Issac Bailey, reacting to the death of Daniel Prude, writes that when Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said she was misled by the police chief to think that Prude’s death was the result of a drug overdose before she saw the bodycam footage, it was yet another reminder that there are police officers who concoct narratives that try to make a victim seem less deserving of justice. It’s through this lens that many are seeing the latest Breonna Taylor news about an alleged plea agreement and a leaked police memo.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren has told reporters she had been misled by the city’s police chief, who she said led her to believe Prude died in police custody of an apparent overdose — before she saw the bodycam footage herself. Prude’s brother said that his brother was on PCP and was hallucinating and having suicidal thoughts. Daniel Prude, who was naked when police apprehended him, clearly needed help. Instead, he died at the hands of police, and then the chief tried, as noted by Warren, to blame his drug use for his death. The police chief didn’t tell the mayor that officers restrained Prude. It’s yet another reminder that there are police officers who omit important details, concocting a narrative that tries to make a victim seem less deserving of justice. It’s through this lens that many are seeing the latest news about Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Kentucky EMT whose death at the hands of police in March is under investigation. Instead of being able to focus on the need to hold the people responsible for her death to account, we now have to contend with additional confusion. Taylor’s family attorney, Sam Aguiar, said that in July, Louisville prosecutors offered Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover (whose suspected drug activity was the reason police entered Taylor’s apartment with a no-knock warrant) a plea agreement that referred to Breonna Taylor as a co-defendant.
