Non Compos Mentis: The Asinine Priorities of the Evans Regime and Rochester's City Council.

The old saying goes: "Be careful what you wish for. You might get it."

In 2021, a large percentage of voters wanted to remove Lovely Warren from the mayoral throne and were not particularly fussy about the character of the person who would succeed her.

They got their wish and elected Malik (Mahweak) Evans as mayor.

Despite the media blitz to create a positive persona in order to sell the public on Mahweak, it never really took off because the reality of his political history was pretty dismal and too many people knew it to be taken in by all of the hype that now surrounded him.

Still, enough people came to believe that their "creation" had the answers to all of their questions and the solutions to Rochester's serious problem of crime, poverty and a failing school system.

Only it soon became evident that Evans really had no solutions to anything, which quickly produced a sense of "buyers' remorse" among people who were once his cheerleaders.

My only question for those disappointed supporters is: What did you expect him to do? You only wanted to get rid of Lovely. That was his only function. 

However, Mahweak DID start becoming a tad more active once he was ensconced on the mayoral throne.

Continuing the anti-cop attitude of the previous mayoral administration, he effectively ordered Captain Frank Umbrino of RPD NOT to speak at press conferences regarding the continued spike in crime, violence and homicide.

Frank's candid, truthful explanations about incidents of crime were not politically correct, so he had to be muzzled.

Another reason Frank had to be muzzled is because he is too popular with most residents, who trusted his observations more than the pronouncements made by a regime that was quickly being seen as not particularly effective and its leadership weak.

Mahweak would not extend olive branches to RPD and RPD was not particularly fond of him, either, and saw no reason to trust him.

Mahweak's next trick was to put all of Rochester's "safety initiatives" directly under the control of the mayor's office, meaning his own cousin, Victor Saunders. They weren't particularly effective at curtailing violence and crime in Rochester before, but they did allow for the hiring of political, familial and social favorites at high salaries.

Now they would languish under the control of a man who didn't know what to do with them or, really, anything else.

While, as of this writing, there have been 17 homicides in Rochester since the beginning of the year, not to mention non-fatal shootings, stabbings, assaults, car jackings and shootings into homes occupied by people, Mahweak giggled almost girlishly about getting $100 million from the state to fill in the NE section of the Inner Loop.

He didn't realize that $100 million won't go far and that the state got off cheaply because the cost to maintain the Inner Loop costs the state more than that annually and by filling it in Albany won't have to shell out the money to maintain it anymore.

And of course, Mahweak is unconcerned about the collapsing infrastructure all about Rochester, because of his excitement about having a new state park built at High Falls on the site of a toxic waste dump.

That will undoubtedly bring in millions of tourist dollars...if they are willing to drive through our crime-ridden city to go to a dead downtown that closes up at 5 PM weekdays and looks like a ghost town on weekends.

His most recent televised ramblings were about the establishment of stores where legal marijuana would be sold, where previously convicted drug dealers would be getting the first crack for applying for licenses to sell pot.

The money from the sales tax revenue would go in part to help poor Blacks realize the "American Dream" of home ownership and act as a form of reparations to Blacks for slavery.

All of this while ignoring the bodies being stacked like cordwood in certain neighborhoods, blood staining the streets and sidewalks and bullet casings becoming a common sight in our city like any other litter that people ignore.

Well, there ARE priorities, after all!

Having an ineffective person lacking leadership qualities on the mayoral throne is one thing, because the mayor is only part of Rochester's political equation.

The other part is Rochester's equally asinine City Council, comprised of domestic political terrorists, White woke progressives and egotists who wish to use City Hall as a forum to expose themselves to the world.

Their antics are just as asinine as Mahweak's.

In a city with a huge spike in crime, our august council cannot be bothered to bring to task the ambulance company, AMR, that has a contract with Rochester and is chronically late at accidents or scenes of violence, if they show up at all. 

Lately, Gates Ambulance and other suburban ambulance companies have found it necessary to come to handle Rochester's cases, and thank heaven that they have. Too many victims of Rochester's exploding rates of violence have found it necessary to be taken to emergency rooms at local hospitals in private vehicles because AMR cannot be bothered to show up.

Yet City Council cannot even be bothered to threaten them with a termination of contract and search for a different provider.

Instead, they went out of their way to find a new headquarters for the so-called "Police Advisory Board" in the Democrat and Chronicle's new building, and pay their rent.

The PAB serves no real purpose other than to annoy the police and law abiding citizens and consists entirely of cop-haters.

Worse, City Council voted last year to give the PAB a budget of $5 million!

At the same time, City Council has pursued defunding and disbanding the police department, despite the spike in crime, the resignation and retirement of some of the most experienced police officers in the department (in response to City Gov's anti-cop attitude) and the demands of most frightened, law-abiding residents that the RPD be beefed up!

That City Council pooh-poohs those fears is exemplified by the flea-brained proposals of one of its most outspoken members, Crazy Mary.

She and her twisted sister in the Monroe County Legislature, La Barnhart, believe that the police department can be replaced by what they refer to as "violence interrupters."

If anyone cares to read about them, here is a link to their website: https://www.violenceinterrupters.org.

That appears to be a similar, although grittier and more hands-on initiative, than Pathways to Peace, which has been a failure here.

Unfortunately, violence interrupters don't seem to be of much use where actual violence is taking place, like in shootings or knife fights, and their legal ability to arrest and take into custody violent individuals is nil.

Nor do they receive the extensive training police officers do to handle those and other explosive situations.

A local branch would also be expensive to maintain but, then, neither of these two are concerned with cost since taxpayers will foot the bill and money is evil or it grows on trees and is therefore cheap!

Nor have they been particular effective where they have been established.

But, "The Two," as these gingers are sometimes known, see it as a viable way to get rid of RPD, without ever quite mentioning their own personal grudges with the police.

And then, both the mayor's office and City Council prattle on eternally about addressing the causes of violence and crime, yet neither seem to be overly concerned about the victims of violence and crime, despite occasionally babbling worn out phrases about being disgusted, outraged and heartbroken when such incidents occur.

Which, I doubt, is of much comfort to the victims.