Last night 9/6/2020 (Sunday) is a night many in the community will wrongly sing Kumbayah about. The marchers for Daniel Prude were allowed to march to the Public Safety Building. The police were hardly present.

So why wrongly?

Because, this is not a game of capture the flag. The Public Safety Building does not contain the Ark of the Covenant. It is an administrative building, and yes a symbol. If it was a game of capture the flag, then in the RPD conceded the field.

So what was accomplished, at a basic level, the RPD ‘allowed’ the marchers to assert their/our basic constitutional right to freedom of assembly. That was it. After two days of using military equipment, weapons, etc… on protestors, attacking using weapons against, injuring without provocation, and denying that basic constitutional right, they conceded the field.
But in the words of Don McLean

“We all got up to dance

Oh, but we never got the chance ‘

Cause the players tried to take the field

The marching band refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day” Daniel Prude died?

This is about much more than a game of capture the flag. This is about the need for systemic reform of policing in Rochester. This is about Black Lives Matter. This is about institutional racism in our policing, in our government, in our school systems, in our city/suburban relationships, in our housing, in our press coverage (with some notable exceptions), and in our health care. This is not about a building. It never was. It’s about what happens in the building, in the Hall of Justice next door, in the jail behind that building, in the RCSD administrative building a block away. It’s about what does and does not happen in Pittsford, in Greece, and in all of those other suburbs.

This is really about the fact that when I wear my BLM shirt white people can not see it, talk about it, acknowledge it, as if it did not exist, and at the same time people of color love it and me when I wear it. One group can’t see it, one totally embraces it. Until my fellow white people can see it, the march is not over. But this is ultimately not about white people. They are fine with the system as it is, they cocreated that system. This is about many things but in part, it is about “equal justice under law” The words on the supreme court building, it is making sure the color of your skin, your gender, your sexual orientation, your disability does not condemn you to less. It is about forcing white people to acknowledge that shirt and what it means.

This is about so much more than a building. All we “won” back last night was our constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 9/7/2020