I can't say I have any answers for you, but maybe a little insight: in late March 2020, a naked man high on PCP aspirated on his vomit and died while wearing a spit hood, which officers placed on him while waiting for an ambulance because he was spitting on them and screaming that he was going to give them covid. There was some outrage at the time but it didn't really explode until post-Floyd, when protestors set cop cars on fire and harassed outdoor diners. Meanwhile, a seemingly botched investigation into the incident and a lot of blame-shifting further exacerbated tensions between the wildly corrupt and incompetent then-mayor and the fairly new chief of police, who eventually resigned. A Police Accountability Board was established, quickly became a den of back-biting and workplace harassment, and has done fuck-all except form a union, which appears to be their primary and perhaps only interest.
The city schools are abysmal, though well-funded, and the only solution progressives are interested in is creating a county-wide school district (because when all the schools are equally shitty, no one will notice). Of course, city public school kids were also locked out of in-person school long after private and suburban students had returned to class. Even the magnet schools don't seem to be working like they did when I was in high school and knew plenty of these kids from work and extra-curriculars.
The increase in car thefts for this period (up 350% in the county, and over 800% in the city) also vastly outpaces the rest of the state, and lends an edge of unwanted excitement to running errands around town (unlicensed fourteen year olds are not good drivers). Obviously it's the gangs and the drugs and the guns, but there's a pervasive sense of lawlessness that makes it feel so hopeless. I think the cops are demoralized, the teachers are demoralized, and the working people in the tough parts of the city are, as always, bearing the worst of everything.
I can't say I have any answers for you, but maybe a little insight: in late March 2020, a naked man high on PCP aspirated on his vomit and died while wearing a spit hood, which officers placed on him while waiting for an ambulance because he was spitting on them and screaming that he was going to give them covid. There was some outrage at the time but it didn't really explode until post-Floyd, when protestors set cop cars on fire and harassed outdoor diners. Meanwhile, a seemingly botched investigation into the incident and a lot of blame-shifting further exacerbated tensions between the wildly corrupt and incompetent then-mayor and the fairly new chief of police, who eventually resigned. A Police Accountability Board was established, quickly became a den of back-biting and workplace harassment, and has done fuck-all except form a union, which appears to be their primary and perhaps only interest.
The city schools are abysmal, though well-funded, and the only solution progressives are interested in is creating a county-wide school district (because when all the schools are equally shitty, no one will notice). Of course, city public school kids were also locked out of in-person school long after private and suburban students had returned to class. Even the magnet schools don't seem to be working like they did when I was in high school and knew plenty of these kids from work and extra-curriculars.
The increase in car thefts for this period (up 350% in the county, and over 800% in the city) also vastly outpaces the rest of the state, and lends an edge of unwanted excitement to running errands around town (unlicensed fourteen year olds are not good drivers). Obviously it's the gangs and the drugs and the guns, but there's a pervasive sense of lawlessness that makes it feel so hopeless. I think the cops are demoralized, the teachers are demoralized, and the working people in the tough parts of the city are, as always, bearing the worst of everything.
Why is Rochester so violent?