The Daniel Prude Memorial Amphitheater at MLK Park: Terminal Assholism Has Overtaken Rochester, New York!

 

The name "Daniel Prude" should not be unknown to anyone between the ages of eight and eighty who has lived in the dying City of Rochester for the last two and a half years.

He was the out of towner who came to visit his brother, Joe Prude, at the end of March 2020.

Within 24 hours of his arrival, he was subjected to a mental hygiene arrest, released, able to purchase illegal drugs (how he knew where to find them when he had just arrived in town is anyone's guess), ran naked into the streets on a cold night, was subdued by officers of the Rochester Police Department and died in their custody.

Prude's death led to a cover-up by ex-Mayor Lovely Warren, her then police chief LaRon Singletary and a host of other members of her administration as well as the silence of City Counselor Mary Lupien, who later claimed that she had kept silent for the sake of Prude's family.

When the information became public in September 2020, Free the People ROC organized riots, demanded the resignations of Ex-Mayor Warren and Police Chief Singletary and the bringing to trial of the police officers involved in Prude's death.

Singletary resigned, only to be fired before his resignation took effect.

Despite New York State Attorney General Tish James making it clear to the Grand Jury that she wished them to find evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of the RPD officers involved in Prude's death, the Grand Jury refused to do so, and found that the officers had committed no crime but were following a prescribed procedure that proved to be faulty.

And Daniel Prude's brother Joe, a convicted felon, filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the City of Rochester and RPD on behalf of his brother's family.

Yesterday, Rochester's Citygov chose to name the amphitheater in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park after Daniel Prude.

As Rochester's mayor, Malik Evans put it "We will memorialize him and ensure his name is remembered."

Outside of dying in police custody, there would be nothing to remember the name of a mentally troubled, out of town drug addict for.

City Council President Miguel A. Melendez Jr. also chimed in with "It is the perfect location to name Daniel Prude Square, where we will be reminded of community mobilization in the wake of tragedy and our City's commitment to crisis response." Okay.

Those are pretty words coming from a man who resides in the deadliest part of Rochester where Black on Black and Hispanic on Hispanic shootings, stabbings and homicides are an almost daily occurrence.

How many memorial squares has he dedicated in his own neighborhood to the victims of those crimes?

None, really.

And even more ironic is that this official pronouncement memorializing Daniel Prude came on the birthday of Daryl Pierson, a Rochester police officer who was killed in the line of duty on September 3, 2014, in Melendez's home turf.

What great memorial monument or square has been named for Pierson by mayors Warren or Evans anywhere in Rochester?

There haven't been any because he was White.

And Blue!

Had Mahweak or City Council remembered Pierson, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because the show must go on!

And none of them, Free the People ROC, the Mayor's office, the Ministers or City Council ever bothered to say or do anything about the horrendous murder by fire of Steve Amenhauser last year.

It must be remembered by the rest of us that Steve Amenhauser was a poor old White man who was set ablaze by two teenagers of color. He later died of those injuries.

Their silence about Amenhauser's death was both deafening...and telling.

They are only concerned with Black deaths if they occur at the hands of police officers, preferably White police officers.

And had the color scheme been reversed between Amenhauser and his killers, had he been Black and the teenagers been White, we know the Hell that would have erupted in Rochester.

Only then would those powers that be would have said something and it would have been about racism and it would have been treated as a "hate crime."

They are not building any memorials to Steve Amenhauser because it does not fit their progressive narrative, which is that Black people cannot be racists because they are the victims of racism.

Which, of course, is such bullshit.

As it is, by memorializing Daniel Prude, whose only significance was dying in police custody, Citygov reaffirms its anti-cop stance which it hopes will serve it so well at the polls on election day.

In the meantime, the homicide tallies keep rising in Rochester, our streets have become war zones and Citygov keeps desperately trying to distract the residents from the ugly realities of living in our dying city by pious platitudes and memorializing a fly by night, drug addicted Black man with mental issues who died under arrest.

And there is nothing for a White long-term resident, whom some people would brand a loser, who was set afire by teenagers of color looking for kicks.

That gives you an idea of the inherent bias of our Citygov, who seemingly have nothing better to do with their time.

And the terminal state of our fair city.

Remember Steve Amenhauser!

Remember Daryl Pierson!

And God help the rest of us because Citygov is suffering from terminal assholism.

While Citygov will survive it, like Typhoid Mary, the rest of us probably won't.