Local organizers of the Black Lives Matter rally are blaming the police for the chaotic turn of events at Saturday’s rally. They held a news conference on Tuesday at the headquarters of the union representing Rochester police officers to send their message.

“The anger and the pain at the root of Saturday’s events is real,” Stanley says. She and the others refused to provide their last names.

The gathering and news conference followed the effort to hold a peaceful protest over the weekend, one that did not remain peaceful.

“Saturday’s response to the Black Lives rally shows us just 400 years of institutionalized racism means to folks across our entire community,” she adds.

Specifically, they are calling on city leaders to divest from police and invest in our communities, remove police from Rochester City Schools, end mass incarceration, and return contributions from law enforcement PACs.

“In response, the RPD showed them violence, firing pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas indiscriminately into a crowd of protesters that included both young children and elders,” says Ashley.

“First of all, I don’t believe there was any rubber bullets used, it was pepper balls, it looked like paint balls that disperse pepper spray. They were used and they are used in those situations,” said Police Union President Michael Mazzeo.

The Rochester Police Department responded with a statement saying, “While we are sorry that this is a sentiment or perception, the part of that statement regarding the actions of the Rochester Police Department is absolutely untrue as can be evidenced by the vast unrestricted media coverage, the numerous social media posts and pictures that have been circulating since Saturday’s event, and the words of support and actions of kindness that have been shown to the members of the Rochester Police Department and the City of Rochester by many of its citizens.”

On this day, these organizers are taking aim at the police union.

“The Locust Club has had the opportunity for decades to do the right thing, and it has never done the right thing. It has had the opportunity to do the investigations and to reprimand officers, and instead it has protected racist cops,” says Iman.

“We stand for the ability to protest and to end inequality. Those are standards that we live by as a labor organization,” Mazzeo, who was inside the building as the small crowd gathered for the briefing outside, says.

“But no individual officer makes any decision to engage or to take any action without a command being given and those commands have got to come from the top down,” he states.

— SPECTRUM NEWS ROCHESTER