Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren responded to a rise in shootings and stabbings over recent weeks by imposing a curfew on the city that bans large scale public and private gatherings.
The mayor’s executive order bans gatherings of more than five people on streets, in parks and in vacant lots from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. It bans indoor gatherings of more than 10 people over the same hours. The order exempts bars and restaurants.
A passionately angry Mayor Warren declared that 70 people have been shot in Rochester and ten people stabbed since June first. Eight of those people have died. She said these recent acts of violence have been tied to large public street or house parties.
Police Chief LaRon Singletary said these parties attract people with grievances who open fire at crowds. He says police will confiscate sound equipment if the situation warrants it, and they’ll be getting help from State Police in enforcing the curfew.
Singletary says they’re not looking to stop family gatherings, but to break up illegal large-scale house and street parties that create violence and are a neighborhood nuisance. Some of these gatherings involve 300-to-500 people and take 30 or more officers to disperse.