Mary Anna Towler is furious about tactics Republican leaders
are using in Maggie Brooks’ campaign against Bill Johnson for county executive
(“Campaigning on Fear,” August 6). Republicans are perpetuating the
idea that Johnson plans to consolidate Monroe County’s towns and villages into
a single metropolitan government, and merge the city and suburban school
districts into one countywide system.
                 The
idea of the mayor attempting to pull off such a stunt is indeed ludicrous. Yet
Ms. Towler’s perspective represents a less than thorough, potentially dangerous
analysis of the situation.
                 First,
it is important to acknowledge that “a campaign of fear, divisiveness, and
hate” would be irrelevant if such sentiments were not thoroughly
entrenched among many thousands of suburban residents. It is not enough to take
Republican leaders to task over such tactics. What about their followers?
Surely Ms. Towler does not believe that suburban folks’ fear of and disdain for
city residents — and especially their endearment to apartheid schools —
began with town supervisors standing on the steps of City Hall criticizing
Mayor Johnson.
                 Second,
it is one thing to theorize that “all Monroe County elected officials —
led by the county executive in a nonpartisan manner — ought to be involved in
finding a way to educate the county’s neediest children.” Theoretically,
ethically, and morally, this is what “ought to be.” Realistically, it
is not likely to happen. In fact, it would be foolish for city residents,
especially parents, to sit around and wait for people who are “fearful,
divisive, and hateful” to take responsibility for educating city students.
                 The
truth of the matter is that legally, it is the responsibility of the Rochester
Board of Education and the State Education Department (with support from the US
Department of Education) to provide a sound, basic education for all children
within the City School District.
                 It is
critical for city residents to stop relying on our enemies to do what we can
and must do for ourselves. And if Monroe County’s Republican town leaders (at
least the eight who held the anti-Johnson — and in fact, anti-city — press
conference) are not our enemies, they ought to prove it.
Third, Ms. Towler is way off base regarding the critical issue of addressing rampant crime in
Rochester. She contends that mayors, town supervisors, and county executives
“can do little to prevent crime.” “Most especially,” she says, “they
cannot prevent the kind of crime from which Rochester is reeling right now:
young African American males callously shooting each other.”
                 She
is dead wrong. City, county, state, federal, and even town and village
officials and their law enforcement agencies can do a hell of a lot more than
they are doing to prevent young African American males from murdering each
other (mainly over issues connected to illegal drugs, and mainly with illegal weapons).
                 Hopefully, none of us are
so naive as to believe that all of the illegal drugs and weapons finding their
way into this nation, state, and city are arriving by car. We know, and the FBI
and CIA know, that the drugs and guns arrive by air and by sea. It is
interesting, to say the least, that the government can spend billions of
dollars in Iraq (uncovering or creating imaginary weapons of mass destruction),
but it can’t find weapons of mass destruction in this nation, this state, and
this city.
                 Also,
hopefully, surely we know that on their way to Rochester, some of those illegal
drugs and weapons are flowing through the towns and villages in Monroe County.
So to do more to stop young African American men from murdering each other —
mainly over illegal drugs, and mainly with illegal weapons — where there is a
will (that is, a political will), there is a way.
                 If
this is not true, we would have to conclude that Mayor Johnson was just
“blowing smoke” when he stood before the cameras of every major news
organization in Rochester on August 1 and declared that “this crime wave
will be arrested.”
However, at least two critically important questions remain:
                 1)
Will the strategies being used to help reduce rampant, criminal activities,
especially senseless killings, be sustained beyond the upcoming November
elections?
                 2)
Will Rochester police officers (in their stepped-up quest for law and order)
become overly zealous, and begin violating peoples’ civil and human rights?
                 It is
important to recall that the current effort does not represent the first, or
even the second time that the mayor and the police chief have decided to use
extraordinary measures to crack down on illegal drugs and weapons. In each
case, efforts resulted in significant, temporary success, but were largely
negated and discontinued because of police abuse.
                 Police
officers must remember that because people are involved in illegal activities
doesn’t mean that they lose their Constitutional right to humane treatment. It
is precisely because of lapses in memory, poor judgment, and over-zealousness
that officers have botched past efforts to crack down on criminal activities,
especially as it relates to illegal drugs and weapons.
                 To
“prevent the kind of crime from which Rochester is reeling now,” it
would be simply foolish for city residents to rely upon the leaders of Monroe
County’s towns and villages. They are not legally obligated to do so, and
obviously many, if not most, have no sense of moral responsibility to help —
even though they “ought to.”
                 The
bottom line is that it is the responsibility of city residents — particularly
those of us who are most negatively affected by crime and violence, a decrepit
school system, and lack of economic opportunities — to bring pressure to bear
on those who are directly and legally responsible for addressing these issues.
                 And
it is of utmost importance for us to categorically reject all perspectives that
are predicated on theories of helplessness or hopelessness.
                 Howard Eagle is a Rochester teacher and a
candidate for School Board in the September 9 primary election.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2003.
