Whom the Gods Would Destroy...

They first make mad.

Yesterday (June 18, 2021), Rochester experienced its fourth gang-style execution in a week.

What distinguished this murder from the others was that the victim was a woman.

She was killed by gunshots in her car in the presence of her two daughters, aged three and eight.

The children were uninjured.

But that the murderers would undertake an execution under those conditions says a great deal about the sort of monsters who are members of those gangs.

The reaction to this latest homicide, the thirtieth in Rochester so far this year, was surprising.

Or maybe not.

Mayoral candidate Malik Evans issued a terse, probably ghost-written, statement of sorrow.

Incumbent mayor Lovely Warren said nothing about it at all.

Instead, she called a press conference to complain that the Monroe County Board of Elections was conspiring against her in the Democratic Primary Election.

There are priorities, after all.

Earlier in the week, after the second such gangland slaying took place just down the street from his barber shop, City Council Vice President Willie Lightfoot expressed shock (before the cameras) and said that we had to work with the police more closely to prevent such murders in the future.

The day before, Lightfoot voted to fund the Police Adversarial Board to the tune of $5 million, so that they continue their work of annoying and denigrating the Rochester Police Department.

The PAB would like to see the RPD defunded and dissolved, despite the fact the New York State Appellate Court ruled that the PAB has no legal right to discipline police officers and can exist only in an advisory capacity.

So why did they need that $5 million?

The next day, yet another gang-style slaying occurred just down the street from Lightfoot's barbershop.

As for the local news media regarding yesterday's murder?

The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester's only daily newspaper, buried the story on Page Four.

Clearly, the latest murder was not important enough in their eyes to get headlines on Page One.

Reporting Black on Black murders might offend woke progressives.

The local terrorist organization, Free the People ROC, might also be offended, since such stories being given front page prominence might suggest that Blacks are more prone to violence than anyone else.

So it was buried and Free the People ROC has chosen to say nothing about this or the other gang-slayings of Black people by Black people.

They have their priorities, too.

Three of their ilk are running for City Council in the primary. Something like this would only be a distraction to their candidates, so they remained silent.

So, where is all of this going?

Probably to Hell.

Nobody can stop people who want to hurt, maim and kill other people.

But reducing police presence on our streets, and the current seriously understaffed condition of RPD has made the police less intimidating to criminals.

Worse, the anti-cop attitude of the mayor's office and City Council has created an atmosphere in which crime can flourish because criminals have less to fear from the police because they have some sort of support from City Government.

Criminals have become victims because of their race and socio-economic status.

And worse still, our legal system, courtesy of woke progressive politicians' legislation (the Bail Reform Act, in particular), has made it possible for violent criminals to be arrested, arraigned and then turned loose to commit more crimes before the farce repeats itself ad infinitum.

Where does this leave we law-abiding citizens, who want to go on with our lives with a minimum of interference from government and trouble from criminal nuisances?

In the outhouse.

We have a corrupt City Government with two unworthy candidates running for mayor, the one clearly anti-cop and the other hedging his bets by not being clear about his position regarding RPD.

We have a City Council that has bought into woke progressivism, with 16 candidates running for five at-large seats, each trying to outdo themselves in their agendas for radical "reform" in Rochester, to be paid for taxpayers who don't want it.

Not one is claiming to pursue a conservative agenda of no handouts for idlers and more law enforcement.

We have a justice system that is incapable of putting violent criminals away on their first offense.

Our city is descending into chaos, which is another form of madness.

Whom the gods would destroy...