I’ve known Bob Duffy since he was a police lieutenant. I don’t pretend to understand what makes him tick, but I do know that he is a man of duty. His mom was a former nun and he grew up in a household where right was right and wrong was wrong, and where you did what was expected of you.
And that’s what he’s done now.
After a year or two of delay, he has spoken out. The quiet former lieutenant governor and Rochester mayor and police chief has released a letter he wrote on July 24 to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Speaker Carl Heastie and Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. In it, he decried unprecedented levels of violence and disorder, pointed to Democrat criminal justice reform as the cause, and implored them to call a special session of the legislature to fix things.
They didn’t.
And yesterday they buried another one of his friends and fellow officers – retired Rochester Officer Keith Booker, who was shot dead on Jefferson Avenue. Shortly after that, he agreed to the public printing of his letter to the governor, which follows..