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| Devin Alexander, 16, hits woman on side of head. |
Last Sunday a message popped up on my iPad screen from a young man who follows my work, and my blog.
"Hey Davy, I got a favor to ask you. I just saw a video of a local teen from John Marshall high school perform a "smack cam"/knock out game variant on video towards a defenseless old lady. This has really enraged me, please take a look on my page and spread it, bring justice to her. I am strictly against it and I want the people who take part in it to pay for it."
Instantly, I replied to the young man, asking him to call me.
It was then that I told him to immediately record the video directly off his computer screen, in case the suspect, who goes by the Facebook name "True Goon Tocool Sneakey", and not only committed the assault, but then posted the video on Facebook, decided to remove the video.
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| Devin Alexander "I'm bout to smack the old lady with a snowball when she come out the store!" |
"I just sent you the email and you know what? the kid JUST deleted the video"
Fast forward to today, exactly one week after I got that initial message, uploaded the 54 second video to my YouTube channel, and did a quick write-up on my blog, and the disturbing assault which occurred in Rochester's Child Street neighborhood where I grew up, has been seen throughout the world.
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And as I'm still browsing through emails and messages ranging from media inquiries for interviews, to people who have read the story and just wanted to thank me for exposing this unprovoked, senseless attack of an innocent woman, I can't help but reflect on how it got to this point.
Sunday.
After the video, and the write-up went live on my blog, I knew this incident needed as much publicity as possible.
I contacted Rochester, NY Police and asked that a supervising officer from the department's West Division call me.
NOTHING.
As expected, two things happened.
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| A&Z Market where assault took place, located at 355 Child Street. Photo by Davy V. |
First, the story on my blog immediately took off, initially averaging approximately 50 views a minute, then climbing to 100 within minutes of posting it.
Second, NOT A PEEP FROM MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA.
NADA.
Not surprisingly however, a shoplifting at a Wal- Mart store located 50 miles away from Rochester, made local news headlines!
But not a video of some thug assaulting a poor woman.
I placed another call to Rochester, NY Police.
Almost and hour passed.
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| The irony of the "NO LOITERING" sign in window, obviously not enforced by store owner. Photo by Davy V. |
In fact, it wasn't until 12 hours and about a half a dozen calls later, that Rochester Police Sgt. Waldo finally called me back.
I told Sgt. Waldo that I had uploaded video proof of a criminal assault on an elderly woman.
His response?
"I'll pass the information along."
After waiting 12 hours, the Rochester Police department's response is "I'll pass the information along"?
Sgt. Waldo's nonchalant attitude was actually a foreshadowing of what another RPD Sgt. would later say, to the first mainstream media outlet in Rochester, to cover the 'Smack Cam' assault, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.
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| Rochester, NY Police Sgt. Elena Correia says incident is harassment, not assault. |
I immediately updated my original story on my blog to not only reflect the RPD's lack of interest in the assault, but also to expose RPD Sgt. Elena Correia's comment.
In the update to my blog, I listed the phone numbers for the Rochester Police department, as well as Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren.
And then it happened.
Rochester's LAMESTREAM Corporate-America run television news media outlets, YNN Time Warner News, News 8 CBS, FOX 31, News 10NBC, and WHAM 13 ABC, finally decided to report on the story.
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| Monroe County, NY District Attorney Sandra Doorley. |
They had no choice.
They were flooded with calls and messages asking them why weren't they reporting on the story of a disgusting attack of an older woman by a thug.
A story a "Rochester blogger" (Me) broke.
A story which was going viral.
But wait, it gets better.
Remember Rochester, NY Police Sgt. Waldo and his "I'll pass the information along" comment?
And remember how RPD Sgt. Elena Correia downplayed the incident, saying it was harassment, a simple violation?
Well, with readers as far away as Malaysia reading my blog, the phones must have been ringing off the hook at the Rochester Police department and Mayor Lovely Warren's office, with the RPD in full public image damage control mode, because they went from "I'll pass the information along", then minimizing the incident by calling the assault a simple case of harassment, to identifying, and then arresting 16-year old Devin Alexander on Wednesday night.
Ahh, the power of video, the internet, negative publicity, and public pressure.
It works wonders.
It lit a fire under a police department's ass, who was never really interested in getting a coward wannabe thug off the street, and forces them to make an arrest, and gets him off the streets.
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| Rochester, NY Mayor Lovely Warren |
Gotta love it!
But wait, it gets better.
Even Monroe a County, NY District Attorney Sandra Doorley got her 15 seconds of fame as a result of the story that a "Rochester blogger" (Me) broke.
But perhaps the most disgusting part, other than the assault itself, is how Rochester, NY Mayor Lovely Warren, who on January 4th took the oath of office, then spoke of making Rochester, NY a better, safer city for everyone, including her own daughter, Taylor, HAS NOT SAID ONE WORD about the Rochester, NY 'Smack Cam' assault, being watched all over the world.
Click Play below to watch video
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Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/davyvara
