Rochester's New Police Acountibility Coalition

A new coalition is forming between many activist groups in Rochester to push for greater police accountability in the city. Initially started by Rochester Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the coalition immediately grew to include members from Activists Against Racism movement (AARM), Rochester International Socialist Organization (ISO), Rochester Against War (WAR), Rochester Declaration of Peace, and more. I talked with members of the coalition about why they joined, what their goals were, and how they view the police.

The name of the coalition is "RPAC", Rochester Police Accountability Coalition. To see what the group is about, come down to the next meeting, Saturday Dec. 12th, 2pm at the Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285 Clarissa St. Interviewed below is Crescenzo Scipione of Rochester SDS, Mary Adams of Declaration of Peace, Howard Eagle of AARM, and Andy Dillon of Rochester Indymedia.

What brought you to the RPAC meetings?

I was unlawfully arrested on Oct. 7th and brutalized by the police. I'm also a member and organizer for SDS which is the organization that's received a lot of targeting and persecution by the RPD. And because I have a general interest in justice, this is about getting rid of the forces that occupy our neighborhoods.

- Crescenzo Scipione

If I could pick out one main goal for this project it would be to influence the police department to make it so that individual officers would not feel that they could act with violence, that they could use excessive force, that they could disrespect people, that they could profile people, without some consequence from their immediate supervision and on up the chain. It wouldn't just be normal behavior to use unrestrained violence and disrespectful behaviors like it's clear that it is now.

- Mary Adams

What do you think is the current state of policing in our neighborhoods?

It's essentially the coercive force of the state that is able to — by the power by the truncheon and the gun basically — occupy and suppress communities. Particularly poor communities, communities of color, but all communities are affected by this oppression.

- Crescenzo Scipione

They're operating under what I consider foolishness in terms of zero tolerance and so forth. Many people in the police department see it as a license: a license to pretty much clamp down on the community, to clearly violate people's rights in the process. So I think we have an increase in people's rights being violated. That's always been the case in Rochester, Rochester has a long long history of really vicious police brutality and I think it's on the rise.

[… They're] coming with that mentality that most urban people, particularly people who fit a certain profile — which we discussed today, it was brought up several times — are automatically criminals. If they're youth, if they've got a certain style of clothing or their pants are too low or their hair is cut the wrong way or they walk a certain way, they're automatically criminals. That's the mentality that many so-called peace officers bring to the job.

- Howard Eagle

They have these mobile units. I live in the 19th ward and whenever I come down Plymouth up until about a month ago, there was a huge police truck parked out there. I think it was there for 2 months, basically staring at that corner. I think these things are really invasive. They ignore other things people could be doing to affect change in their communities. Generally police solutions are from outside the community and they have to do with punishing people and enforcing laws about behavior instead of [getting to] the roots of why people are doing things.

- Andy Dillon

What do you see the coalition doing, why be here?

As you know, the coalition the coalition is pretty new, it's still forming. But my thinking, which I stressed this last week, is hopefully we can wage some concrete campaigns around some of the issues that are impacting people's lives in real ways. And wage those campaigns as examples of the fact that we really mean it when we say that we're not going to tolerate police misbehavior, police brutality and so forth. So that we make examples out of some of those on the police forces. (I should say forces because another thing is the way that the Rochester police department, the Monroe county sheriff, the New York State troopers all operate together. Sometimes they look like some kind of military operation in Rochester.) So, to make examples of those that are clearly misbehaving — that are clearly violating the law themselves — and to make it clear that they are not going to serve our communities that they are not going to work for us, that we are going to literally run them off the force, as an example.

- Howard Eagle

One of the probably most difficult things, but one of the most important things we talk about is to build community and to get to know our neighbors to begin to trust each other, or at least know each other. In the course of doing that you can avoid some of the need for police and you can also start to build trust so that people can start to confront some of these powerful institutions. That's one of the projects that I would like to see move forward is building community and getting to know what people's experiences are so eventually we can work together to try to confront some of the worst abuses as a group.

- Mary Adams

For me, The goals are to push for the establishment of an independent civilian review board with power - with actually power, not just recommendation power. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the establishment of a effective powerful, cop watch program. To use people power to check the totalitarian power of the police.

- Crescenzo Scipione

I am somebody that's been involved in Rochester Indymedia for a long time and one of the things that we've talked about doing for a long time is Copwatch. The idea there is that citizens use video technology to simple be witness to police activities. Other cities around the country have used Copwatch very effectively to hold the police accountable for their behavior. If they know they're being filmed and they know that citizens are watching them, they tend to act a lot more legally and justly.

Another goal is the idea of an innovative style of review board. I'm trying to work out in my head and see other cities around the country that have models where they're not review boards that report the city council or legislature and have to get filtered through. [Review boards that] are truly autonomous structures, but can hold police accountable and still communicate with those structures. In general, a mechanism of people's empowerment where they can report police abuses and something that can truly hold police accountable. - Andy Dillon

A lot of times when the issue of police accountability comes up, people say police can't have their hands tied in order to control the crime in the area. How would you respond to that?

I think that's one example how the whole terms of the debate — to the extent that there's a debate — that the whole language of talking about "police" and "violence" and "safety" and "security" has been controlled by people who are interested in the existing models that are not equitable and that are racist. I think that is one of our big challenges is to make our voices heard. So that "security," for example, could mean being free in your community, not only free from violence but also free from repressive or coercive police tactics, disrespectful behaviour and so forth.

- Mary Adams

The operative word is "control." Police departments are supposedly, theoretically, established to serve, not to necessarily control. We can understand the idea of "controlling crime" so the crime is not rampant in our communities and so forth. But the line that they often cross is you must not violate — not even one — right in the process of doing that. So even for them to operate out of this mentality of control is a wrong starting point. It should be operated out of the mentality of service at the center of what they're doing. What they're supposed to be doing is serving the community.

- Howard Eagle

Of course you have to hold the police accountable. There's no way to give the police carte blanch freedom to fight crime. Our liberties and rights are far more important than the idea of crime, which, quite honestly, is more than 90% about property rights. So we have to prioritize what kind of society we want. Not one where property rights are held above liberties of people to move, come and go — pursue happiness basically.

Of course, maybe there's other models that we need to discuss when it comes to solving social problems, but I don't think [police are] key to solving social problems. That goes in a much more broad and radical direction that maybe we should discuss whether the police force should exist or not. If there has to be a police force, part of the social contract is they need to be held accountable.

- Andy Dillon