Submitted by Rochester Indymedia on Thu, 2016-04-21 11:19
Below is the labor contract between the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Locust Club (the recognized bargaining unit of Rochester Police Department officers) from July 2008 to June 2013. The document has been added to the FOIL tab above on the website.
In a post on his blog, Kristian Williams, author of Our Enemies In Blue, writes about police unions, "Police are part of the management apparatus of capitalism. Therefore, they are not workers like other workers, and their 'unions' serve interests that are diametrically opposed to those of the working class."
Truthout also reported on a letter delivered to the "joint council of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865 [in August 2015] calling on the AFL-CIO to end its affiliation with the International Union of Police Associations," according to the article, Black Labor Organizers Urge AFL-CIO to Reexamine Its Ties to the Police.
Submitted by The Chronic Homeless Workgroup on Mon, 2016-04-18 13:13
Volunteers from the Rochester/Monroe County Homeless Continuum of Care’s CHRONIC HOMELESS WORKGROUP gathered at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 16, 2016, to do a spring cleaning and trash removal for area homeless. It was a collaborative idea that sprung naturally from advocates’ keen understanding of what homeless people work hard to maintain on a day-to-day basis.
Imagine living outdoors with your wits and scarce supplies to sustain you, and nowhere close to throw garbage away. Imagine your things getting ruined all the time, that then must be replaced, because it rained or snowed again last night. In the spring, with the snow gone, the trash is insurmountable and finally visible. The Chronic Homeless Workgroup is a practical and caring group of folks, and decided to pitch in to help.
Submitted by Rochester Indymedia on Sat, 2016-04-16 09:15
"Racism Lives Here" is an incredible response / resource for those on and off the University of Rochester campus looking to understand structural racism and why the university's "We're Better Than That" campaign fails miserably.
It can happen, and the most effective way it can happen is through personal anecdotes and connecting emotionally with someone (one reason I write this blog!). It’s going to happen through one-on-one conversations, as opposed to on a mass scale (although you never know… things do tend to snowball after a certain point!), and (unfortunately) it’s most likely not going to happen by pointing out facts and statistics to someone.
A study was just published in last week’s issue of Science Magazine. I heard about it through This American Life‘s most recent episode called For Your Reconsideration. If you want to hear the pertinent content, click on the link – there’s a player right on that page, and just skip ahead to the times between 22:20 and 29:00.
It’s about canvassers going door to door to talk to people about transgender issues, and the data was recorded and processed. The canvassers (who were both transgender themselves, and allies – and both were equally effective!) utilized a persuasion technique that’s been developed for close to 50 years by the LGBT Center in California. It’s called analogic perspective taking: “By inviting someone to discuss an experience in which that person was perceived as different and treated unfairly, a canvasser tries to generate sympathy for the suffering of another group—such as gay or transgender people.”
Submitted by Enough Is Enough on Wed, 2016-04-13 21:54
Enough Is Enough is reading and discussing the essay "Ella Baker and Models of Social Change" by Charles Payne for the month of April. Feel free to check out the reading below and offer your constructive criticisms and affirmations on their reading group Facebook page or come to a meeting on Tuesdays, 7-9pm, at the Flying Squirrel Communtiy Space (285 Clarissa St.)!
Submitted by Take Back The Land Rochester (Video/Photos: Julie Gelfand Photos: Pat Mannix) on Mon, 2016-04-11 14:26
This morning (April 5, 2016) over 20 officers from both the Rochester Police Department and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office arrived at Liz McGriff's house, along with a Uhaul truck, a crew with lots of plywood, and lots and lots of crime tape. The street was blocked off to traffic while they seized the home, removed whatever belongings were in the house, and boarded up the windows and doors. A crowd of over 20 supporters gathered to voice their disapproval, and two protesters were arrested.
Submitted by Building Leadership And Community Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) on Mon, 2016-04-11 13:51
On April 4, 2016, a protest was held against the Erie County Holding Center and Sheriff Timothy Howard demanding answers and accountability for the murder of Rochester native and Buffalo resident India Cummings.
Rochester Police Department officers Christopher Kosch and Nicholas Thomas--the two officers that racially profiled Daryl Appleberry and brutalized Scean Gordon--were involved in another excessive use of force case that was settled before trial. The case involved these two officers and others who brutalized a man named Cardell Libbett. Kosch and Thomas are no strangers to exercising violence under the color of law.
Submitted by Rochester Indymedia / Take Back The Land Rochester on Sat, 2016-03-26 12:54
Below is a partial breakdown of the ongoing struggle Elizabeth McGriff has been going through with MidFirst Bank and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. The videos are first with descriptions after. The breakdown starts with Liz and Take Back The Land protesting in front of and inside the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and ends with a video of Liz explaining her situation from July of 2015. Housing is a human right! Fight! Fight! Fight!
What makes the Syracuse model interesting, is that a) it's close to Rochester and within New York State, b) it has administrative subpoena power, which it can use without going through hoops, and c) it conducts a parallel and independent investigation, next to the police investigation, of all complaints.
Rochester's current Civilian Review Board, or CRB, lacks subpoena power, independent investigations (the police conduct the only investigation), and the final determinations of complaints and disciplining of officers is vested in the hands of the chief of police--regardless of findings from the Civilian Review Board. In short, our Civilian Review Board was built to fail to the people of Rochester.
In this edition of "From the vault," we've got six new videos for your pleasure!
#1: Advocates for Universal Health Care Rally at MVP Insurance
Advocates for Universal Health Care from the Rochester region joined with communities all over the country on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, in day of Action demanding health care for all. The protest targeted MVP insurance.
Submitted by rbarnabas2016 on Mon, 2016-03-07 15:32
Feb. 3, 2016 - At the Monroe County Board of Elections, local supporters and delegates of the Bernie Sanders campaign filed petitions to get their candidate on the Democrat Party ballot. Only WXXI was there to cover the event. Local supporters collected 3 times the amount required to help get Sanders on the ballot.
Submitted by rbarnabas2016 on Sat, 2016-03-05 02:05
I worked with former channel 8 reporter Natasha Alford on this piece this past summer and she is now doing great work with The Grio now in NY city. This piece explores the over-policing invasion of schools. To counter the school-to-prison pipeline, alternative disciplinary practices such as restorative justice, have been introduced to the Rochester City School District by Metro Justice, the M.K. Gandhi Institute of Non-violence, and Teen Empowerment.
This is the press release from Raliek Redd's attorney Elliot Dolby-Shields. It tells the story of Mr. Redd's false arrest on February 22, 2016 by the Greece police as well as being racially profiled and detained by security at Macy's.
This is the amended complaint filed against the City of Rochester and the Monroe County Sheriff's Department having to do with Raliek Redd's false arrest and dehumanizing treatment (false arrest, strip search, sitting a public area for 4 hours) from November 27, 2013. The criminal charges were dismissed shortly after the arrest and he and his lawyer settled with the City of Rochester for an undisclosed amount of money in January 2016. A settlement with Monroe County Sheriff's Department is pending.
A copy of the Monroe County Sheriff's Department General Order regarding the searching of persons. The document was attained by Elliot Dolby-Shields, attorney for Raliek Redd, who was stripped searched, along with two other high school athletes, after they were arrested while waiting at a school bus stop to take them to a basketball game on November 27, 2013.
Submitted by T. Forsyth (photo: 13WHAM.com) on Wed, 2016-03-02 15:30
On February 22, 2016, Raliek Redd was shopping at Macy's at The Mall At Greece Ridge when he was racially profiled by store employees and falsely arrested for shoplifting by Greece, NY police. Mr. Redd and his lawyer, Elliot Dolby-Shields, are planning to file a lawsuit claiming that Macy's employees racially profiled and then wrongfully detained Mr. Redd because they didn't believe that he could afford to buy a $100 jacket. When security refused to listen to him, after showing them the receipts of his purchases including the jacket, the Greece police arrived and falsely arrested him for shoplifting.
Rochester Indymedia is now requiring editor approval for account creation.
We came to this decision after we had repeated spam posted to our website that caused difficulty with the website's functioning. We will still have open publishing and keep our site as nonrestrictive and accessible as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. As before, we will continue to be Rochester's grassroots news and education site. Thank you for your continued support and remember, "Don't hate the media, be the media!"
Editorial Meeting Times / Locations
The Rochester Independent Media Center (R-IMC) is no longer meeting regularly. We will set up meetings by necessity and appointment. Please contact us at rochesterindymedia@rocus.org. Our home is still the Flying Squirrel Community Space at 285 Clarissa St. Occasionally, we hold meetings at RCTV located at 21 Gorham Street.
