Bob Lonsberry@BobLonsberry
WHY ISN'T CITY HALL HONORING PIERSON AND MAZURKIEWICZ?
Last night, the United States House of Representatives voted to name the Avon post office after slain Rochester police Office Anthony Mazurkiewicz.
The night before that, the Syracuse Common Council voted to rename a stretch of two streets in honor of slain Syracuse police Officer Michael Jensen. The streets run past a small park and two statues dedicated to Jensen and murdered Onondaga County sheriff’s Lt. Michael Hoosock. Nearby, in suburban Salina, the brand-new town community center carries their names -- Jensen and Hoosock -- and the Onondaga County emergency center was recently renamed in honor of Lt. Hoosock.
That’s how people honor sacrifice.
Except in Rochester.
In Rochester, at least at City Hall, they don’t honor sacrifice.
Eleven years ago, on Hudson Avenue, Officer Daryl Pierson was shot in the throat and killed. Eight years later and two blocks away, Officer Anthony Mazurkiewicz was ambushed and killed while staking out a murderer.
Two officers of the Rochester Police Department. Two employees of the City of Rochester. Two union members. Two husbands and fathers.
Who died in the service of City Hall and the people of Rochester.
And after all this time, the City of Rochester has not named a single thing in honor of either officer.
Yes, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter led the successful effort to name the post office in suburban East Rochester after Daryl Pierson, and that was a kind and decent thing, like the similar honor in the process of being bestowed upon Anthony Mazurkiewicz.
But that’s the federal government.
Pierson and Mazurkiewicz worked for the Rochester city government. For the mayor and City Council.
And, unbelievably and shamefully, neither the mayor nor the City Council of the City of Rochester have done anything permanent or substantive to honor or memorialize Daryl Pierson or Anthony Mazurkiewicz.
It is a slight so hurtful as to be undeniably purposeful. Not an oversight, but an eff you to the memory of these men and those who wear their uniform.
Most hurtful, the same mayor and City Council who refuse to honor two police officers who were killed in the line of duty named a portion of a city park Daniel Prude Square in honor of a man from out of town who died here after being restrained by police following a naked, drug-fueled vandalizing run through a city neighborhood.
In the eyes of the Rochester mayor and City Council, he was worthy of honor, and murdered policemen were worthy of dishonor.
It’s part of the ongoing political effort to defund, defame and demoralize law-enforcement officers in general and Rochester police officers specifically.
And it hangs like a cloud over the heads of officers who remember Pierson and Mazurkiewicz, officers who know that any call any day could be their last, and that their names and sacrifices could likewise be swept under the rug of City Hall’s apparent anti-police bias. The failure to appropriately honor Anthony Mazurkiewicz and Daryl Pierson still causes pain to families and colleagues.
But it doesn’t have to.
The example set by Syracuse is a good one. That city has named a street and a pocket park after its fallen officer, and allowed the erection of a monument in his honor. Onondaga County lost a deputy, and has named a significant building after him, and likewise supported the erection of a monument in his honor. And that region’s newest community center carries the name of both murdered officers.
While Rochester has nothing.
Finding something would be easy and natural, if only the mayor and the City Council had the will. A committee of officers and community members could make recommendations, or the City Council could to that itself.
If only it gave a damn.
If only Rochester’s politicians cared more about the feelings of its officers and residents than its activists and complainers.
If only cop lives meant something at City Hall.
