Malik Evans won the Democratic primary 270 days ago.
He swore in as mayor 77 days ago.
But he has yet to find a police chief or set forth a plan for stemming the rampant violence in his city.
I like Malik Evans. I have high hopes for his administration.
But it’s time to get off the dime.
Nine months with no action on the single most important issue facing the residents of Rochester is unacceptable. With the year-to-date homicide tally already 30% higher than last year’s worst-ever total, this is not the time for press-conference posturing and the regurgitation of national-party talking points, it’s time to lead.
And Malik Evans needs to lead.
It is absolutely mystifying that he has not yet hired a permanent police chief. That all-important position in his administration should have been announced before he was sworn in.
As it is, he has a good-hearted but hamstrung interim chief who – by the mayor’s own posturing – is nothing more than a placeholder. There can be no bold leadership, no introduction of new programs or initiatives, no strategic thinking.
Worse, the police chief and his department operate under the cloud of City Hall condemnation. The lingering war against the Rochester Police Department that erupted on the streets in the summer of 2020 and smoldered in the mayor’s office in the last administration has not been repudiated or replaced by a new defining perspective. The last we heard of the police department, it was in need of a super chief who would rebuild relations with the community, provide new direction and professionalize the force.
That means that, until the new chief gets here and works her wonders, the current department must be a bunch of screw ups.
At least that’s the implication of the mayor’s nebulous promises of the future.
Well, the time for promises is past.
Hire a damn chief. Within, without, wherever.
There’s a whole industry of traveling city chiefs – straight from central casting – pick one. There are at least a half dozen completely qualified potential chiefs within the Rochester Police Department – pick one.
Stop passing the buck to some unnecessary “search firm” you’re wasting money on. Stop with the community input and committee report nonsense. Just hire a damn chief. You were able to find a whole raft of other senior staffers and department heads – who largely seem to be excellent selections – do the same thing for the police department.
And do it now.
And lay out, immediately, your city’s plan for saving lives.
For crying out loud, a 17-year-old boy getting off the school bus was gunned down and killed just a week ago – less than two years after that same young man’s father was himself shot and killed on the streets of your city.
As they say, this shit’s real, and you’ve got to get real, too.
And don’t pretend that political stunts like this week’s visit from the lieutenant governor mean anything. When the mayor and the lieutenant governor come up with crime “solutions” that are nothing more than posturing to help their party’s political position, you’re not fighting homicide, you’re exploiting it.
Your “iron pipeline” nonsense about out-of-state guns being the cause of Rochester homicide supports a political gun-banning initiative of the national Democratic Party but doesn’t mean a thing in the real world. It’s not Pennsylvania guns, it’s New York murderers. It’s not the gun laws of Virginia Republicans, it’s the bail laws of New York Democrats. It’s the lawlessness of your streets.
And talking about more resources for more non-profits to do more job training and more conflict resolution is a great way to rationalize more money for the non-profits that are the backbone of Democrat patronage jobs, but it is a demonstrably ineffective way to stop crime. The more you spend on Pathways to Peace the more crime you have. These all may be well-intended and earnestly applied efforts, but they are also – based on crime statistics – undeniably ineffective.
Talking about pistols and jobs, and the endless recitation of the phrase “gun crime,” makes for fawning coverage on the 6 o’clock news, but the body count proves that it’s all a bunch of nothing.
Which is what you’ve done to fight crime thus far, Mr. Mayor.
And you can do better.
You’re not an idiot. You have great capability. You’re the real deal.
But the proof is in the pudding.
And your city is out of control.
And you haven’t even hired a police chief.