.. . . for dumping the Chief of Police?So two days after the election, Mayor Duffy essentially fires Police Chief David Moore and replaces him effective today. That's the Mayor Duffy who in seven weeks won't be Mayor any longer. He assures us it has nothing to do with "wrongdoing," even though nobody asked that question (and in the cocoon of media protection in which Duffy lives political life, no one will).
Here's how Rochester suffers from not having a quality daily newspaper. And from local broadcast media that won't step up to fill the gap.
Why is no one questioning the timing of the abrupt police chief switch-out? That it was done right after the election and clearly planned beforehand?
Why wouldn't an outgoing Mayor leave a fundamental change in a key City department to his successor? To the Mayor who will be working with the police chief?
Is it because the new Mayor's already been chosen, and the process wired for him or her -- and that new Mayor-to-be is on board with the change?
What's the real reason? Was there a problem? Was it a concession to the police union in negotiations going on with the City?
Why now?
Yet with no explanation and suspect timing, local media give the episode a free pass, never asking, "What's really going on?" If a Republican County Executive made an analagous move under the same circumstances, there'd be a full-blown media investigation.
Instead, there's no one other than we citizen bloggers to ask, "What's going on behind closed doors at City Hall?"
1 comment:
I agree that the whole firing reeks but I don't buy the bit about the broadcast media. WHAM is doing a heck of a job given the resources they have.
Example: The day before Moore resigned, WHAM aired an investigative piece showing that officers responding to a shooting were called off because it was shift change, and they've FOIL'd the GPS locations of all cars at that time. It looks like a major story -- the reduction in the number of police stations causes a weakness around shift change, especially because mgt is trying to avoid OT -- and it's interesting that Moore resigned the next day.
By the way - Rachel Barnhart's Twitter feed is a good resource for Rochester news. She's always skeptical about Duffy, Brizard, etc.
Post a Comment