Young men were fatally shot this summer outside of places that are supposed to be safe havens for city youth: the David F. Gantt Community Center on Webster Avenue and the Boys and Girls Club on Genesee Street. The killings resulted in loud calls for something to be done about the chronic violence plaguing some Rochester neighborhoods.
But violence is a complicated problem. Governments and communities need to discuss and put in place comprehensive, multi-faceted approaches if they want lasting change.
This summer’s violence has now entered the Monroe County executive race. This morning, Democratic candidate Sandy Frankel released an anti-violence agenda, which includes enacting the recommendations of a 1992 report from the Community Mobilization Against Violence.
Among the report’s recommendations is the creation of a joint city-county anti-violence task force, which Frankel says would be implemented within 30 days of her election. She says she’d also create an Office of Anti-Violence within the county’s Department of Public Safety to staff the task force. (The 1992 report is attached at the end of this post.)
“We must transform our shock and grief into a shared resolve to address the root causes of violence,” Frankel says in a statement. “We must work together to ensure that our children are not another statistic. We must stand together against this tide of violence.”
The task force would go through the 1992 report to weed out dated recommendations and prioritize others, many of which deal with addressing Rochester’s concentrated poverty. The task force would also examine the upcoming Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative report to identify complementary proposals, Frankel says. And it’d analyze the role that organized and ad hoc youth gangs play in the violence, she says.
Frankel lays out several other proposals in her press release:
- Creating an outreach team within the county’s Office of Mental Health to respond to acts of violence. The OMH staff will work with clergy, community organizations, and families of past victims to provide counseling and support, and to “determine the short- and long-term needs of the community”;
- asking the state attorney general to provide an ongoing gun-buyback amnesty program for Monroe County and proposing legislation that would require gun buyers to also purchase a gun lock;
- directing the county’s public safety and human services administrators to work with the sheriff to develop a plan to increase recruitment of minorities and women to jobs as deputies. Frankel says she’ll also invite clergy to partner in the effort;
- starting an internship and loan program at Monroe Community College where income-eligible youth would be able to repay their student-loan debt by working as police officers or human services workers.
1992 Community Mobilization Against Violence Report by jmouleatcity
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2015.
Spin those wheels!
It would appear that our otiose and chronically underperforming politicians are on a learning curve that is almost perfectly horizontal.
I believe Sandy is the first candidate or elected official in Monroe County to address our summer of violence directly with policy proposals and suggestions. This is the kind of leadership we need.
Where is she proposing to lead you? The common theme of her remarks is LEAVE NO SOCIAL WORKER behind. Other than feeding the Democratic Party’s bourgeois clientele, does she propose one thing in accord with common sense or with successful efforts at crime control implemented in the last 25 years? East Orange, NJ engineered 50% cut in murder rates, a 60% cut in the frequency of rape and a 67% cut in the frequency of robbery and aggravated assault. Some aspects of how they achieved that are delineated here:
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_3_nypd.html
The demographics of East Orange are passably similar to those of the 22d and 25th county legislative districts. Rochester can go to school – if it cares to do so.
Let’s just look at one area-The Cause of Violence
“Reducing violence requires some understanding of it’s causes. The origins of the problem, however, are not well understood. What is known offers no quick fixes or certain cures.”
The authors are honest enough to say they don’t know the causes, but it’s been 23 years since this report came out and they still don’t know or maybe don’t want to admit the causes.
Additionally, the 50 year “war on poverty ” is a failure.
What is the definition of insanity again?
Great to see a candidate talking about this….and a county candidate at that.
How about a special police district covering the 14 core municipalities in the county? It could be financed by a special sales tax levied in those municipalities. It would incorporate the Rochester Police Department, the six suburban departments, and about 55% of the manpower of the Police Bureau of the Sheriff’s Department. Once formed, a 70% increase in manpower would be the order-of-the-day, implemented as rapidly as it could be without sacrificing quality. Optimal deployment would be the order of the day. Education in William Bratton’s methods would be the order of the day. Use a plane on that door. Don’t try to plane the door with an eraser.
Another bunch of ridiculous feel-good suggestions by a liberal out-of-touch politician. I’m sure all the gang bangers will line up to turn in their weapons, and all of those ILLEGALLY purchased guns (being used in the majority of cases of local violence) will all come with gun locks. How about a task force to crack down on GANG violence instead of imposing more rules on law-abiding gun owners? Or does that make too much sense?
A task force! Is that the best that Frankel can offer? She might as well have said nothing. The poster that mentioned a 70% increase in the number of police to be financed by a sales tax increase made more sense.
Sandy Frankel is smart enough to realize that if we don’t address city poverty and violence now, then the costs will be much higher down the road. We needed a joint city-county anti-violence task force yesterday!