Buffalo NY marks 2nd anniversary of Tops supermarket mass shooting

Tops Supermarket Buffalo, NY (Photo/Associated Press)

By Karen Stokes

This week marks the second anniversary of the murder of 10 black people by a self-proclaimed white supremacist at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo.

There will be a permanent memorial to the victims of the racist shooting at Tops supermarket.

The space features a sculpture titled Unity, created by Buffalo artist Valeria Cray and her son Hiram Cray, as well as 10 granite markers of honor for each victim. It also features a pear tree donated to the city of Buffalo as part of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s Survivor Tree Seedling Program, which provides seedlings from a tree that survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Greg Jackson, deputy director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, was in Buffalo, New York, to mark the second anniversary of a tragedy.

“The community here is obviously still suffering because there is so much loss and when I was getting out of my car, someone asked me if I had lost anyone here and I said: yes, we have everyone lost someone here. He agreed and it really feels like everyone here has suffered a loss, whether it’s a family member, a church member, a security guard, ‘a religious leader in the community, from a teacher from whom they learned that many people are suffering.

But Jackson revealed that there was also a lot of energy and enthusiasm because since this tragedy, some leaders have testified before Congress and helped us pass the bipartisan Save the Community Act, the first bill of law in 30 years on gun violence.

“These are leaders who introduced the President of the United States in his biggest speech on gun violence, these are leaders who, to this day, are now on the city council, they are now running for state legislature. the state. So there’s just so much momentum and enthusiasm and passion from people here to make change and frankly, they have done it and changed our country for the better. But also inspiration and renewed enthusiasm within a community that has been fighting so hard for two years,” Jackson said.

Once the bipartisan Save the Community Act was passed, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention was the team charged with implementing it. So that’s $30 billion to combat violence, which includes measures to expand background checks and ensure that people under the age of 21 receive a juvenile background check and mental health background check before to be authorized to purchase. We’ve cracked down on gun trafficking, we’ve prosecuted more than 700 gun traffickers to reduce the flow of illegal guns into our communities, we’ve worked to improve and strengthen victim services, and our team actually created the first ever FEMA type emergency response like what happened here in Buffalo to make sure that when something like this happens, we have the Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, the Small Business Administration and seven other agencies, all ready to deploy and help communities recover and heal and that didn’t exist before Buffle. These are just a few of the areas in which our office plays an important role as we work together to combat this gun violence crisis.

“This crisis is relentless, which is difficult. That’s why the president created an office that can work on this issue,” Jackson said. “Our office is working with communities to save people, knowing that it will take an aggressive and consistent effort to resolve this crisis and it is starting to work. Last year we saw the largest decline in homicides in American history with a 13.5% drop in homicides and we know that is a direct result of the dollars this president has invested in communities to contribute to the safety of communities, but also to political measures that save lives. continue to fight despite the aggressive nature of this health crisis, but it is truly our biggest challenge.

An ABC News analysis of the most recent FBI data shows that of more than 8,500 hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022, Black people were targeted in 52.3% of the offenses. Between 2021 and 2022, that number increased from 2,217 to 3,421, making Black people four times more likely to be targeted than the entire non-Hispanic Black population of the United States. Hate crimes targeting Black people under 18 increased 10% in 2020, 12% in 2021 and 14.6% in 2022, the data shows.

“Unfortunately, we have seen hate crimes increase since 2016 and I think we are in a world where unfortunately this type of language and these type of actions have not been held accountable. Because those who spoke out in this way were overlooked and sometimes celebrated by the previous president. President Biden is committed to changing that, he has made clear that there is no place for hatred in our country, whether verbal or physical, and that we must start holding people accountable. people.