Non-disruptive Private Party Violently Broken Up by Police; At Least 12 Arrested

Rochester Police Department officers chased a 20 year-old into a house, broke down a door to get to him, maced him, and then beat the person in the face with a maglite until he was unconscious, as a non-disruptive private party was taking place, on the night of July 22, 2012.

“I saw him getting beat up pretty good in the kitchen. You could see the flashlight going up and down that the cop had in his hand as he beat the kid. You could see people struggling in the kitchen. I was a good 25 or 30 feet away looking in through the big kitchen windows. It was pretty clear what was happening in there,” said an anonymous source who we'll call Mark Johnson, one attendee of the house show that evening.

From what witnesses say, it all started when a group of three individuals and a dog were walking around a block near a house where a private party was taking place. A police officer drove up in his car and started asking questions.

“It must have been around 9:45PM. I just came up from the basement to get some air and I saw this cop car driving backwards as the officer was questioning these three guys walking a dog,” said Johnson.

“Some kids were walking around the block and a cop yelled to them, 'Hey rock and roll kid, what are you doing? Whats going on?' and one of them yelled back to the cop, 'What the fuck's up?' The cop got mad that the guy used the f-word, jumped out of his car, and chased them around and into the house,” said an anonymous witness who we'll call Max.

“Next second, I saw the three guys running through a parking lot—the one walking the dog ran into the house—and a cop followed him in there. The dog was outside, looking confused. It wasn't being aggressive at all. As the guy was being assaulted by cops inside, someone ran out and got the dog,” said Johnson.

While one account puts the person beat up by the cops in the kitchen, another places him in a bedroom.

“I was standing in the living room. I saw the guy run through the room into the bedroom on the first floor. About two seconds after that I saw a cop run in the house, uninvited, chasing after him. The cop kicked the bedroom door open, with his maglight in his hand, and yelled to the guy he was chasing, 'Put your fucking hands up or I'm going to beat your fucking face in!' The guy the cop was chasing was in a defensive position and was not hitting the officer but it looked as though he was trying keep officer off of him. Then another officer ran in and pepper sprayed the guy on the ground. The first cop then proceeded to hit him in the face with his maglite. At this point, people were asking the officers name and badge number,” said another anonymous witness who we'll call Charlie.

At this point, according to witnesses, chaos erupted.

“Tons of cops were showing up. I saw 10 cars drive up as we were leaving, while other cop cars were circling the block. Cops were getting violent really fast. It was a really bad scene,” said Johnson.

“The cops then yelled once for everyone to leave but folks were looking to get their stuff and most everyone had no idea what was going on. Then about 10 police cars showed up and the cops started getting very aggressive and maced everyone in the kitchen then knocked out the window and maced everyone outside as well through the window. There was some slamming and yelling and people started coming outside and crying that there was blood everywhere. At least one person was initially arrested and then a girl was yelling in protest of their force and was tackled by several cops and arrested. Maybe an hour later, folks were allowed to go back in and get their stuff,” said Max.

Again, Charlie, “No badge numbers were given when asked. By this time there were roughly 4-6 cops in the house violently pushing people out of the house. One of my friends, a resident at the house was holding a cat while being pushed through a crowd of people. When he dropped the cat he was ridiculed by the officer that was pushing him for dropping the cat. By the time I got pushed outside, a group of people were watching into the window of the bedroom where the arrest was taking place. An officer smashed out the window and started pepper spraying onlookers. As we were instructed to keep moving, we moved across the street and onto the sidewalk. It was then that we were told that we couldn't stand there either. The cops told us that if we didn't move we would be arrested for failure to disperse. Me and the two people I was with decided to keep moving. From what I understand there were about 10-12 people that were arrested.”

The private party started around 9:00PM. There was an account of one woman being tazed. Presumably the 12 defendants were arraigned Monday morning, July 23, along with the 18 arrested during an anti-capitalist march on East Ave. and the 16 arrested Sunday evening from the Puerto Rican Festival. All in all, a busy, violent, and bloody weekend for the RPD.