Rochester Businessman & Activist sues Rochester Police Department for sixth consecutive time.
Citizens Against Police Brutality & Misconduct (C.A.P.B.M.) President--Theodore “Teddy” Loria filed a sixth (6th) lawsuit against the City of Rochester on November 7, 2011, and subsequently a federal petition in December 2011.
Loria has successfully sued the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Department four separate times in federal court back in the 1990’s for violating his civil rights. Loria currently has a fifth (5th) lawsuit pending in federal court in addition with his sixth lawsuit.
According to Loria, the Internal Affairs Division of the Rochester Police Department is extremely biased and corrupt and conducted an insufficient police investigation into complaints he made in his two current lawsuits which stemmed from two
separate incidents which occurred, within 30 feet of a 24 hour RPD police surveillance camera directly in front of his family’s former carpet store located on the corner of Monroe Avenue and Meigs Street, in the City of Rochester @ 2:30 p.m. on February 11, 2009, and @ 6:30 p.m. on July 24, 2009.
Loria said, Rochester Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division (“P.S.S.”) never reviewed the video footage from the RPD police surveillance camera, from said dates & times, even though it was requested that they do so, by Mr. Loria’s then attorney Nira T. Kermisch, in the Internal Affairs interview (“with Sergeant Ron
Malley member of new Community Commission formed by Rochester City Council in September 2011”) which was recorded. The video surveillance footage would have clearly corroborated and sustained Mr. Loria’s claims of corruption and misconduct in his two separate complaints against the Rochester Police Department.
Loria also feels that the new Community Commission formed by City Counsel--President Lovely Warren and headed by City Councilman Adam McFadden and Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard is a fraud and extremely biased on behalf of the Rochester Police Department, and was created as a public relations stunt to benefit Councilman McFadden’s re-election campaign and also to ease the negative attention Police Chief Sheppard has received over the last couple of months due to his department’s long systematic pattern, practice and history of violating people’s
constitutional and civil rights and especially minorities here in Rochester, New York, and retaliating against citizens who challenge their authority and expose their corruption and misconduct.
In response to Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden
stating that for the past eight (8) years, through City Council, there
has been a Civilian Review Board with Subpoena power, which the
public has never known about and which hasn’t been utilized by
City Council members at all, in regards to any investigation, past or
present.
Loria went on to say, “the citizens of Rochester, N.Y. have clearly been left with no fair and impartial agency to hear and investigate their complaints of police brutality and misconduct. Time and time again, it has been proven that the current and
existing avenues for a citizen to file a complaint against the Rochester, N.Y. Police Department (Internal Affairs Division and Center for Dispute Settlement) are ineffective and both have ties and affiliation with the City of Rochester, N.Y. and it’s Police Department.”
Loria also said, “The police department make it seem like the CRB process is fair and open but everybody knows that Internal Affairs is very corrupt and extremely bias because the process favors the police.”
Loria’s suggestion to improve the CRB:
“You need an independent body that has no interest in the
outcome whether it’s favorable or not favorable—to investigate
claims especially for an institution (“CBR”) set up to protect the
civil rights of residents.” Loria also said “the City of Rochester, N.Y.
is a Municipal Corporation, “Business” like Kodak, Xerox and
Wegmans, and it is imperative that as a business, they protect
their interests at all costs, which is clearly why they have to be in
total control of the complaint process.” The City (“Police
Department and Internal Affairs Division”) therefore, needs to
make sure that the outcome of any complaint is in their favor.
The City can not allow complaints of serious allegations of Brutality, False Arrest, and Misconduct, to be investigated by an independent agency--that has no interest in the outcome whether it’s favorable or not favorable--because they would be
sustained on a regular basis due to Rochester Police Department’s long history of systematic pattern and practice of violating citizens constitutional and civil rights, and especially minorities, on a daily basis here in Rochester, New York, as this
would then set the stage for the City of Rochester, N.Y. and its police department to be held liable in federal civil rights lawsuits, which would eventually cause the City to go bankrupt and leave them with no money. So, as in any corporation, the City therefore has a vested interest in controlling the outcome of any serious complaint. In some cases petty incidents may be sustained so as to give a false impression that they can do a fair and impartial investigation, because in the end they clearly know that these minor incidents cannot result in a lawsuit.
Loria also stated, why hasn’t the Rochester Chapter of the NYCLU ever made a demand (of the City to have their Police Department stop violating the civil rights of minority citizens on a daily basis in Rochester) like they have done recently on behalf of the white citizens of Occupy Rochester Movement in Washington Sq. Park.”
Rochester police officers infringe upon minority citizens that are ignorant of their constitutional and civil rights. Many have seen (“video-footage”) Rochester police officers make false arrests. Clearly violating the fourth and fourteenth Amendment, because they know the majority of citizens in Rochester are poor and don’t have lawyer money to fight the charges. So they continue to take advantage and violate minority citizens civil rights.
In Loria’s sixth lawsuit he is asking a Federal Judge for an order to show cause hearing (injunction) against the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Department requesting:
1. An immediate, complete and through investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division) of the Rochester,
N.Y. Police Department and their long history and systematic
pattern and practice of violating citizens civil
rights.
2. A Federal Consent Decree to be issued against the Rochester,
N.Y. Police Department.
Contact Information:
Theodore “Teddy” Loria
1848 North Goodman Street
Rochester, New York 14609
(585) 739-7113.
