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Show of hands, who’s shocked? Anyone? Bueller?

ROCHESTER, NY - SEPTEMBER 3: Candles and flowers are laid out a

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

Last year, we reported on the death of Daniel Prude after an encounter with police officers in Rochester, New York. At the time he was accosted by the cops, Prude was naked and suffering from a mental health crisis. He told officers that he tested positive for COVID-19 and thus had a “spit hood” placed over his head while his face was smashed into the ground. 7 days later Prude was dead from “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint,” as well as “excited delirium.” The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

To make matters worse, Police Chief LaRon Singletary lied and told Mayor Lovely Warren that Prude died of an overdose.

Today, according to the AP, a grand jury has decided that there will be no charges levied against the officers involved after Attorney General Letitia, a Black woman, presented a case for their indictment.

“I know that the Prude family, the Rochester community and communities across the country will rightfully be disappointed by this outcome,” said James, who traveled to Rochester to announce the grand jury’s decision at a church near where Prude was fatally injured.

She continued:

“One recognizes the influences of race, from the slave codes to Jim Crow, to lynching, to the war on crime, to the overincarceration of people of color: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. And now Daniel Prude,” she said.

The Lawyers representing the seven police officers involved in Prude’s death said that they were following protocol during the harrowing incident. The officers were using a restraining technique called “segmenting” where two officers subdue a non-compliant person by pinning them at the waist and head. Officials later claimed that Prude’s death resulted from his use of PCP and served as the catalyst behind his “irrational behavior.”

Seven police officers were suspended with pay behind Prude’s death, none will face consequences.

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