My husband and I were discussing the Tops Friendly Markets tragedy. On May 14, 2022, blacks in Buffalo, New York, were targeted, wounded, and killed while exiting and entering the store, putting bread and milk into shopping baskets, and ringing up and paying for groceries. Among the dead were six females and four males, including the store’s security guard; their ages ranged from 32 to 86.
There are no words to express this grieving community’s horror, loss, and hurt, and let’s not underestimate the impact on the larger African American population. What are the implications of this for future savagery and terrorist attacks on other communities of color?
An eighteen-year-old white teenager, referred to as a lone wolf, massacred ten African American citizens in a predominately black neighborhood. This wolf left his predominately white community in Conklin, N.Y., and drove for three hours to commit premeditated murders. The cold-blooded shooter had cased or checked out the store days earlier to commit the carnage with a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle.
One individual allegedly committed the murders, but does that make him a lone wolf?
I told my husband that he wasn’t a lone wolf. The assailant belonged to a pack with a pact to kill.
Animal behaviorists state there are reasons wolves exist in social groups or packs, and survival is one of the reasons. The hierarchy within the wolf packs includes the alpha males and females, the top-ranking canines who lead the group. The beta wolf, the lieutenant, moves up in authority when an alpha dies. The omega wolves, the cowering bunch to the higherups, are at the bottom of the ranking order.
The lone human wolves who prey on the innocent don’t necessarily live in pacts, but they belong to one. Social Media is a known gathering place. Like the wild wolves, they gather for the survival of the clan or confederate. They share, disseminate, and digest the same ideologies and beliefs.
Lone wolves are not alone.
When one is killed or incarcerated, others are ready to replace them and carry out illegal terrorist acts. It’s a ‘one for all; all for one,’ die-for-the-cause association and fellowship. The racially motivated hate crime at Tops Supermarket is a testimony of America’s racial divisions and tensions cultivated and harvested by white supremacists.
What was the killer’s motive for targeting, killing, and wounding blacks?
Television and print news recanted parts of the killer’s 180-page manifesto that indicate the ‘replacement theory’ was part of his motivation. The’ replacement theory’ is based on the white supremacists’ belief that higher birth rates of non-whites, abortion rates of whites, immigration, and other population influencers are displacing the whites in America.
This theory sounds ludicrous, but some people will kill because they believe it!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”
What’s also important is that these packs of human wolves exist in America, and this killer is just one among millions. In addition to the pending prosecution of the killer to the fullest extent of the law, our government needs to do more to monitor, prevent, and find ways to prosecute hate and racist messengers whose followers commit heinous crimes. The white supremacists and other evil messengers should bear responsibility for inciting violence.
The rule of law must protect its citizenry, and this is paramount.
I pray that the survivors and families of the victims of this atrocity find peace and healing in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Be safe.