Inexplicable, devastating, tragic… pick your own adjective. All apply to the deaths last week of Rochester Police Officer Daryl Pierson and entrepreneurs Larry and Jane Glazer.
The people most profoundly affected are their families and co-workers, and nothing anybody can say can ease their pain. But all three deaths will have a deep, long-lasting impact on the Rochester community.
Pierson, a dedicated young officer and devoted husband and father, died fulfilling his duty in a career he loved, shot by a parolee who was just weeks out of prison. The violence that killed Pierson is an outgrowth of a culture of violence whose roots Americans still don’t fully understand and are far from addressing adequately.
And while that culture of violence is by no means limited to inner cities, or to any race or income level, when a white police officer is killed by an African American, or when an African American is killed by a white police officer, it increases the tension and mistrust between races, and between police officers and a large segment of the community they serve.
As Rochester mourns Pierson’s death, it needs to commit itself to grappling more seriously with the roots of the violence that killed him – and that has killed far too many people in Rochester, almost all of them African Americans.
With the deaths of Larry and Jane Glazer, Rochester has lost two entrepreneurs who were successful in their own businesses and intensely committed to the community, giving their money, their time, and their energy, serving as role models and inspiring others in the process.
Jane Glazer founded her company, QCI Direct, in 1983 and built it into a thriving home-products catalog operation with 100 employees: a success story for entrepreneurs, for small businesses, and for women businesses owners. Larry Glazer’s Buckingham Properties, which he founded with former partner Harold Samloff in 1970 as a small real-estate operation, has become a major residential and commercial development firm. And most significantly, it has made enormous – literally breathtaking – investments in the City of Rochester, particularly downtown.
Larry Glazer’s faith in the city, and in downtown, has played a critical role in spurring the progress that is visible right now. And his death has stunned the large community of people who have been encouraged by his commitment to downtown: residents, businesspeople, other investors, government officials. His company has so many projects in the works, with so much potential.
Answers to “what now?” have to wait, letting his family and staff grieve. But plenty of work is waiting for the rest of the community.
Early this week, Buckingham leaders and staff released a statement expressing thanks for the community’s support and saying that they would be available soon to discuss the current projects.
And, they added, Glazer built Buckingham “one brick at a time, over 40 years,” and he created a strong company with “multiple departments staffed with strong, experienced leaders.”
Buckingham is committed to fulfilling Glazer’s legacy, they said, “one brick at a time, in a manner that will continue to make our community, and Larry, proud.”
It was a statement of confidence and commitment – important and reassuring. And while the greater community is understandably concerned about the future of massive projects like the development at Midtown, it couldn’t be successful if it depended on only one man.
Larry Glazer cannot bear the sole responsibility for the rejuvenation of downtown Rochester. That isn’t realistic. And I can’t imagine that that was his vision.
Larry Glazer, Jane Glazer, Daryl Pierson: the death of any one of them would shake the community, and there is no silver lining to the back-to-back tragedies that Rochester suffered last week. But there are opportunities. The rest of us have a responsibility to build on what these three have left behind – and to see to it that out of their deaths will come hope. And change.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
I worked in social work for many years and agree with you about releasing people with problems back into the same environment is not working. But if would be nice if you mentioned something about personal responsibility on behalf of the guy who murdered Daryl Pierson. It was not a crash. To excuse him completely on social isues is so politically correct that it is not helping the problem either.
September 5th, 2014
To the family of Officer Pierson and the Rochester Police Department : I am deeply sorry for the tragic loss of a husband, father, son, brother and more.
Officer Pierson, a decorated Rochester Police Tactical Officer, was murdered yesterday by a ” career ” criminal in an exchange of gunfire on Hudson Ave. near Avenue D in Rochester, NY. The officer was shot at close range by the accused. This ” career ” criminal was already a felon; on supervised parole by the State of New York; and, just released from serving a 3 1/2 year sentence in the Wyoming Correctional Facility.
I am OUTRAGED by this senseless, tragic, and cowardly act of violence against the Officer Pierson, the department and the Greater Rochester Community. And, I intend upon personally seeing to it… that justice is served to the fullest extent of the law. Recently, five RPD officers in our police department have been shot and seriously wounded in the line of duty… the majority of these police officer shootings have been committed by career criminals and to the best of my knowledge only one of the police officer shootings in the past were committed by TWO YOUNG MEN that were not career criminals. Officer Pierson was murdered by a ” career criminal ” in illegal possession of a stolen handgun in the progress of fleeing an officer of the law for a second violation of probation. When a convicted, served felon flees his / her probation someone has to find them wherever they may be and this is no easy task for NYS Probation or the local police departments where it is believed that the person is hiding.
All of Rochester knows that illegal handguns on the street are a big problem…but where did the murderer get the handgun ? How can this still be possible…to buy an illegal handgun as a convicted felon in 2014 ? Where are the handguns coming from in the States of our Union ? Why do young men of our Greater Rochester Area and career criminals continue to shoot, kill, and murder each other as well as police officers without any concern for life or consequences ? Why does a young wife and mother have to live the rest of her life with this terrible burden…the murder of her husband ? What will become of the children without a father ? And… more so, how can we help the entire community and the Pierson Family ?
Can we, as a community, help this family through this terrible tragedy… I know I will help the Pierson Family in any way possible. I will also, again and again…and over and over…until this entire community in Monroe County and Rochester finally realizes that all need to find solutions to this on going plague of violence and murder in Rochester toward Police ( the last line of defense). Until we remove illegal handguns …not legal handguns, however, from our streets the murder and violence will continue. Until we change the ” mindset ” of young men and career criminals the murder will continue.
We can make change by demanding a group meeting of the NYS Dept. of Parole and Corrections as well as the Monroe County Sheriff’s Dept.; The Rochester Police Dept. ; The Monroe County Dept. of Probation, Maggie Brooks of Monroe County and Lovely Warren of Rochester. Together we can and will hasten the process of finding strategies to take the handguns off the streets for illegal sale and possession. The next step would be to build probation and staffing personal to its highest level, in our communities’ histories, that would be humanly possible, in the NYS Probation and in the Monroe County Probation. The next step would be to intervene with young people at the early ages ( 7-16 years old ) of a young person’s life to attempt to change the “mindset ” that shooting someone out of fear; or because of poverty; or because there is no father present in the home; or because there are no jobs available would not be the right choice to make and that poor choices will have negative, life long consequences for all families and our community.
There are already intervention programs in Rochester but these programs are underfunded. One of many programs, Teen Empowerment, can and will be expanded to a total of three locations. Central Ave., Genesee Street., and Hudson Ave near Ave D. As well, we need to elect City, County and Supreme Court Judges that will impose proper sentencing without plea bargaining.
The most important change or requirement of probation, in my opinion, COULD be that those that are released back into society on probation, after serving ” their time “, can and will be ordered into mandatory attendance in our area churches to learn how to better live moral lives with respect, dignity, hope, trust and care toward all people.
I am going to make sure that these changes do occur in Rochester / Monroe County and I will hold all elected and appointed officials accountable in every way legally possible.
THAT IS MY PROMISE TO THE ENTIRE PIERSON FAMILY AND THE RPD…
CRAIG R. MOFFITT
81 FINNEGAN WAY
HENRIETTA,NY 14467
585 755 8821 CELL
CRAIGM590@HOTMAIL.COM