A rise in violence across the state has been condemned by state and local leaders in recent days. On Wednesday, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Democratic Mayoral nominee India Walton weighed in on the increase in violence in the City of Buffalo and ways to combat it.
A spate of shootings in the City of Buffalo, including the shooting of 14 people in separate incidents over the July 4 holiday weekend has Brown and the Buffalo Police Department searching for answers.
“With local state federal agencies to investigate the causes of the increase in shootings through a program called shoot review,” Brown said. “We have re initiated the take it to the streets program that Commissioner Lockwood put in place several years ago.”
Taking it to the Streets initiative is designed to bring together law enforcement management and residents in communities that have seen a spike in violent crime.
Addressing the violence during a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Buffalo Democratic Mayoral nominee India Walton took a different approach to stemming the violence.
“We have to get into the community with the people who are most impacted and find out what they need,” she said. “And that happens neighborhood by neighborhood block by block.”
Decades of disinvestment and concentrated poverty in certain sections of the city, Walton said, has resulted in this undercurrent of violence.
