2 years ago
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to crack down on gun violence and the proliferation of online racism after a white man wearing military gear opened fire at a Buffaflo supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others in an act being investigated as a hate crime.
Hochul, speaking at True Bethel Baptist Church in her hometown of Buffalo on Sunday morning, told the congregation “this is personal to the Hochul family,”
“Lord, forgive the anger in my heart but channel that into my passion to continue to fight to protect people, get the guns off the streets and silence the voices of hatred and racism and white supremacy all over the internet,” she said.
The shooter, who was identified as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, N.Y., drove about 200 miles to Buffalo for the attack, which he made public on live streaming platform Twitch. Authorities said he was fueled by a racist and anti-immigrant agenda detailed in a manifesto that emerged online shortly after the incident, which included elements of a far-right conspiracy theory alleging white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color.
State, local and federal authorities are coordinating to investigate the attack as a hate crime and President Joe Biden, in a response Saturday, said broadly that “a racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation.”
“I want to silence those voices now. And make sure that yes, people will talk about Buffalo, but I want them to talk about Buffalo as the last place this ever happened,” Hochul said at the Sunday service. “We will let this end right here because we are going to rise up, and all of our white brothers and sisters need to be standing up, as well, in churches all across the state, all across this nation.”
The service was also attended by other state and local officials including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, by Zoom, who said he couldn’t find a flight to Buffalo late Saturday; Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown; and state Attorney General Letitia James, who promised every legal avenue would be taken to hold the shooter accountable but that Sunday she would offer her presence.
“I’ve come here today to put my holy hands around all of you,” James said. “I’ve come here to Buffalo to know that I too am in pain as an African American woman. I come before you today to say that God is good and we serve an awesome God and God teaches us that trouble don’t last always.”
New York’s gun laws are some of the strictest in the nation, but officials say that much of the violent crime persisting in the state comes from easy flow of high-capacity magazines and other outlawed equipment across state lines. Hochul said the AR-15 rifle used on Saturday was purchased legally in New York, but the magazine used to gun down more than one dozen people was not.
The governor will be making additional announcements on closing loopholes they’ve found in state laws on Tuesday.
During a series of national media appearances on Sunday, Hochul also condemned social media sites where conspiracy theories and violence can be detailed and emulated.
“I'm calling on the CEOs of all the social media platforms to examine their policies and to be able to look me in the eye and tell me that everything is being done that they can to make sure that this information does not spread,” Hochul said during an interview on CNN's “State of the Union.”
She said that ideally these companies — which she did not call out by name — would shore up algorithms that will identify and remove any content the moment the threats are identified.
“I know it’s a huge, vast undertaking, but these companies have a lot of money,” she said. “They have resources, they have technology. Key words show up. They need to be identified, someone needs to watch this and shut it down the second it appears.”
“And short of that, I — we’ll protect the right to free speech, but there is a limit. There’s a limit to what you can do, and hate crime is — hate speech is not protected.”
English (US)