The purpose of March for Our Lives – Community Advocacy for Arms Control Laws – was shouted out of focus in Washington, DC, and resonated with hundreds of other communities who took to the streets. In Buffalo, several hundred people gathered Saturday morning on Jefferson Avenue, a few blocks from the Tops supermarket, where a terrorist attack killed 10 people and injured three exactly four or four weeks earlier. Buffalo protesters met at the corner of Jefferson and Glenwood avenues before heading south, pausing at the lawn memorial for the 10 victims outside the Tops, and then gathered in a large circle on a vacant lot on the street corner. Riley, just across from the closed supermarket. Protesters descend on Jefferson Avenue next to the Tops massacre site during the “A March for Peace, A Cry for Our Lives” rally to end gun violence in solidarity with the National March for Our Lives . Derek Gee / Buffalo News Local organizers Ekaete Bailey and Cat Moores, as well as WNY Peace Center executive director Deidra EmEl and co-chair Victoria Ross, called on elected officials to take concrete steps to address gun safety: universal history needed to purchase a weapon. a ban on assault weapons that extends beyond raising the minimum age for purchase; and the repeal of the law on the protection of the legal arms trade, which provides legal protection to arms dealers.

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“This is what encourages hope right now,” EmEl said of the crowd carrying placards and shouting for peace. “This is.” The course did not go as planned. Microphone problems troubled the speakers, making it difficult to hear beyond the direct ringing of protesters. And Mark Talley, son of the Geraldine Talley massacre victim, was scheduled to speak on the program, but did not. Talley, who appeared to be the only member of the victim’s family at the event, told The Buffalo News that he believed the march was “disorganized” and that it was wrong to march to the shooting site just a month away from the massacre. . . Mark Talley, whose mother Geraldine Talley was killed in the Tops attack, bows his head during a moment of silence outside the slaughterhouse. Derek Gee / Buffalo News Bailey said that during the two weeks of planning the march, she worked with VOICE Buffalo, a non-profit organization working with the victims’ families, to see if any relatives would be interested in speaking. She was told that Talley would be willing and surprised and confused when she did not show up. “This is not something we wanted to give him – we thought he wanted it,” Bailey said after the march. “His feelings matter. We did not want to hurt or offend a family member.” The march was attended by a significant number of whites who visited a part of Buffalo which, according to the US census, is about 71% black. Organizers asked crowd members to raise their hands if this was their first time in the Jefferson neighborhood, and the response showed significant involvement outside of East Side’s immediate communities, an encouraging point for EmEl. “It was brave because if they can do that, if they can break this barrier they get out of their comfort zone … that’s why different communities come out to support the idea of ​​gun legislation and not just to support “African-American community victims, then we have the opportunity to talk and really start building bridges,” he said. Award-winning poet Jillian Hanesworth, who recited her piece “The Revolution Will Rhyme”, shared a different perspective on the crowd. “Racism is the struggle of whites,” he said. “This is their struggle. I have to see them out here because they have to learn, they have to see the Tops, they have to see our monuments and our communities.” Buffalo’s award-winning poet, Gillian Hannesworth, delivers her poem “The Revolution Will Rhyme” as a crowd surrounds her at the end of our Buffalo lives. Derek Gee / Buffalo News Raquel Alston, a local pastor and East Side resident, attended the march and was concerned about the lack of black participation. “It’s wonderful,” he said of the strangers who were there on Saturday, “but it also breaks my heart that I do not see people of color.” Hanesworth said she thought the location of the march could be very painful for many in the black community. “I think blacks need grace and time and not everyone has it in them to be right here in front of the Tops,” he said. “Everyone does not want to be surrounded by people who do not look like them, who do not know if they are really interested in them or just show up because we are out here, so I think it is always a fair practice to give people grace and understand that many of “Our issues are so colorful.” Saturday was the first time EmEl was able to walk into Tops Markets after filming. He said it was painful.
“I’m so angry,” Emel said, bursting into tears. “We have to be angry every day, angry every day that our children and siblings die on the street. Because it happens – we just do not see it … This is the difference here – people saw it with their own eyes. You hear for gang violence, and it’s “whatever it is, just move to the back house, I think I heard gunshots. That’s unfortunate, but it ‘s as usual.” EmEl praised the groups it called “infantrymen,” or members of the community who daily helped Jefferson neighborhood residents with prolonged pain nearby. The Stop the Violence Coalition, the most valuable parents and Pastor James Giles from the Ministries of Return to the Basic were some of those he mentioned.

This year’s “March for Our Lives” – inspired by last month’s deadly mass shootings in Buffalo and Ovalde, Texas – follows a similar incident of the same name four years ago, when a gunman shot dead 17 people. at High School in Parkland, Fla. Harris Stanfield perfume, which was at Tops Markets at the time of filming, was the last to speak at the event. He thanked the people who attended for their willingness to take action. “This is not over. There is so much work to be done,” Stanfield said. “No matter how difficult it is to get into crowds like this; every time someone talks about this massacre and what brought us into the world to see what is happening in our communities – what has happened in our communities – I will be here ». When Stanfield finished, the crowd shouted, “You are not alone.” News staff reporter Haajrah Gilani contributed to this article. You can contact Ben Tsujimoto at [email protected], at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @ Tsuj10. …