Last
night’s rally and march to protest the Rochester Police Department
occurred mostly without incident.
Protestors
marched from Washington Square Park to City Hall, then to the Liberty
Pole. At City Hall, one protestor was writing on the building’s
steps in chalk when police took him in to custody. Ultimately, he was
released without being charged.
The
rally organizers applied for a permit for the march, although police
rejected the request, they said yesterday. The department hasn’t
directly stated the reason for rejecting the application. A statement
released today says only that the department was “working with the
protest organizers to make sure this march was conducted safely,
peacefully, and lawfully.”
Police
flanked the protestors throughout the march and held traffic at
intersections so the marchers could pass through. At the
Liberty Pole, speakers denounced some recent police actions,
including the arrests of 18 protestors this past weekend. They also
demanded an independent civilian review board with subpoena power and
the dismissal of Chief Jim Sheppard.
This article appears in Jul 25-31, 2012.
