A forum on police-community relations will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 24, at the Faith Temple Apostolic Church, 141 Arnett Boulevard. The forum is sponsored by the United Christian Leadership Ministry of Western New York, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, and the NAACP. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley has been asked to […]
Rochester Police Department
Posted inNews & Opinion
McFadden introduces legislation to create drug-free zones in Rochester
In some places, people line up for a Friday night fish fry. In Rochester, there is at least one neighborhood where people line both sides of the street on Friday nights to buy drugs.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Court of second chances
Darryl Ballard says he knows he’s lucky that he’s not in prison. A short young man with a slight build and dreadlocks pulled back from his boyish face, Ballard says that, two years ago, he cussed out a Rochester police officer while the officer was engaged in an altercation with Ballard’s best friend. Things got […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Downtown fights: What do we do?
The problem is bigger than a few rowdy youth congregating at the Liberty Pole. Ask members of the Red Shirts— retired police officers who patrol downtown — and they’ll tell you how they have to escort some downtown office workers outside because gangs of young people taunt and harass them as they leave their buildings. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Council members grill police chief over Hardaway arrest video
While Deputy Chief Mike Wood briefed the press Thursday afternoon on the latest in the city’s recent spate of killings, on the other side of Main Street, Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard answered tough questions from City Council members on an arrest video that has the whole community talking. A video posted on YouTube last […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Warren gets personal in TV debate
This is a corrected version of this blog. Locally produced TV often has an unintended comedic element, and it was a bit strange to see Rochester mayoral hopefuls Tom Richards and Lovely Warren sitting side by side at News 8’s anchor desk last night. Mostly because the pair made a credible News team! duo. The […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Stop and frisk, and Rochester
Hailed by civil libertarians and denounced as cataclysm by dismayed public officials, the recent court ruling that the stop-and-frisk tactics used by the New York Police Department violated minorities’ constitutional rights will have wide-ranging implications for police everywhere, including in Rochester, says a local criminal justice expert. “I think it probably is a good thing,” […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Warren vs. Richards: One city, two visions
The Lovely Warren who walked to the front of the room in early May to ask her fellow Democrats to support her bid for mayor is not the same Lovely Warren who’s on the campaign trail today. There has been an observable transformation. Those first rough, nervous steps have been replaced by confident strides. Candidate […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Abortion activism
If you’ve been out and about in Rochester over the last week, you may have seen a truck with images of an aborted fetus on it. Or spied protestors toting equally graphic visuals. That’s because the anti-abortion group Operation Save America has been in Rochester since July 24 for its yearly national event, which concludes […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Survey would gauge public perception of the RPD
Rochester Mayor Tom Richards wants to hire a group out of Cornell University to study public perception of the Rochester Police Department. The legislation to pay $15,000 to Survey Research Institute for the project will be considered by City Council next month. The legislation’s wording is rather vague, saying that SRI will work with the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
City should’ve cut the mounted patrol
Maybe someone can sell me on the reasoning for keeping the city’s mounted patrol, because I just don’t see it.
Posted inNews & Opinion
This Week: Brockport elections, Mounted Patrol vote, Supremes rulings, chat with Vargas
Brockport residents will hold elections to choose a mayor and two trustees. Mayor Maria Castañeda is seeking a second term, running against Margaret Blackman, a current village trustee and retired professor of anthropology at SUNY Brockport. Blackman is joined by newcomer Valerie Ciciotti, and incumbent trustee Carol Hannan on the Revitalize Brockport party. Castañeda’s running […]
