Tea and Vitriol

It was such a sad story. Sixteen-year-old Jaquise Davis was coming home from work at Walmart on the night of August 8 this year. On Pennsylvania Avenue, where he lived, a car was speeding down the street. It was a stolen car, taken at gunpoint from the corner of Garson Avenue and North Goodman Street just moments before. Just as Jaquise entered his home, a gunshot rang out and he was killed, an innocent bystander in Rochester's ongoing "Murder Marathon." Immediately, the media went to work! Friends and family stated what a "good boy" Jaquise was, so kind and helpful. Citygov dusted off its usual statement at how shocked they were at this senseless crime. East High School announced that they were providing emotional support and counselors for students who were aggrieved by their friend's death. And the family created a "Go Fund Me" account to help with the expenses of the funeral and to give Jaquise a decent send off. Such a tragic story of a nice y

My bet is "Yes." From the minute Mahweak Evans won the Democratic primary vote in 2021, he was guaranteed the mayorship in November's general election. During the interim, violent crime in Rochester exploded, as did its number of homicides. In fact, 2021 was a record-breaker for the number of homicides that were committed in our fair city. Mahweak did nothing, apart from occasionally expressing that his heart was broken. Apparently, Mahweak's heart is a remarkably resilient organ. Nor did he provide Rochester with any idea about how he would combat this uptick in violence, probably because he didn't know what to do in the first place. On January 1, 2022, Mahweak was finally crowned and enthroned. He promptly announced that he would be putting all of Rochester's anti-violence programs, all stunning failures, under his control, which he promptly handed off to his cousin, Victor Saunders. There was no noticeable improvement as violent crime continued to escalate.