(Buffalo) “Why are we so hated? »
Posted at 11:51 a.m.
Updated at 2:44 p.m.
Under a blazing sun, a few meters from the parking lot where the horror struck the day before, Sharon Doyle asks the question in the simplest way possible. She pauses, taken by the emotion that inhabits her. “I don’t understand,” she blurts out.
In the aftermath of the massacre that left 10 dead in Buffalo, New York, the community of the Masten Park neighborhood is immersed in a mixture of disbelief, sadness and anger.
On Saturday afternoon, an 18-year-old white supremacist from a rural area on the outskirts of Buffalo traveled more than 350 km before stopping at a popular grocery store and opening fire. Authorities are treating the attack as a hate crime, committed in a predominantly African-American area.
The killer filmed the massacre and posted the video on the Twitch network, which has since taken it down. The few images that have nevertheless circulated show the shooter shooting people outside and inside the grocery store in cold blood.
I don’t want to hear about madness, he knew what he was doing.
Sharon Doyle
The shock is obviously huge within this tightly knit community. All people interviewed by The Press spoke of a neighborhood where everyone knows each other by first name and grew up on the same few blocks.
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Photo Matt Rourke, Associated Press
A large crowd gathered on Sunday at the scene of the tragedy.
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Photo BRENDAN MCDERMID, REUTERS
A woman carries a sign that reads ‘Black lives matter’ during the vigil for the victims of the shooting.
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Photo Matt Rourke, Associated Press
A woman and a child lay flowers in front of the scene of the tragedy.
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The identity of the victims began to be revealed on Sunday. Mothers and fathers, old people, defenseless. “A father had gone to buy a cake for the birthday of his son, who turned three today, says Latrice White. Herself a mother of five children, she thinks with horror that they could have been among the victims. She also has a thought for her mother who constantly shops at this franchise of the Tops Friendly Markets chain.
“I worked there for a year and a half,” says Auriel Austin. The people who died, I saw them every day. I am devastated. I saw them get upset about physical distancing during the pandemic, about the end of the distribution of plastic bags, and I tried to make them smile anyway. Today they are gone. »
His voice breaks. “My mother lives just opposite, my son goes there constantly,” she says.
A peaceful march had been organized in the morning in the streets of the district. A few hundred people, of all origins, chanted the slogan “Black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace”. Some demonstrators had brought roses, in tribute to the lives lost.
The march stopped at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Laurel Street, very close to the Tops, whose parking lot is still surrounded by security tapes and protected by a strong police presence.
“They chose the wrong city, the wrong community! said Pastor Dewitt Lee III to the gathered crowd. “People here have faith, they will not let themselves be defeated,” he explained a few moments later in an interview. Hatred will not win. »
After a few speeches, the group dispersed. Organizations have distributed bottles of water, hot dogs and fruit to those who wanted to stay in the area to discuss and begin their mourning together.
Poverty and violence
The district is already dealing with issues of its own. Poverty is everywhere and gun violence is a scourge, explains Lester, speaker from the group SNU G – Should Not Use Guns, or “we should not use a gun”, in French.
The community organization supervises young people aged 14 to 25 caught in the cycle of crime. The group he represents, and several others, wanted to be present at the spontaneous vigil on Sunday. Spencer does not fear a resurgence of violence following this tragedy, but nevertheless believes that, more than ever, the dialogue will have to be fluid with the young people of the area.
We have never experienced anything like it. It all comes from social media. How does an 18 year old boy acquire an AK-47? What did he read or listen to to ride here and tackle the blackest Tops in town?
Lester, speaker from SNU G – Should Not Use Guns
“It comes back a lot to politics,” he adds.
The fact is that this event, although isolated, adds to the long list of trials that the residents of the neighborhood are already facing. The threat of gentrification is real, epitomized by the condos sprouting up rapidly just a few blocks from the Tops. The financial resources of social programs are melting, denounces Taniqua Simmons, an activist who was a candidate in the last municipal election.
“They want us to go away,” she lamented during a long speech. I was never scared on the East Side. Today I’m scared. Don’t let this event become a political platform. »
In all the conversations, the loss of trust in elected officials is evident. “Byron Brown is not my mayor! “, chanted a woman in the distance, in reference to the one who has run Buffalo since 2005. Even if the latter is himself African-American, we have the feeling of not being heard at city hall. And there are fears that Saturday’s massacre will only make headlines for a few days and then fade into oblivion.
Just like Brown, New York State Attorney General Letitia James went to the crime scene to pay their respects to the victims. She was not welcome either, says Sharon Doyle.
She’s not even from here. People don’t want to hear about her, they want to talk to people who know our reality, who know our community.
Sharon Doyle
Mme Doyle wonders how the gunman was able to acquire an entire arsenal and publish a hateful manifesto without raising a “red flag” with the authorities. Elected officials will have to provide explanations, she believes. “We can’t get past that. It hurts too much. »
Latrice White was shocked to see the suspect leave the establishment in handcuffs, escorted by police. “Would a black man have been treated so politely?” she wonders.
The questions are many. Some may remain unanswered.
The mourning that is beginning will be long, we are assured. The small community of Masten Park, however, refuses to give up. “Here, we don’t run away from our problem”, sums up Pastor Dewitt Lee III.
‘Hate remains a stain on America’s soul,’ says Biden
Photo STEFANI REYNOLDS, Agence France-Presse
“We must work together to fight the hate that remains a stain on America’s soul,” Joe Biden said on Sunday.
Joe Biden denounced Sunday “the hatred which remains a stain on the soul of America”, the day after a racist massacre which left ten dead, most of them African-Americans, in Buffalo, New State. York.
“A lone gunman equipped with weapons of war and with a soul filled with hatred, killed ten innocent people in cold blood”, said the American president in Washington, during a ceremony in memory of the police officers who died in the exercise of their functions.
“We must work together to fight the hatred that remains a stain on America’s soul,” he added.
France Media Agency