Twitter Compares Cops' Treatment Of Buffalo Gunman With That Of Black Boy Accused Of Stealing Chips

Yolanda Baruch
Mon, May 16, 2022,


After 13 people were shot, including 10 who were killed, during the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, people took to Twitter to criticize the police handling of the gunman.

Payton Gendron allegedly opened fire at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood, The Independent reports.

Authorities said the 18-year-old arrived at the grocery store around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, wearing tactical gear and a helmet while carrying an AR-15 and a camera to livestream the assault on Twitch, which the service later removed.

When police took Gendron into custody, pictures captured the calm interaction between the officer and gunman.

The New York Times reports that Gendron was held for a mental evaluation in 2021.

The Associated Press also notes that Gendron’s mental health possibly played a role in his racially motivated massacre.

Twitter immediately noticed the treatment Gendron received after the shooting.

People also compared the police treatment of Gendron with the treatment a young Black boy who was recently accused of stealing a bag of chips.

People resurfaced a tweet from 2018 that compared the media’s perception of Michael Brown and the Austin bombing suspect Mark Anthony Conditt.

Despite the media’s perception of the gunman, video footage showed up-close shots of his weapon with the N-word and the number 14 — a known white supremacist code — scrawled in white paint on the barrel of his gun, according to The Independent.

Gendron also described himself as a fascist, white supremacist and anti-Semite. He allegedly regularly visited far-right platforms and message boards, including 4chan and Gab, that espoused white supremacist ideologies and conspiracy theories.

Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia described the act as an “absolute racist hate crime,” CNN reports.