New York’s Attorney General is indignant local authorities in the Daniel Prude and other cases have kept body cam video under wraps for months, and she’s changing that in a big way.
Letitia James just announced her office will release body cam video in excessive force cases early … way earlier than the months delay in the Prude case. She made it clear … she’s not going to wait for local authorities to act … James wants the video released quickly so the public can evaluate what happened by the footage, and not hearsay or speculation.
She would not discuss the Prude case, saying it’s before a Grand Jury and she will not get in the way of the hearing. She did say this should have been a case where health care professionals, not police, should have been the ones to intervene to help Prude.
The Grand Jury is deciding whether to indict the officers. She did express what she called “righteous indignation” over the deaths of Prude, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
As we reported … seven officers were initially suspended after an investigation was launched. A couple weeks ago, James announced she was kicking the case over to a grand jury to review … placing the decision on whether to bring charges on NY citizens.
The city of Rochester has been dealing with lots of changes lately — namely, the top leadership at the police department was given walking papers … this after the mayor slammed their handling of the case from the get-go. Mayor Lovely Warren even cut the Police Chief’s time short and fired him before he could retire … while admonishing some of her own staff.
Protests have been ongoing in the weeks since body cam footage of Prude’s arrest and subsequent death surfaced … showing him being handcuffed naked in the freezing streets and eventually restrained with a spit sack over his head, which led to him losing his life.
An autopsy report ruled his death a homicide by complications of asphyxia and other contributing factors. Prude’s brother had initially called 911 because he was acting erratically.
