Tea and Vitriol

The Police Accountability Board (PAB) needs no introduction to anyone who has lived in Rochester, New York for the last six years or is an aficionado of Black Comedy.  Or to anyone who has read this blog for the last few years. That being the case, only a cursory history of the PAB will be provided here. The PAB was originally conceived to be a body of citizens appointed to investigate alleged incident of police abuse regarding their interaction with criminals. To be appointed to this "august" group, one needed to be a resident of the City of Rochester. Some weren't. A prospective candidate could not be related to, or be a friend of, a Rochester City Police Officer. But they could, and many are, family and friends of criminals. Clearly, the PAB was never meant to be unbiased in their investigations. The creation of the PAB was approved by a majority of voters during an election with a low turnout and City Government promptly budgeted it with $5 million a year! Then delusi

Since its creation as a result of a referendum vote in 2019, Rochester's Police Accountability Board has provided endless hours of mirth and disgust. An expensive and mysterious nuisance, it has accomplished nothing since its inception except to spend millions of dollars and claim an authority over the police department that two court cases ruled they did NOT have. Supposedly answerable to City Council, the PAB claims it is independent of that body and is answerable to no one. And they have ignored demands for transparency, while they demand it of City Government and the police department. The latest scandal revolves around the "integrity" of the PAB, with tales of dysfunctionality and sexual harassment to entertain the taxpayers stuck paying the PAB's bills and salaries. Two founding members of the PAB, Dr. Celia McIntosh and Ida Perez who had an unquestioned history of integrity in Rochester's politics and neighborhood advocacy, resigned in March of this year, s

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

 Let's face it. Rochester has become a very dangerous place in which to live. Last night we had four shootings within an hour, only a short distance apart from each other. This is besides the other shootings, stabbings and assaults that are now Rochester's "New Norm." The victims were all women. One of them died. She was the 36th victim so far this year. Usually, shooting victims are men.  I suppose that, in a spasm of equality, women are now considered fair game for violent death. And the interim chief of police took off for the weekend, going on "vacation." Despite all the Pollyannas out there trying to tout the benefits of living in our fair city, Rochester was considered to be New York State's "Murder Capital" long before Mayor Warren's administration began. The anti-cop, pro-criminal atmosphere created by both her administration and City Council merely intensified the situation in Rochester, helping to maintain and expand its grip on t