possible that humans could treat each other that way.
“I don’t understand how someone can see another human in that position and not feel compassion and want do whatever they can to help them.”
Mayor Lovely Warren said at a conference that the crisis intervention team would move to the city’s department of youth and recreation services from the police department.
While she did not give further details, she said that the move would be part of a series of reforms planned for ‘the coming weeks, months and years.’
Mayor Warren said: “We had a human being in a need of help, in need of compassion. In that moment we had an opportunity to protect him, to keep him warm, to bring him to safety, to begin the process of healing him and lifting him up.
“We have to own the fact that in the moment we did not do that.”
Police Chief La Ron Singletary joined the Mayor and said he supports the need for reform.
On Sunday, officers said over 1,000 protesters gathered in Rochester. People chanted ‘We are elders, and we support our youth… say his name, Daniel Prude’ as they march to the Public Safety Building.
One protester, Kera Turner, said: “I came out tonight as a born and raised Rochesterian who loves her city.” However, she said that she vomited after seeing the video of Prude’s arrest. “It’s just unacceptable,” she expressed.
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Replaced!