Uh, people maybe should be talking about this more.
Baltimore cop says, under oath, officers were instructed to keep a toy gun handy in their cars "to plant if they found themselves in a jam."
.
@DandC
reporters & photographers are 🚨 ON STRIKE 🚨 today alongside hundreds of Gannett colleagues. We want fair pay, an end to the cutbacks and some - any! - forward-looking plan for local journalism.
#gannettwalkout
Personal news: I'll be out on leave from the
@DandC
(and, mostly, this damned website) from tomorrow until mid-February. When I return I will have a finished manuscript for my book on the history of school segregation in Rochester, and also a son.
It took me 880 days, but I've finished a complete first draft of my book on the history of school segregation in Rochester.
The editing process still awaits. I hope to have good news about a publisher in the next month or two.
Very, very pleased to announce
@CornellPress
as the publisher for my book on the history of school segregation in Rochester, with a tentative publication date in early 2022.
Nice lengthy feature on Kodak and Rochester in
@TheAtlantic
, in which
@kait_tiffany
quotes me saying the thing I always mutter to myself when reading about Rochester in places like The Atlantic.
I don't know if I've ever seen this before: a list of all documented and suspected Underground Railroad sites in the Rochester area. From "The Old Ship of Zion," history of AME Zion Church.
Here's the great
@DandC
photo of David Gantt playing one-on-one with Mario Cuomo in downtown Rochester in 1990. It was part of the Jumpin' Jack 3-on-3 tournament that took place on main street at the time.
It’s an exciting day for journalists at the D&C. Yesterday we voted unanimously to strike starting Saturday unless
@Gannett
agrees to a fair contract by then.
This much is for certain: whether it’s this week, next week or some time after that, we’re going to get a fair contract.
In Gates Chili, the three candidates who ran on "parental rights" platform opposing anti-racism, etc., lost badly. Same so far in Churchville-Chili and Spencerport.
I’d love to share more - that’s why I’m a reporter after all! - but instead I’m clocked out to join an hour-long, nationwide walkout to protest
@Gannett
’s shameful treatment of employees. Layoffs, consolidation, low pay - they care about shareholders, not journalism.
RFD firefighter Jerrod Jones alleges captain took him & others to highly racist party on East Ave (on the clock) with fried chicken ostentatiously displayed. Here’s the notice of claim.
The students at Fairport HS asked GREAT questions today. Frankly they seemed a little put off by the sweeping structures of segregation we adults have handed down to them! Thanks for having me!
When you’re standing out on a picket in the rain and you see
@StickyLips_BBQ
pull up and start unloading platters of BBQ, just to support our cause - man, that’s a good feeling.
Excited to share the title of my book! "Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York." From James Baldwin. To be published 3/15/22, which happens to be my birthday, of all days. Happy times. Read more here:
Cuomo talking about a new strategy for the winter. and talking about the holiday 'Grinch' with more parties, etc., and the opportunity for the virus to spread.
D&C reporter Justin Murphy (
@CitizenMurphy
) breaks down how
@Gannett
has gutted the newsroom. Stunning data:
–No business reporter
–No higher ed reporter
–1 ed reporter for 21 school districts
–No coverage of hospitals
–No more biz listings
–Virtually no opinion staff
It was ridiculous on its face when Mike Mazzeo said the other day that Rochester "does not have the problems that other parts of the country have." And now we find out about this videotaped death, which he already knew about when he said that.
The fear and discomfort of (most) media around using the words “white” and “black” is just completely crippling in these situations, where a peaceful black-led protest is followed by separate destruction done, evidently, by mostly white people.
My book is officially, finally, published.
I’ve already said so much about it. I’ll just add: For four years it was my private labor. I can’t wait for everyone to read it, argue about it, interpret it, spill coffee on it and make it their own.
#BREAKING
Police are talking with residents of a home they believe are connected to the shots fired call. A neighbor reported her house was hit by possible gunfire. Nobody was hurt.
RFD firefighter Jerrod Jones alleges captain took him & others to highly racist party on East Ave (on the clock) with fried chicken ostentatiously displayed. Here’s the notice of claim.
I'm both pleased and displeased to report that the entire first print run of my book has sold out. Did so last week, in fact, with official release not until next Tuesday. More will be printed in the next few weeks. 1/2
Former Channel 10 weatherman and noted QAnon-curious insurrection-adjacent non-racist Jeremy Kappell is releasing a book on ... January 6 about the "active pursuit of freedom."
"They had witnessed evil before and now they were witnessing it again. It is only through the active pursuit of freedom and liberty that any man can actually remain free."
Book coming January 6.
#TheCalmDuringTheStorm
So far the Nicosias' attorney has shared: there are 4,000 KFCs in the U.S. and they can't all be racist; Black people aren't the only ones allowed to celebrate Juneteenth; this was a "liberal bashing party"; they have a Jamaican tenant on their property. ...
The
@rocnewsguild
is on strike, and I’m proud to stand among my colleagues.
Please don’t visit
@DandC
website while we’re out. Contributions to the strike fund will keep our members afloat as we fight for our rights:
Too bad an actual journalist wasn't enlisted to write this story, as it has clearly verifiable claims that an, again, actual journalist would have felt obligated to pursue before publishing.
Rochester’s Park Avenue Festival wasn’t cancelled over fear of covid, it was cancelled over fear of protests. That’s the opinion of various people knowledgeable about the situation.
Summary of schools elections: residents across Monroe County reject efforts to roll back DEI/anti-racism efforts, with partial exception of Greece. All budgets & props pass. Webster board president loses badly. My story to be published first thing in the morning.
"Racism is often perpetuated by the very nice, very kind people who decided to move out to Hilton and didn’t think to ask why there’s no black people out there."
@DumiLM
#tellEWA
@AnnieWaldman
@nhannahjones
Racism is "not a culture in my home," says Mary Nicosia, right after conceding that the piggybank shown here in her Twitter account is a decoration in their home. (screengrab by
@GinoFanelli
)
The two things taking up most of my energy the last two days are the RFD racism story and our
@rocnewsguild
struggle against Gannett in the interest of local journalism. I'd like to lay out the way I reported that story in a way that hopefully illuminates our labor interests. 1/
Quite pleased to announce I've received a
@ReportingHealth
fellowship for a project on the urban forest in Rochester. Why is the tree canopy so lush in relatively white & wealthy n'hoods vs elsewhere, and what are consequences for health & the environment?
On the point about receiving threats, I should say that when I knocked on their door (before the presser) I saw several signs posted by side door to the effect that trespassers would be shot.
I've seen about 10,000 press conferences in my life. Never one like that.
It was apparent to us early on that Gannett’s objective wasn’t to gain any particular item in the contract but rather to send a message to other units that organizing & striking wouldn’t work.
My people, it worked like a damn charm. Now we’re going to spread the word.
NEWS: This morning our members unanimously ratified a new two-year contract, our first since 2019. It comes after more than two years of negotiations with
@nyguild
and a 19-day strike in April, the first in our history. ✊✊✊
Former RCSD board member & mental health professional Melanie Funchess: "If your interpretation is that our kids can handle it because it's their everyday (experience), you're normalizing the snuffing out of our kids' lives. ... We're normalizing warlike conditions."
Cynthia Elliott, speaking about how students returned to class after the incident: "This is something that happens in our community all the time. You can’t stop living. And that includes – you have to go to school."
Susan B. Anthony said she didn't seek & wouldn't value a pardon. "A judicial opinion - unless based on evenhanded justice and truth - is not worth the paper it is written on - and can hurt or hinder none save its author, none save the judge whom it dooms to everlasting infamy."
To be extremely clear,
@salmaiorana
isn’t recalling anything for the
@DandC
right now. He’s been on the picket line every day standing up for his colleagues.
My story on housing discrimination in Rochester is now unpaywalled. "This is the only town that I have lived in that is it literally impossible for a Negro to rent a decent house or apartment and can purchase one only through some subtle technique."
Asked about
@realDonaldTrump
blaming
@BetoORourke
's gun removal comments for making it harder to pass gun control,
@SenSchumer
says: "I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke, but it’s no excuse not to go forward."
Apart from everything else going on here: the local Democratic leadership not only won’t support even studying the hypothetical concept of countywide schools as a solution to racial segregation, but is actively using it as a bogeyman.
Like why is
@MCDC_Rochester
paying for and supporting garbage like this?
And funny enough, it arrived today, the day after primary day. So they couldn’t even get it sent out in time.
(Source: Shared by a friend.)
Not even being provocative but if you think Greta Thunberg has the maturity to guide global policy-making then you cannot object to Jeffrey Epstein paying 16-year-olds for sex.
Several patrons have asked, so here’s a running list of books that have been challenged or banned throughout the United States in 2022 (and where to find them in the Monroe County Library System)
10 years ago tomorrow I put on this dork outfit, picked up an empty briefcase for some reason and headed out the door for my first day at the
@DandC
. It's been fun!
After protests from residents,
@NYCLU
, Pittsford drops $8,500 fee for drag story hour. First event will be 4/15 at Book Culture; second one announced for 4/23 at community center.
84 Scio St. is Rochester Friends Meeting (Quakers). City Blue has always been a good neighbor to us and we’re glad to have an opportunity to help in return.
UPDATE: City Blue imaging will reopen at a temporary location at 84 Scio Street on Tuesday. The company says updated contact information will be available tomorrow on its Facebook page.
@SPECNewsROC
@david_andreatta
I get that Dao may be a local celeb, & that's worth pointing out locally. But needed to be framed way better - maybe not its own story. 1/2
If you guys think the president absconding from the infectious disease unit is hot news, wait until you see this carefully reported special education compliance story I'm working on
We usually talk about anti-racism education as a strategy for the future, which it is. But this killer was 18, meaning he likely just got done with U.S. History and possibly a government class in high school. The stakes are incredibly high.
Hate has no place...
We must educate our children early and often about the contributions of all citizens.
Children devoid of balanced perspectives are more likely to believe and act on pretenses harmful to themselves and others.
Pray for Buffalo, NY!
If Warren is correct in saying that Singletary knowingly concealed from her that police had caused a death that later was ruled a homicide and referred to the AG - if that's correct, it's hard to understand how he doesn't get a worse consequence than being thrown under the bus.
My story on slavery and the founding of Rochester is now out from behind the paywall. Did you know that 16 years after Nathaniel Rochester moved to New York he still owned people in slavery and was renting them out for income?
It appears this is a good time to share my policy on blocking: any personal attacks, blatant racism/misogyny/etc., or claims that my colleagues or I are writing fake news. I earn $0.00 for these tweets and don’t acknowledge anyone’s inherent right to follow along.
It really feels like shouting into the void at this point, but, for God's sake, if Gannett would just stop laying people off (I should have mentioned there's a round of layoffs going on literally as we speak), we could really do so much good for our communities. 9/9
Thursday evening was supposed to be the welcome picnic for Adria and
@nataliarodmed
, our other
@Report4America
fellow. Instead they spent all night working the protest, before and after👇 getting pepper sprayed. I think we got some real ones y’all
New from me: wealthy & white Rochester neighborhoods are covered in trees; elsewhere, the canopy is sparse, with major consequences for public health. What will the city do about it?
James Baldwin in Rochester, Nov. 1986, about a year before his death. “America is terrified about accepting the truth of its history. It’s like a very I’ll person, paralyzed, unable to deal with itself.”
Holy smokes, a lot of news for a Monday morning.
@WillCleveland13
with a massive scoop: five high-powered national law firms file class action suit against RPD alleging decades of systemic police brutality:
It’s hard to overstate how ubiquitous Gary the Happy Pirate was for Rochester children in the ‘90s. School field day? He was there. Little League parade? There. Random day at summer camp? Gary the Happy Pirate. He was an easy target to joke about, but the man worked his ass off.
The founding of Monroe County on this date 200 years ago is also the story of how Rochester supplanted Canandaigua as the dominant metropolis in the area. C was established first and was home of the Phelps & Gorham land office 1/
Baseball Park, Rochester, NY, Aug 20, 1910 - More than 18,000 are crammed in to watch two top Eastern League teams, Newark Indians and Rochester Hustlers, face off in second game of a twin bill (Newark won first game) but its called due to darkness and declared a 4-4 tie
A new chunk of my book research published today for
@DandC
subscribers: George Eastman built Rochester as we know it. But, as his (Black) butler put it: "It was never his intent that African-Americans would be working in a factory in Rochester.”
This is exactly the kind of performative foolishness that wastes energy and momentum for real reform. The Thruway is already named for someone - do you know who, without clicking the link? Of course you don’t. No one cares.
Aright I’m on duty tonight with
@adriawalkr
@sdowdphoto
@tyee23
. This is going to be a big opportunity for the rubber goggles that came free with my low-end power drill like 10 years ago.