In the wake of what police are calling a racially-motivated hate crime that left 10 people dead and three others injured at a Buffalo grocery store, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul is taking steps to strengthen gun laws and crack down on social media that promotes extreme acts of violence.
Among them:
Calling on every county “to perform an exhaustive review of its current strategies, policies, and procedures for confronting acts of domestic terrorism.”
Details of that piece of the plan are sketchy at best, Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Federice said Friday, but every county will be required to appointment a commission to “analyze what we can do to protect our citizens from events like this.”
“It’s déjà vu all over again,” Mr. Federice said.
“If we enforced the gun laws already in place.
Tuesday, at least 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Texas elementary school when a lone gunman opened fire.
In the wake of the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota by now-convicted Police Officer Derek Chauvin, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo required all municipalities to review their law enforcement policies for bias.
After five months of review by the Law Enforcement Review Committee—and a 471-page report--in March of 2021, supervisors approved two recommended changes to the Sheriff’s Office: creating a Citizens Collaborative Committee and agreeing to the review of arrest data—once available—by the Sheriff’s Office and the CCC.
The CCC has continued to meet quarterly; the next meeting is July 25 at 5pm in the Board of Supervisors’ Chambers.
At its April 25 meeting, the CCC heard from Justin Hamm, executive director of the Schoharie County Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, on how his agency and law enforcement could better share services and resources.
CCC members include Lois Goblet, chair; Rev. Ray Richards, Rev. David Houck, Suzanne Graulich, administrator at the county’s Office of Legal Defense of Indigents; Middleburgh Supervisor Wes Laraway, Bernadette Cole Slaughter, and Sheriff Ron Stevens.