That counts one person who was arrested twice, once in the afternoon and again at night after demonstrators sat down across the corner of East Avenue and Alexander Street in the East End.
Most of those arrested were issued appearance tickets or released on bail by early Saturday Morning. The rest were released later Saturday morning after being arraigned in city court, including those charged with resisting.
A report from the RPD says they have no reports of any protesters being injured. Two people were checked out for chest pains and an asthma attack, and one person was set to the hospital because of a pre-existing heart condition. No weapons or pepper spray were used and police say they used force only to separate people who had locked arms.
Rochester Police Chief Ciminelli says they at first allowed the Black Lives Matter demonstrators “flexibility” in expressing their views, but at some point there were so many officers needed downtown that his department could no longer answer emergency calls.
Suburban departments and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office had to fill in. At that point, the chief says the protest had to end and he gave the order for officers to move in.
Two black 13 WHAM reporters covering the protest were swept up and detained along with the protesters. They were handcuffed but released after being identified as members of the press. Chief Ciminelli and Mayor Lovely Warren have both apologized for that.
Mayor Warren says the city reached out to the protest organizers beforehand after learning through monitoring social media that the protest was coming. Warren says they understood that this rally would be similar to earlier ones that ended after marching down Main Street. But this time, some 150 of the original 400 demonstrators returned downtown after dark and blockaded the street.