Protesters in Only 'Spit Hoods' Decry Death of Daniel Prude

Demonstrations continue for 6th straight evening in Rochester
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 8, 2020 2:47 AM CDT
Protesters Wearing Only 'Spit Hoods' Decry Death of Daniel Prude
This undated file photo, provided by Roth and Roth LLP, shows Daniel Prude. WARNING: Next photo contains nudity.   (Roth and Roth LLP via AP)

Naked except for “spit hoods” in a reference to the killing of Daniel Prude, several protesters sat outside Rochester's police headquarters Monday morning to push for police accountability, local news outlets reported. Photos and video showed roughly a half-dozen demonstrators, naked or in minimal clothes and some with “Black Lives Matter” written on their backs, sitting silently with their hands behind them, on a rain-slicked street outside the city Public Safety Building. The Democrat & Chronicle reported that after a time, the demonstrators were given blankets and left in cars. Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted that Rochester was among cities that had “bad nights,” while Mayor Lovely Warren commended activist leaders, police, and community elders on a night of calm protest Sunday, the AP reports.

Prude, a 41-year-old Black man, died after police found him running naked in a street March 23, put a hood over his head to stop him from spitting, then held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing. Warren and Police Chief La’Ron Singletary have faced calls for their resignations over the delay in releasing details of Prude’s death. Free The People ROC released a statement Monday saying marches will continue until Warren and Singletary resign, officers involved in Prude’s death are fired and prosecuted, and the Rochester Police Department is stopped from responding to mental health calls and defunded. Protesters gathered in a Rochester park Monday evening before moving to the city's Public Safety Building by nightfall, for a sixth consecutive night of demonstrations. Police lined up under the Frederick Douglass–Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge late in the night and announced on a loudspeaker that the gathering outside of the building had been deemed unlawful, and threatened that refusing to leave could lead to arrests.

(More Daniel Prude stories.)

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