Alyssa Shipe and her neighbors were enjoying the last few hours of the Raymond Street Annual Block Party in Rochester’s South Wedge neighborhood Saturday evening, when a group of youths came onto her street, threatening her neighbors.
Shipe did what most honest, trusting, law abiding citizens would do.
She called Rochester Police.
Little did she know, she would soon be regretting that decision.
According to Shipe, a couple of hours earlier, a woman on her street was taken away by Rochester Police under a mental hygiene arrest after the woman got into a fight with the DJ for the block party, and began swinging at him and kicking his music equipment.
After her arrest, the woman’s son, upset that Rochester Police arrested his mother, tried to hit a neighbor with a brick, before calling a group of his friends.
Within 45 minutes, a group of approx. 8-10 youths arrived in a minivan and began threatening several neighbors, including a man who was trying to get the minivan’slicense plate number.
One of the members of the group told a Rochester City firefighter named Sean, who lives on Raymond Street, “We know you’re a firefighter and we know where you live.”
Shipe says after she called 911 to report the group in the minivan, 10-15 RPD officers arrived, and it was then that she couldn’t believe her eyes.
One neighbor told Rochester Police officers that one of the youths brandished a gun, but officers completely ignored the neighbor.
“They didn’t do anything to them”, Shipe said, referring to RPD officers clearly showing no interest in her call for assistance.
“They didn’t even search them”, added Shipe.
Then, Shipe says, something else happened.
After seeing that Rochester Police officers refused to search the youth, and take any action, several Raymond Street neighbors expressed their dissatisfaction.
Shipe said one of those neighbors was Sean, the Rochester, NY firefighter, who works out of the Hudson Ave. fire station, on Rochester’s northeast side.
Shipe, who didn’t know the firefighter’s last name, she says Rochester Police officers did not appreciate him being vocal.
In fact, Shipe says, a Rochester Police officer driving car “E-93″, wasted no time in showing the firefighter just how much he did not appreciate being told how to do his job.
In the video below, which Shipe began recording shortly after she saw RPD officers letting the group of youths go, the RPD officer is seen walking a handcuffed man towards his cruiser.
That man, Shipe says, is Sean, the Rochester firefighter.
The video actually begins with the group of youth being let go by RPD officers.
In the video, Shipe’s fiancé, Kenny Dudek is heard saying “Are you kidding me?”, as the group of youth is let go by RPD officers.
Then, the RPD officer is seen walking over to Shipe, as he yells, “You guys, you can tape all you want, but you’re going to leave, or you’re going to jail!”
Shipe says after the video ends, the officer pushed her, and tried to grab her cell phone, then grabbed her fiancé, and handcuffed him.
A few minutes later, the same officer locked his keys in his cruiser, after placing the firefighter in the back seat.
The officer had to call another RPD officer from the RPD East Division office, who brought the officer an extra set of car keys, about an hour later.
During that time, the Rochester firefighter sat in the back of the locked cruiser, which was turned on, and had the windows rolled up.
Shipe says that after approx. 45 minutes, her fiancé’s handcuffs were taken off, and shortly after, when the keys for the locked cruiser arrived, the firefighter’s handcuffs were also removed.
Both men were let go with a “warning”.
Shipe, who says the Raymond Street Annual Block Party, which is approved by the City, who provides the barricades, is a time for neighbors, including children to have fun, do cookouts, and different activities, says she is disgusted with the way Rochester Police handled the situation.
A situation which began with her call to 911 for assistance.
“I will never call the police for anything again”, said Shipe.
