A new memorial dedicated to the victims of the Buffalo shooting is set to be built.
In an official statement released Friday, Gov. Hochul and the mayor of Buffalo, Mayor Brown, announced the creation of a physical memorial for the 10 victims that were targeted in the hate crime as a celebration of their life and the legacy they left behind.
A special committee will be designated for the creation of the project. Composed of 11 members, the Governor and Mayor announced that a special process will be used to fill in the positions on the committee. With the committee, members of East Buffalo and leaders in the Black Buffalo community will be given the opportunity to work on finding available land and gathering funds as well as designing and maintaining the memorial project.
Six seats are already filled by Diane Colgan, the Senior Vice President of Tops Friendly Markets; Dr. Norm Lewin, part of the Buffalo Arts Commission; business owner Larry Stitts as well as Jonathan Danes, a member of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, and Garnell Whitfield, a former fire commissioner.
The president of the Buffalo NAACP chapter, Rev. Mark E. Blue, will oversee the entire process as the Chair of the Commission.
“I am deeply honored to be appointed by Governor Hochul and Mayor Brown to serve as chair of the May 14th Memorial Commission,” said Rev. Blue in an official statement. “We are committed to erecting a permanent memorial that will honor the lives and memory of the innocent victims of this horrific attack.”
“I look forward to working with all community stakeholders to ensure that this memorial is inclusive and is a lasting tribute that helps our community heal,” he added.
The news of the memorial comes in conjunction with announcements being made for plans that’ll stop people in N.Y. from spreading violent videos online by criminalizing the act. The news was released with a 49-page report by Letitia James, the N.Y. state attorney general, that details how the internet played a part in the Buffalo shooting.
In criminalizing the act, the new law will also look to hold big streaming companies accountable.
“Simply put, online platforms need to invest even more in content moderation. In the years since the Christchurch shooting, content moderation practices and technologies have improved,” read the report. “However, not all platforms have made great strides. Mainstream platforms should devote time, energy, and money to developing alternative technology to image and video hashing.”
