Rochester, N.Y., does not have a problem with black mob violence or black-on-white crime. The city does, however, have a problem with white people who are not used to it.
The latest example is a disturbing video of a group of black youths talking and laughing about how they are going to “smack the old lady with a snowball” when she emerges from a convenience store.
Which they did. The only problem is that the “prankster” who made good on the threat never let go of the frozen orb, striking the woman as much with his fist as anything else, making the incident another example of the elusive “knockout game.”
Police know who the people are. And they will talk to them eventually. But police say from what they can see on the video, it looks more like harassment than assault.
Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden explained in 2011 that the white people simply don’t understand the ethos of “the ‘hood”:
I think what you saw at the beach is what we’ve been seeing in many of our neighborhoods for two decades. It’s just that you had a lot of people there who are not used to that culture and got to witness it personally.
The event in question was a city-sponsored Memorial Day party featuring barbecued ribs. More than 200 blacks showed up, ate — and rioted. Police arrested 13, including one rioter who assaulted an officer. The local paper dutifully reported that “the city has an ongoing issue with crowds of youth.”
Another “crowd of youths” descended this year on the city’s Lilac Festival. By the time their youthful exuberance had run its course, four people were stabbed. A man with a shotgun escaped and two police officers were hurt. Before the dust settled, over 200 people were in handcuffs.
Local reporters do not – or will not – report what many readers know. Ann Marie Cummings, one reader of the Democrat and Chronicle, wrote in the comment section of online version of the paper:
Let’s face it, this is a racial problem. Whether it is the Puerto Rican fest, last year at the rib fest, or problems at sea breeze with gangs. It’s obvious these street thugs pick arenas … large amount of people attending.
In September of 2013, police had to close down a movie theater in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit after 400 to 500 black people started fighting inside and outside a showing of the movie “Insidious, Chapter 2.”
Said Alton Johnson to Rochester YNN:
I saw police officers chasing kids, as we were pulling out of the parking lot to leave we saw police officer knock kids to the ground and one police officer was batoning kids.
Lt. Jonna Izzo explained it all to News 8: “They have pent-up energy from being scared in the movie theater and they come out and they don’t know what to do with that energy.”
Some residents said it was strange that anyone could blame an act of mob violence and mayhem on a movie. Others said it had nothing to with the movie — that the mall and others in Irondequoit have been plagued by black mob violence for years.
Meanwhile, police are looking for the woman pelted with the snowball in the video that opened this column. But the activist who discovered the footage and recorded it before it could be removed is not holding his breath.
Follow Colin Flaherty at his website, White Girl Bleed a Lot.
