Two Black men, one falsely arrested & the other brutalized by RPD, tell their stories

On November 9, 2015, at around 11:30am, Scean Gordon and Daryl Appleberry were the victims of racial profiling, wrongful police arrest, and brutality—amid corporate media carelessness and police lies.

According to Mr. Appleberry, police had a description and picture of the man they sought. However, Rochester Police Department officers continued to arrest Mr. Appleberry before and after he, his family, and his friends informed the police of his identity. Mr. Gordon began filming the situation as soon as he could on his cell phone.

As Mr. Gordon and Mr. Appleberry greeted each other in the middle of a quiet Grafton Street and began crossing, a police cruiser rolled up on them and two cops jumped out yelling at the Mr. Appleberry, “What's your name!” according to Mr. Gordon.

Before Mr. Gordon began filming, Mr. Appleberry had identified himself twice to the police.

“When they first jumped out and yelled 'What's your name?! We can make this easy,' I told the them my name was Daryl Appleberry twice,” said Mr. Appleberry.

Mr. Appleberry then identified himself in Mr. Gordon's video before he asserted his right to remain silent and his refusal to be searched.

Mr. Gordon did the only thing he could do at that moment: he documented the scene with his cell phone. He and Mr. Appleberry's family became frustrated and angry when police refused to identify themselves and proceeded to handcuff and arrest Mr. Appleberry—forcing him into the back seat of the cruiser.

Video from Scean Gordon

The video above shows Mr. Gordon moving closer to the officers in order to get their images, name plates, and badge numbers after they refused to identify themselves. He also went into the street briefly to capture the license plates of the cruisers. As he did this, he also reminded Mr. Appleberry of his rights. Seeing the police as apparent kidnappers who wouldn't identify themselves, Mr. Gordon refused to comply with their orders.

Video from D. A.

As the cruiser was pulling away to the right with Mr. Appleberry in handcuffs in the back seat, officer Christopher Kosch stopped the vehicle—telling his partner “I have to get this guy for something [referring to Mr. Gordon],” according to Mr. Appleberry—jumped out, told Mr. Gordon he was under arrest, and proceeded to tackle him, threw him into the pavement, used a Taser on him, pepper sprayed and choked him. Mr. Gordon was eventually handcuffed and put into the back seat of a cruiser and taken away.

Mr. Appleberry was released shortly after Mr. Gordon was removed from the scene. When Mr. Appleberry asked to see the photo of the suspect, the officers remained silent. Officer Kosch's partner said, “Oh, you all look alike,” according to Mr. Appleberry.

Mr. Gordon was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. After going to the hospital for treatment, where he was further taunted and humiliated by officers, he was booked downtown, spent the night in jail, and arraigned the following morning before Judge Ellen Yacknin.

Watch the full Rochester Indymedia interview with Daryl Appleberry and Scean Gordon below

Katherine Denison, a member of Enough Is Enough, was able to attend Mr. Gordon's arraignment before Judge Yacknin. Here's what she saw:

[photo: Judge Ellen Yacknin from the Democrat & Chronicle] Always enlightening, sitting in the shining presence of American justice.

Yacknin D and C.jpg

Gleaming pink and pale staff directing and berating brown and black accused. Gum-cracking, belligerent cop calling for respect for the judge as he smirks and flashes pink wads of gum at us. Yacknin looking haggard and disinterested, mumbling, refusing the mic, hand over her mouth as she rests her chin in her palm. She was only loud enough and lively when she was lecturing teenagers or reprimanding drunk drivers.

Mr. Gordon was dignified. He has a previous arrest for photographing a police interaction but faced no charges. DA pointed out he has no convictions, has just finished an audio engineering course with shining grades, is father of 2, has a lovely wife. Yacknin let him go on his own recognizance.

Talked with Scean and his wife after. Sweet, both of them, very surprised at the support, and very grateful to learn they're not alone dealing with the photography issue.

Carelessness or lies? Police and corporate media accounts of what happened

Since November 9, the police and a couple of corporate media outlets released their stories about what happened to Mr. Appleberry and Mr. Gordon. Not surprisingly, two outlets—the Democrat & Chronicle and WHEC Channel 10 took on the police narrative also known as “The Truth”—the monumental, fundamental, singular, and True account of what happened. Incidentally, these two corporate news outlets were the only ones that picked up the story.

Three points need to be addressed with this so-called Truth: 1) the description and justification for the use of force on Mr. Gordon; 2) that Mr. Gordon was arrested because he was standing directly in front of a police cruiser preventing it from leaving; and 3) that Mr. Gordon was not tasered by the police.

Let's take a look at the first point regarding excessive use of force. On November 9, independent journalist David Vara put out one of the first—if not the first—story about what happened. Here's how he reported what happened:

After Rochester, NY cops place Appleberry in the cruiser and begin to pull off, the officer driving the cruiser abruptly stops the vehicle, gets out, and does a bee line straight to Scean Gordon, who is standing on private property, and tackle him.

"He wasn't dong anything wrong," Gordon's wife, who didn't want to be identified, out of fear of retaliation by the RPD, told me.

"He was simply video recording what was happening to his friend because the police had the wrong person."

"My husband suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from being beaten by police in New York City years ago, but he didn't do anything wrong."

Rochester Police officers tasered Gordon, and assaulted him, even slamming him on the driveway of the home.

Gordon was charged with resisting arrest and "O.G.A", or obstruction of governmental administration.

Both bullshit charges which police use when they have to come up with something to try and justify their illegal, unconstitutional actions.

Gordon was taken to Rochester General Hospital for his injuries.

Mr. Vara was straight to the point and right on. He didn't mince words. He stated what happened (a link to the video of the brutality is on his site) and then he called out the charges brought against Mr. Gordon as “...bullshit charges which police use when they have to come up with something to try and justify their illegal, unconstitutional actions.” Mr. Vara didn't make excuses nor did he question the language or anger expressed by Mr. Gordon in the video; this was illegal, unconstitutional, and completely bad policing.

Now let's examine how the Democrat & Chronicle reported on the use of excessive force. Jon Hand and Will Cleveland wrote about the incident in an article published on November 10:

A second video taken by Appleberry's sister, shows officers pulling away with Appleberry in their car.

Gordon, police said, at that time is standing in front of the police cruiser.

The video shows the cruiser travel just a few feet, then the driver's side door opens and an officer exits. As he walks to the front of the car, Gordon appears in the screen.

The officer says "you're under arrest" and reaches for Gordon, who evades him and begins to run. The officer and Gordon struggle and other officers join the arrest, pinning Gordon down and using pepper spray to subdue him. Appleberry said officers also used a Taser on Gordon but the videos do not show that, and police said it did not happen.

[Clinton Section Capt. Korey] Brown said his officers showed restraint throughout the arrest while several people were screaming at them while they did their investigation.

In the Democrat & Chronicle account, more detail was offered about the excessive force used against Mr. Gordon. However, the journalists relied on the police to explain away the brutality and misconduct of the officers instead of making their own, independent assessment of the situation based on the officers' accounts, the accounts of the victims, and the videos.

Gordon, “police said,” was standing in front of the cruiser, blocking it from leaving. While Mr. Appleberry, who was sitting in the back seat of the cruiser observing the actions of the officers, told the Democrat & Chronicle that he saw officers use a Taser on Mr. Gordon, the reporters retorted, “the videos do not show that, and police said it did not happen.” Thus, Truth was restored because the police said it was. And in case there was any doubt, because there never seems to be any doubt in the mind of a police officer, Clinton Section Captain Korey Brown said “his officers showed restraint throughout the arrest.” Case closed.

On November 10, WHEC Channel 10 reporter Berkeley Brean produced, perhaps, the very worst piece of chastising—I mean reporting—about the incident. Watching Brean's piece is a telling example of bad journalism and shoddy video work when looking at the use of excessive force on Mr. Gordon:

Moments later -- with Appleberry still handcuffed in the car -- the police car stops suddenly and police get out to arrest Gordon. Family members are hysterical. We met Appleberry and Gordon at the scene and reminded him police said he could record from the sidewalk.

The text for this article is actually a make-shift transcript for Brean's produced video. The video connected to the voice over of the above text showed Mr. Gordon being chased, tackled, and dragged with Brean's voice overwhelming the audio in the video stating, “We met Appleberry and Gordon at the scene and reminded him police said he could record from the sidewalk.” Brean used quick and specific cuts of the two videos Mr. Gordon and Mr. Appleberry gave to him, in order to paint the officers as reasonable people who made a simple mistake and Mr. Gordon as an angry, out-of-control Black man, who was swearing at the cops.

There was no description of what Mr. Gordon experienced and no attempt to convey to the audience what they were watching. Brean drove home the point that if Mr. Gordon had just been more compliant and less vulgar with his language then he might not have been beaten up.

Berkeley Brean's WHEC News Channel 10 segment

There was condescension for Mr. Appleberry and Mr. Gordon throughout Brean's nearly three minute segment. Mr. Appleberry didn't even make the cut to represent himself in the WHEC Channel 10 reporter's piece, even though Brean met with the two men and discussed what happened.

Berkeley Brean's full interview with Appleberry and Gordon [poor audio quality]

Let's move onto the second point: that Mr. Gordon was arrested because he was standing directly in front of a police cruiser preventing it from leaving.

According to a statement released on November 10, 2015 by the Office of the Chief of Police, Michael Ciminelli, "Mr. Gordon was standing in the street and refused to disperse so that motor vehicles could pass. Officers even attempted to move their marked police vehicle and Mr. Gordon refused to step away from the front of the vehicle." 

RPD statement on incident on Grafton St.jpg

The Democrat & Chronicle parroted the police narrative perfectly. Unlike WHEC Channel 10, the paper didn't go so far as to say that Mr. Gordon wasn't in the video. Here's what the paper reported:

A second video taken by Appleberry's sister, shows officers pulling away with Appleberry in their car.

Gordon, police said, at that time is standing in front of the police cruiser.

Here's what WHEC Channel 10 reported in print with Brean's video:

Gordon was arrested after he refused to get out from the front of a RPD police car.

...

Police say they arrested Gordon because he was blocking the police car in the street. Gordon says he was standing in the driveway. The video does not show him.

Brean in print and video, stated, “Police say they arrested Gordon because he was blocking the police car in the street. Gordon says he was standing in the driveway. The video does not show him.” The WHEC Channel 10 reporter parrots the police line just like the Democrat & Chronicle reporters.

A minor bit of investigating on the part of Brean could have gone a long way. Contrary to the police narrative and Brean's declaration that “The video does not show him,” the video clearly showed Mr. Gordon's leg, foot, and shadow, which was consistent with the statement that he made in our interview above. Mr. Gordon explained that he was standing with Mr. Appleberry's family with his body in the driveway angled toward the leaving police cruiser so that he could get a side-angle shot when officer Kosch stopped the cruiser and got out.

gordonfootmeme-page001.png

At the end of the day, both the Democrat & Chronicle and WHEC Channel 10 did sloppy-to -zero investigative work and took on the police narrative as fact. Brean went a step further in his bad reporting by declaring that "The video does not show [Mr. Gordon]," when, in fact, it does.

Let's move onto the last point: that according to the police and the corporate media, Mr. Gordon was not tasered by the police. According to the Democrat & Chronicle,

Appleberry said officers also used a Taser on Gordon but the videos do not show that, and police said it did not happen.

Regarding the use of a Taser on Mr. Gordon, Cleveland and Hand write, "...but the videos do not show that, and police said it did not happen."  In the video above of Mr. Gordon getting brutalized, an officer drew his Taser at around the 1:08 minute mark. While the Taser prongs may not have been fired into Mr. Gordon's body, the possibility does exist that the charged prongs may have touched his arm or torso, stunning him. The reporters at the the Democrat & Chronicle fell back on the police statement, writing, "police said it did not happen."

"I was in the back of the squad car [and saw] where the officer actually pulls out--reaching, pulling out the stun gun, and the stun gun put to Scean Gordon," said Mr. Appleberry in our interview.

WHEC Channel 10 didn't report on the Taser use at all.

The last sentence of the first page of the statement from the police said, "Mr. Gordon was never Tased during this incident." If it never happened, why comment on it? The police do acknowledge that Mr. Gordon ran head first into a utility pole. In the video of Mr. Gordon getting brutalized, (picture 4 in the meme below) Mr. Gordon is very close to a utility pole when it appears he is Tasered. He might not have "ran head first into a utility pole" but rather been jolted into the pole after being Tasered. Again, if it never happened, why comment on it?

SGTaser-page001.png

"Cops lie. Record everything."

David Vara has apparel branded with the phrase above and it couldn't be more true. It's vital, regardless of whether or not there are police body worn cameras, dashboard cameras, or surveillance cameras, that civilians—everyday people—continue to record and publish their interactions with the police on blogs, YouTube, and elsewhere. In New York State, it is completely legal to take video of police doing their jobs in public. The democratization of video technology in cell phones means that we all have greater power to hold police accountable.

Eye-witness and civilian video can make transparent that which police would rather keep secret. In Scean and Daryl's case, police came up with a narrative, made explicit statements that appear false, and then gave the story to the corporate media to report in full. The last step for the police, is letting the story fade from existence where it will whither under the proverbial rug.

The idea of police lying is open to interpretation. It depends on where your sympathies lie and how much time and effort you are willing to put into scrutinizing police and corporate media claims. For those that doubt that police lie, there are plenty of examples that show police lying, trying to stymie the public's right to know what happened, and covering their blue crimes.

For a very recent, national example, take the case of Laquan McDonald. Mr. McDonald was a 17-year-old Black teenager who was gunned down by Chicago Police Department officer Jason Van Dyke with 16 bullets--many of them entering his body after he was wounded and on the ground. (Read the original Chicago Tribune report here from a year ago.)

Journalist Jamie Kalven was interviewed by the Chicago Reporter about the cover-up of Mr. McDonald's murder by Van Dyke:

Kalven calls [Mayor of Chicago Rahm] Emanuel’s “reframing” of the narrative “essentially false.” He points out that “everything we know now, the city knew from Day One. They had the officers on the scene. They knew there were witnesses. They had the autopsy, they had the video.... They maintained a false narrative about those events, and they did it for a year, when it could have been corrected almost immediately....They spent a year stonewalling any calls for transparency, any information about the case.”

To make matters even worse, it came out that Chicago police went to a nearby Burger King in proximity to where Mr. McDonald was murdered and deleted 86 minutes of security camera footage. The dashboard camera video released on Tuesday showed the murder of Mr. McDonald and clearly refuted statements made by the department and the police union.

Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder and is sitting in jail awaiting a bond hearing.

In New York State, a story of national prominence is the case of Eric Garner. Mr. Garner was selling loose cigarettes and, for doing so, was strangled to death by officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo was not indicted by the Staten Island grand jury for the murder which sparked off countless Black Lives Matter protests and actions across New York City and the country. Without the civilian video recording of what happened, the police could have made up any story they wanted. In fact, as of December 2014 Pantaleo still claimed that he never choked Mr. Garner.

The case, however, isn't over. In February 2014, the Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court in Manhattan demanding that the Civilian Complaint Review Board release "a summary of Daniel Pantaleo's employment history, including complaints, charges, and number of allegations brought against the officer," according to Silive.com.

The organization, in demanding these files, stated that they could "help evaluate the potential weaknesses associated with the city's police investigation and disciplinary system," as well as offer some parity of history between Pantaleo and Mr. Garner as the day after his murder, Mr. Garner's criminal record was broadcast publicly.

The CCRB denied the initial Freedom of Information request under the auspices of New York Civil Rights Law 50-a. After the denial and no response to the appeal, the Legal Aid Society filed suit. Civil Rights Law 50-a, a law unique to New York State, says,

All personnel records, used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion, under the control of any police agency or department of the state or any political subdivision thereof...shall be considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review without the express written consent of such police officer, firefighter, firefighter/paramedic, correction officer or peace officer within the division of parole except as may be mandated by lawful court order.

Currently, the city and the police are appealing a lower court ruling that agreed with the Legal Aid Society that told the CCRB to release the information. Civil Rights Law 50-a gives officers an overwhelming amount of protection in New York State--especially in the case of blue crime--from the very people who pay their salaries: the public.

Finally, looking at Rochester, there are plenty of cases where police have tried to obfuscate the truth or flat-out lied about what happened. For instance, Emily Good was arrested for videotaping a racially-motivated traffic stop in front of her home on Aldine Street in May 2011. Ms. Good released the video of her arrest in mid-June and it went viral. Her story was picked up by the Huffington Post and CNN. Eventually, amid public outcry, the district attorney decided to withdraw the charges against her.

A few days later, after the charges were dropped, Michael Mazzeo, Rochester's police union president of the Locust Club, lied directly to nearly every single news outlet except Rochester Indymedia as the union barred our entry to their "public" press conference. Specifically, he wanted to correct some "misconceptions" about Ms. Good's case: 1) she knew the people in the vehicle that was pulled over, and said, "These are my friends, what's going on?" thus making the officers fearful, 2) that fear is what caused her arrest when she refused to comply with an order to go into her house, and 3) that videotaping was not the reason she was arrested.

On point one, it was the officer who engaged her and her friend standing in her lawn videotaping the traffic stop when officer Mario Masic said, "Hey, you guys need something?" On point two, according to Rochester Indymedia, "the video and the police report clearly contradict that she was in any way obstructing the officers from doing their jobs and by extension that the order was unlawful." Specifically,

According to Masic's arrest report, that has been widely reported on, the officer wrote that Good was at least 15 feet away. She was not antagonizing officers; she was in her pajamas, barefoot, standing on the far side of the sidewalk on the edge of her front lawn. It's curious that Masic in his opening salvo acknowledges that Good is standing with someone else and that Ryan Acuff, the person standing next to Good during this whole experience, is never questioned at all--he seems completely ignored by police. Acuff was in his regular clothing standing next to Good when the arrest happened. He's also a bit taller than Good and would appear to be the bigger threat if indeed officers, as they've been claiming, felt unsafe.

Regarding point three, all evidence indicated that no one else was told to go in their houses including her friend standing right next to her. It appeared that Masic was targeting her because he didn't want the incident taped. What's incredible is that Mazzeo felt the need to even call a press conference after the charges against her were dropped. 

Another case where the police narrative was floated that didn't correspond with what people heard or saw was the police murder of Hayden Blackman on October 13, 2011, by officer Randy Book.

In this case, there was a domestic dispute and police were called. Things settled down and then later in the night, the police were called again for a domestic dispute. The Democrat & Chronicle explains the police narrative of what happened:

Sheppard said officers found Blackman, who lived in the upstairs apartment, holding a six-inch folding knife and threatening his 16-year-old stepson. The officers remained in the doorway of the apartment and directed Blackman to drop the knife several times, Sheppard said.

Blackman refused and turned toward the officers, Sheppard said. One officer fired multiple times, after which Blackman was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 12:34 a.m. Sheppard declined to say how many times or where in the body Blackman was shot.

The paper interviewed Mr. Blackman's neighbor, Darryl Phillips Jr., who stated that "less than two seconds passed between the time the officers ascended the stairs to the second-floor apartment and the first gunshots." Police claimed Mr. Blackman was ordered multiple times to drop his knife. The neighbor claimed that within two seconds, he heard five gun shots and no commands from police when they entered the apartment.

I spoke to another source recently who was there the night Mr. Blackman was murdered, and he corroborated Mr. Phillips version of events. Police ran up the stairs, the door was forced open, no commands were given, and then shots were fired. After a protest on October 20 denouncing Mr. Blackman's murder, no other statements were made about his murder or the "investigation." The case literally disappeared over the course of two weeks.

Rally Demanding Police Accountability for the Murder of Hayden Blackman

Finally, there's the case of Benny Warr. On May 1, 2013, Mr. Warr was talking to some friends on Jefferson Avenue when police rolled up and started telling people to move on. Mr. Warr, seeing the cops, decided it would be best for him to catch the bus and get out of the area. As he was waiting for the bus in his motorized wheelchair, officer Joseph Ferrigno approached Mr. Warr and said, "Y'all move along!'

Mr. Warr responded, “Sir, I'm catching a bus. I'm going down to the other end.”

The officer's response was, “I told you to move the fuck on!”

Mr. Warr repeated, “Sir, I am catching a bus and I am going to the other end,” at which point, officer Ferrigno pepper sprayed Mr. Warr in the face and officer Anthony Liberatore rocked and threw him out of his chair where he was kicked, punched, and kneed all over his body and head by police while on the ground. According to one witness, Sgt. Mitchell Stewart arrived and gave Mr. Warr a few hard kicks to the head.

Mr. Warr was put in handcuffs for nearly two hours until he received care at Strong Memorial Hospital for his injuries. The attack left him with nightmares, flash-backs, short-term memory loss, a change in personality, and physical mobility issues such as being unable to use his prosthesis.

In police reports, Mr. Warr was misidentified as "Benny Webb." He was also misidentified as a known "associate of the Chalk 'Em South gang." Simply put, the police narrative and (mis)identification of Mr. Warr is not corroborated by the facts: statements from witnesses, the videos from civilians, and the police's own surveillance camera footage.

Benny Warr attacked by police

Surveillance footage from police camera

Mr. Warr is currently fighting for discovery documentation from the City of Rochester for his civil lawsuit in federal court. When the city refused to hand over documentation for over a year, his attorney, Charles Burkwit, filed a motion to compel against the city. Part of the discovery he is seeking could fulfill a Monell claim--where Mr. Warr. would have the right to explore whether the city has tolerated a custom or pattern of excessive force on the part of its officers. While the city has started to comply with Judge Marian Payson's orders to release the information, she is considering granting Mr. Burkwit the ability to depose the Civilian Review Board panelists who heard his client's case--and exonerated the officers--because of strange comments left on their tally sheets at the conclusion of their deliberations.

The lengths that police, and the municipalities in which they work, will go to obscure, stall, and lie in cases related to officer misconduct is horrifying. And it continues with impunity. This isn't the case of a few bad apples, but a system rotten to the core.

Court Support and Demands

Mr. Gordon has court on December 7, 2015 at 9:30am before Judge Ellen Yacknin. He has asked for court support: please show up! Because of the way Rochester City Court operates, he may not appear at 9:30am when he is scheduled. His case may not be heard until later in the morning. Please come if you can. He is being represented by the Public Defender's Office.

Mr. Gordon has (at least) three demands:

1. Drop the charges!
2. An apology from the Rochester Police Department for the wrongful arrest of Mr. Appleberry and the brutality that he suffered.
3. Discipline officer Kosch and the other officers who participated in the racial profiling, false arrest, and brutality.

Enough is enough!

Related:

Mental Health: A juxtaposition of Rochester police tactics | From Ferguson to Palestine to Rochester: the truth perseveres! Rev. Hagler speaks! | REMOVE THE CLOAK OF SECRECY! POLICE TRANSPARENCY NOW! | Civilian Review Board built to fail Benny Warr and other complainants | Your Friendly Neighborhood Police State -- a reading for EIE | Coalition praises council on body cameras; demands a voice in policy decisions

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