Pubdate: Mon, 13 Nov 2006
Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY)
Copyright: 2006 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.democratandchronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/614

A WAR ZONE

Attack Systemic Causes of Last Week's Shocking Violence

For far too many children in  Rochester, a homicide in the
neighborhood is no longer  shocking. Many who live in the most violent
areas of  the city have grown numb even to shootings in broad  daylight.

Community leaders must do more to give them back their
innocence.

Between Sunday and Thursday of last week, at least one  person per day
died violently in this city. Police  Chief David Moore is responding
by putting 36 more  officers on the streets to aggressively search for
  illegal guns and crack down on illegal drug markets.  That should at
least help city residents feel safer.

The city, county and state must also find a way to  expand Operation
Impact, a program that brought in  around 40 state troopers and
sheriff's deputies to help  patrol Rochester in the late summer. For
the three  months that this program was in effect, the homicide  rate
dropped precipitously. That's a sign that more  resources can help cut
violence over the short term.

This page has said it before, and will say it again:  The city cannot
depend exclusively on the police to  solve this problem. If young men,
and sometimes women,  are roaming the streets, prepared to take lives
with  illegal guns, it too often means that parents have  failed. So
have the school system, churches, the  economy and society at large.

When Mayor Duffy was the city's police chief, he  stressed the
importance of attacking the root causes of  crime. Now that Duffy is
mayor, it's good that he is  trying to get businesses to provide jobs
for city  youths through the city's Summer of Opportunity  program.
It's critical to provide young people with  employment opportunities
beyond the drug trade, which  results in so much street violence.

It's also important for the community to keep exploring  outgoing
school Superintendent Manuel Rivera's  Children's Zone concept, which
would unite social  service agencies to address the societal ills that
make  it difficult for children to achieve in school.

In eight of the past 11 years, Rochester has had the  highest per-
capita murder rate of any city in New  York.

The community can and must do better. 
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MAP posted-by: Amy