Another Black victim of police brutality and systemic racism: Daniel Prude

[MU82]

This was mentioned briefly in the Kenosha thread ... but here was a murder of a Black man that was at least as bad as the George Floyd murder.

The victim's name was Daniel Prude, and the event happened in Rochester NY in March.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/rochester-mayor-suspension-officers-daniel-prude

The victim had some mental health issues and his brother called 9-1-1 seeking help. But when the cops got there, they instead brutalized Prude -- even though he was unarmed, he posed no threat, and he did what the cops told him to do.

They put a hood on him, slammed his head into the street and held his head against the pavement, ignoring his pleas for help. The video recording shows the cops mocking him.

After he died, the department tried to cover it up.

They claimed he died of a drug overdose because PCP was in his system -- even though the medical examiner classified Prude's death a "homicide by complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint." The PCP was identified as a "contributing factor," but he obviously would be alive today if he hadn't been brutalized.

The only reason anybody ever found out what really happened was that Prude's family made a Freedom of Information Law request for the recording of the incident.

Otherwise, like so many other examples of brutality, we never would have known.

All these months later, the Rochester mayor finally suspended the officers -- with pay. The union is threatening to sue.

The mayor acknowledged that Prude would have been treated differently by officers if he was white.

"It's the way that the system works," she said. "Racism is alive and well in every system in America."

Of course. I mean, we all saw the way the murderous, gun-toting, white vigilante was totally ignored by the Kenosha police even though witnesses were screaming that he had just killed somebody.

Not surprisingly, our national "leader" has not condemned this, talked about it at all or offered condolences to Prude's family. To the best of my knowledge, neither has Biden.

Avoidable. Racist. Corrupt. And very sad.

Black Lives Matter.

[mu_hilltopper]

This will not end well.

Everyone sees what they want to see and every day, justice is more political and less just.

[MU82]

Apparently, 'topper, it's already ended.

That this horrific murder is drawing no discussion kind of feeds into the notion that we're all numb to it. Just another unarmed Black man killed by cops for the crime of being Black.

All I'll say is thank goodness we're getting video on most of these now. How many hundreds -- or thousands -- of these went undiscovered over the past decades? Too horrible to think about.

[naginiF]

We just spent 4 1/2 hours helping paint one of 6 BLM murals being installed today in KC (pretty cool initiative, info herehttps://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article245436490.html) and at least in KC there were thousands of people throughout the city who are not numb to it - Mr. Prude's name made it onto the mural we were working on and people talked about his murder/death/accidental asphyxiation/whatever you feel comfortable calling it.

Couple of observations:
- painting asphalt when it's 91 ('feels like 98') and sunny wears an old man out
- MANY people went out of their way to express their appreciation that so many white folks were helping/getting involved
- The artist said she was a bit nervous having her mural in our neighborhood because we're pretty much the dictionary definition of white privilege. Eye opening that an artist commissioned by the city would be nervous because we're a mostly white community.
- Each letter in our mural was a representation of the oppression of the black community not one letter was dedicated to marxism or communism (sorry, that is shocking i know). I sure hope one of the other 5 artists was brave enough to depict the true meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Letting people know they're not alone and that you care feels good and is easier than being angry

[GooooMarquette]

Horrific that this just keeps going on, but good that it is finally getting noticed.

I love the mural initiative in KC. Hopefully more cities join in...and hopefully they don’t get defaced too often by the ‘but don’t all lives matter?’ crowd.

naginiF - we are in the KC area do you live? My daughter lived in Overland Park for about a year after graduating from Mizzou J-school. She enjoyed her time there and loved the museums and fountains, but moved away for a better job last November.

[MU82]

We just spent 4 1/2 hours helping paint one of 6 BLM murals being installed today in KC (pretty cool initiative, info herehttps://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article245436490.html) and at least in KC there were thousands of people throughout the city who are not numb to it - Mr. Prude's name made it onto the mural we were working on and people talked about his murder/death/accidental asphyxiation/whatever you feel comfortable calling it.

Couple of observations:
- painting asphalt when it's 91 ('feels like 98') and sunny wears an old man out
- MANY people went out of their way to express their appreciation that so many white folks were helping/getting involved
- The artist said she was a bit nervous having her mural in our neighborhood because we're pretty much the dictionary definition of white privilege. Eye opening that an artist commissioned by the city would be nervous because we're a mostly white community.
- Each letter in our mural was a representation of the oppression of the black community not one letter was dedicated to marxism or communism (sorry, that is shocking i know). I sure hope one of the other 5 artists was brave enough to depict the true meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Letting people know they're not alone and that you care feels good and is easier than being angry

Really cool, nag. Very proud of my fellow Marquette alum!

In related news ...

NY attorney general is FINALLY going after these Rochester cops, setting up a grand jury.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/09/05/daniel-prude-death-ny-attorney-general-letitia-james-empanels-grand-jury/5730743002/

[naginiF]

Horrific that this just keeps going on, but good that it is finally getting noticed.

I love the mural initiative in KC. Hopefully more cities join in...and hopefully they don’t get defaced too often by the ‘but don’t all lives matter?’ crowd.

naginiF - we are in the KC area do you live? My daughter lived in Overland Park for about a year after graduating from Mizzou J-school. She enjoyed her time there and loved the museums and fountains, but moved away for a better job last November.

Glad she enjoyed it. I've been here just over 20yrs and was super skeptical when I moved, but it does have a ton to offer. Ton to fix too but think we have the right leadership to start addressing the issues.

We're in Brookside which is a couple miles south of Country Club Plaza.

Really cool, nag. Very proud of my fellow Marquette alum!

Thx 82. I wish I could take full credit, I enthusiastically participated and got the kids motivated, but my wife was the driving force......not MU but a Jesuit product of John Carroll.

[MU82]

Glad she enjoyed it. I've been here just over 20yrs and was super skeptical when I moved, but it does have a ton to offer. Ton to fix too but think we have the right leadership to start addressing the issues.

We're in Brookside which is a couple miles south of Country Club Plaza.
Thx 82. I wish I could take full credit, I enthusiastically participated and got the kids motivated, but my wife was the driving force......not MU but a Jesuit product of John Carroll.

Props to Mrs. nagini!

[Jockey]

We just spent 4 1/2 hours helping paint one of 6 BLM murals being installed today in KC (pretty cool initiative, info herehttps://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article245436490.html) and at least in KC there were thousands of people throughout the city who are not numb to it - Mr. Prude's name made it onto the mural we were working on and people talked about his murder/death/accidental asphyxiation/whatever you feel comfortable calling it.

Couple of observations:
- painting asphalt when it's 91 ('feels like 98') and sunny wears an old man out
- MANY people went out of their way to express their appreciation that so many white folks were helping/getting involved
- The artist said she was a bit nervous having her mural in our neighborhood because we're pretty much the dictionary definition of white privilege. Eye opening that an artist commissioned by the city would be nervous because we're a mostly white community.
- Each letter in our mural was a representation of the oppression of the black community not one letter was dedicated to marxism or communism (sorry, that is shocking i know). I sure hope one of the other 5 artists was brave enough to depict the true meaning of the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Letting people know they're not alone and that you care feels good and is easier than being angry

Cool stuff, Nagin.

[BM1090]

In KC for the weekend. First time here and we love it. We have friends in the area and are considering a future move.

We're staying in the Power and Light district so we made sure to walk past the mural on 10th and baltimore. Very well done. It looked like there were two security guards on either side of the street watching the mural around 1030 PM. Smart move but also kind of depressing.