Is the New Anti-Crime Task Force Really A Cause for Celebration?

One of the biggest news stories of the day has to do with a new, local anti-crime task force, apparently focusing specifically on illegal drugs and guns.( https://www.minorityreporter.net/post/22-arrested-in-rochester-drug-and-gun-investigation-police-seize-fentanyl-cocaine-and-firearms ). Supposedly, this effort represents a reason for optimism and hope.

Howard Eagle

All I can say is - it's about damn time, but don't forget, we've heard and seen this before.Y'all do remember the so-called "Viper Task Force" - right??? They too, were supposedly, "here to stay," and then poof - they were gone ( https://13wham.com/news/local/federal-task-force-to-deal-with-gun-crime-in-rochester-ends )!!!  

As it relates to the current initiative - considering all of the announced, MASSIVE RESOURCES they have at their disposal  - they need to do a HELL-OF-A- LOT- BETTER than merely arresting 22 people, and confiscating 26 illegal guns and a crossbow, especially since it took more than a year to accomplish. That sure sounds like chronic gradualism to me. 

Additionally, with regard to this 'big' announcement - am I the only one wondering where was the bumbling-fumbling Mayor, and his chronically-monotone Police Chief? Is it coincidental that the County Executive's brother is leading the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT? Could this possibly be related to the fact that it's relatively close to ELECTION TIME???

As it relates to illegal guns in particular - what I have been asking (LITERALLY FOR DECADES), and what nobody seems able, and/or willing to answer is: How is it that the Rochester Police Department, Monroe County Sheriff's Department, New York State Troopers, FBI, CIA, ATF, DEA HS, and a whole bunch of other alphabet soup, so-called law enforcement agencies (with all of their super-sophisticated intelligence and technology) can't seem to locate and stop the ILLEGAL GUNS that flow (not only through Rochester but through predominantly Black neighborhoods throughout this thoroughly racist, white supremacist-based nation-state—in every direction: North, East, South, and West—like water flows from Niagara Falls? Yet, the youth, as well as older people, know exactly where to find them, i.e., it seems that every young person, or older person in decrepit Black communities who wants an ILLEGAL GUN, either has one, or can easily get one, which they are using, and have been using for many decades to commit socially, economically, politically, and culturally-induced/engineered/allowed fratricide - on a daily basis.

CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT THE LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL RESPONSES WOULD BE LIKE IF THE CONDITIONS DESCRIBED ABOVE EXISTED IN PREDOMINANTLY WHITE NEIGHBORHOODS THROUGHOUT THIS THOROUGHLY RACIST, WHITE-SUPREMACIST-BASED NATION-STATE --- IN EVERY DIRECTION (NORTH, EAST, SOUTH, AND WEST)?

You see, this represents an outstanding, glaring example of how the Tripartite Beast And Illness of Individual, Institutional and Structural Racism functions. We need to understand this - so that we'll know EXACTLY and SPECIFICALLY what, and who to protest against, i.e., so that we don't end up (SOLELY) attacking the ultimate, manipulated, small-time-criminals, and letting  the real systemic-culprits, and master-mine perpetrators (the big fish) off of the old proverbial hook. It's important to remember that, not a single firearm is produced in the local Black community - nor within most, if not all Black communities. Everyone who is paying attention KNOWS where the illegal guns are coming from: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2016/ag-schneiderman-announces-first-its-kind-analysis-illustrating-gun-trafficking-ny ! 

This reality, which is being allowed, always reminds me of the Late Dick Gregory. While speaking at SUNY Brockport (at least 40 years ago) he noted that the U.S. Government has satellite technology that can "spot a gnat on a dog's ass from out of space" (that was his exact quote) Then he asked (rhetorically of course) "but you mean to tell me they can't find illegal guns in our community - are you out of your goddamn mind?" His words.

MAYOR EVANS' WORDS (PRIOR TO BEING ELECTED) >>> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_3eJy0oayM-giXJ0refnoDpncHS9C4bH/view?ts=6824e2c5 !

P.S. - The super-cameras discussed at the link below - can be used for all of the different things listed in the article, but apparently, can't be used to track illegal guns and drug dealers - really.( https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/briefing/flock-cameras.html )?

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Howard Eagle is a longtime educator and local anti-racism advocate, known for his campaigns for the Rochester school board and prolific political and social commentary. Eagle taught social studies in the RCSD for 23 years, before retiring in 2010, and was an adjunct professor in the Department of African American Studies at SUNY Brockport for 19 years before retiring in 2020.