Rochester police say two men have been arrested after they damaged a statue of Frederick Douglass early Sunday morning.
John Boedicker, 20 of Endicott, and Charles Milks, 21 of Kenmore, have both been charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief. The two men, who are students at St. John Fisher College, have also been suspended by the college, effective immediately.
Police responded to Tracy Street around 12:15 a.m. Sunday for a report of men trying to steal a statue.
Tim Myers says he witnessed the men performing the damaging act and carrying the statue down Tracy Street.
“I’m terribly hurt by that. It’s a beautiful statue and how can someone just, out of the blue, come and do some kind of hate crime like that.”
Michelle Garcia-Daniels is a vigorous supporter of Douglass and his work. She and her husband sponsored the statue that was destroyed.
She is the founder of the Frederick Douglass Club and said she never thought theft and vandalism so heinous would stain a year so special.
“It should be replaced by those students, if it’s not we will seek legal action,” she said. “But I’m sure that someone will set up a GoFundMe page and if they end up having to do that, that is going to look worse on those students and their families because now their names will be continuously dragged through this process until that statue is erected.”
Carvin Eison, director of the Fredrick Douglass project, said this type of hateful behavior will not break the community’s spirit and the legacy that Fredrick Douglass left behind.
“If one monument is knocked over, 10 monuments will come to replace it and I’m sure the community of Rochester and all who contributed to us placing this monument here on the 200 anniversary of Fredrick Douglass’ birth in our community, I'm sure were going to replace it. I have no doubt about that,” Eison said.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren released a statement about the incident Monday, saying it showed a remarkable disrespect to one of the city's legends and to those who have worked so hard to celebrate his legacy during the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Using Douglass’ own words, Warren said, "We should all use this opportunity to consider the wisdom and continued relevance in Douglass's own words when he said: 'The soul that is within me, no man can degrade.’”
Statement from St. John Fisher President Dr. Gerard Rooney:
"Effective immediately, two students allegedly involved in vandalism of a Frederick Douglass statue have been suspended from the College. The suspension will continue until the legally mandated student conduct hearing addressing this matter is completed. We have taken the strongest possible action available to us at this time. In addition to continuing to follow the College’s own Student Conduct Process, the administration will cooperate fully with members of the law enforcement community."
Statement from John Boedicker:
“I’ve already gotten so much hate and people literally want me dead. I am just a regular college student who tried something so stupid it doesn’t even make sense and we just simply did not think about consequences of any sort. We realize we ended up hurting a lot of people by this and we have told many people today that we are incredibly sorry and want nothing more than to make this right. None of this was racially motivated whatsoever, and I am shameful that now I have thousands of people thinking I am someone I’m not. I understand I have hurt my future with what happened last night and I will pay those consequences. We were charged only with mischief so I imagine the cops did not believe it was racially motivated as well. We are not nor have we ever been racists, and I’m sorry to anyone I’ve offended.”
The investigation is ongoing.