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UCLM condemns aggressive cops in Rochester NY traffic stop

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UCLM condemns aggressive cops in Rochester NY traffic stop

A group of local ministers says video from a 9/11 traffic stop shows Rochester police aggressively arresting two men in a driveway on Borchard Street.

The video, recorded by a bystander and shared on Facebook, captures an RPD officer and two men arguing for more than three minutes over an uninspected vehicle in the roadway.

As more police arrived as backup, the first officer moved in to arrest one of the men, at one point hooking his arm around the man’s neck, the video shows. Other officers rushed in, pulled the man’s legs off the ground, punched him at least twice and knelt on his back while handcuffing him, as seen in the video.

The second man was also tackled to the ground and arrested after trying to get the police off the first man.

The Rev. Dwight Fowler, president of United Christian Leadership Ministry, said the video showed police officers acting as “thugs in uniform” rather than community guardians.

“While I hope that police officers will do their jobs,” he said, “I hope that they will engage in de-escalation rather than operating in a way that escalates a problem and makes it go from bad to worse.”

Fowler said UCLM canceled a news conference planned for Monday about the incident while they gather more information and meet with the men involved. He declined to identify the two men.

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RPD: Internal investigation into Borchard Street arrest ongoing

Capt. Greg Bello said the RPD has opened an internal investigation into the arrest. Bello said cellphone video shared on social media doesn’t capture the entire encounter, and internal investigators are reviewing other civilian videos and body-worn camera footage to understand what happened.

The Democrat and Chronicle has requested copies of the other videos and related police reports.

“As you know, these investigations take time to fully investigate the facts of a situation rather than making a hasty determination that will have a lasting impact,” Bello said in an email. “The chief has a responsibility to both the public and the officers involved to make sure that as much evidence, witness testimony, video, etc. is gathered so he can make an informed decision about the officer’s actions and compliance (s) or breach of policy”.

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He said internal investigators are also looking into the lack of body camera footage of the initially responding officer.

At one point in the cell phone video, a bystander points out that the officer’s body-worn camera is not recording. The agent takes it out to check and tells them the battery is dead.

RPD policy requires officers to verify that their body-worn camera is charged and functioning properly at the start of their shift. Bello said the cameras have a 12-hour battery life, but occasionally officers run into problems if the camera wasn’t properly placed in a charger.

What does the mobile video show?

The missing footage from the body-worn camera leaves us with no video or context around the start of the traffic stop. The cellphone video of the confrontation starts mid-interaction and is hard to hear at times. It’s not entirely clear from the footage what prompted the initial police stop.

The person who posted the video on Facebook said his brother was trying to move a car into the driveway so his mother had room to park. Bello said the traffic stop was for an uninspected vehicle.

In the video, the car has no front license plate. The officer says he saw the car in the road before it pulled into the driveway.

The Rev. Fowler acknowledged that the two men were verbally combative with the officer, but said they were not physically aggressive, and he called on a sergeant several times to help resolve the issue.

It’s unclear if the officer asked for a supervisor. The three men spent several minutes shouting at each other. At one point, the officer leaned against a chain-link fence at the entrance and donned black gloves, the video shows.

“The only reason I’m not cuffing you is because I don’t have any support right now,” he told one of the men. When a second squad car arrived, the police officer asked, “Are you ready to do this?”

Fowler told him that these actions indicated the officer was “preparing to go into battle.”

“As soon as the other two cars stopped, he picked up the guy to hit him,” Fowler said. “I mean, he was kind of ruthless. There was no way, in any way, shape or form, to suggest that his goal was de-escalation. His goal was physical punishment and detention.”

The camera moved for a split second to capture the second arriving police car, so it does not show the initial moment of contact.

The two men were arrested. Bello said one of the men was charged with traffic violations and a misdemeanor for resisting arrest; the other with obstruction of government administration.

He declined to name the officers involved and said they remain on regular duty pending the investigation.

More information about traffic stops: Rochester cops are pulling over city drivers with a pretense. RPD maintains this movement.

In the cell phone video, an off-screen woman yelled that the cops were “abusing your (expletive) power when you’re supposed to be protecting us.” A crowd of at least a dozen neighbors, including several children, came out of their homes to see what was happening.

“They were clearly people who chose not to be vigilantes, but rather thugs in uniform,” Fowler said. “It didn’t look right, and it’s not something that helps build trust and peace between law enforcement, the RPD and the community, and that’s a big concern of mine. I’m looking for guardians, and warriors when necessary, but not officers that aim to increase based on how they feel emotionally.”

— Kayla Canne covers community safety for the Democrat and Chronicle, focusing on police accountability, government surveillance and how people are affected by violence. Follow her on Twitter @kaylacanne and @bykaylacanne on Instagram. Please contact [email protected].

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