The racially motivated massacre in Buffalo has activists in our area demanding that New Jersey take steps to battle this type of domestic terrorism.
Larry Hamm is chairman of the People’s Organization For Progress in Newark.
“What agencies at the local level, the county level, the state level, the federal level, what agencies are being mobilized, what are their budgets, how much resources are being allocated to deal with the problem,” he asked.
New Jersey officials have identified the dangers that white supremacist extremists pose to the public.
“The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness has issued three reports starting in 2020 and maybe even before that that the greatest threat to public safety in the state of New Jersey is white racist terrorist extremism,” said Hamm, who added that there is no time to waste here. Trenton must respond.
“We call on Governor Murphy to call some type of statewide conference or summit bringing together all of the people that could make meaningful input into some type of policy recommendation,” he said.
Peyton Gendron, alleged to have killed 10 people and wounded 3 in Buffalo, targeted three New Jersey cities in his manifesto — the Hasidic Jewish communities of Lakewood, Toms River and Jersey City.