Senate Debate Shows Raw Emotions, Blame For Buffalo Shooting (Jamestown Post-Journal)

John Whittaker - Jamestown Post-Journal

Originally published in Jamestown Post-Journal

FBI Investigators enter the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. on Monday, May 16 2022. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)

Sen. Tim Kennedy and Sen. Sean Ryan, in impassioned speeches Monday on the floor of the state Senate, called for society to fight back against white supremacy in the wake of a shooting that left 10 people dead in Buffalo on Saturday.

Kennedy and Ryan, Democrats who represent Buffalo in the state Senate, spoke during debate over resolution J.2634, expressing condolences to the Buffalo community and applauding those who acted immediately as Payton Gendron of Conklin, N.Y., carried out his attack.

“I don’t know whether to yell or cry,” Ryan said. “Who did this? A man-child 18 years old. For the love of God how does an 18-year-old get this much hate in their heart and how do they get an assault weapon. They’ve probably never been to Buffalo before. They drove 2.5 hours from their bucolic country town because they were afraid Black people and minorities are taking over the country. This 18-year-old man-child thought he had to respond to the call of action.” “Where does this call come from? It’s all over our media. Turn on Fox News. Go to any of the blogs and you’ll hear it. The replacement theory — there’s an elitist conspiracy taking place in America to have minorities replace white people. You may laugh and say, ‘Well, that’s the craziest thing in the world.’ Well, almost every one of the mass murders I just read were fueled by that theory.”

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