Adams reminds any loss is tragic

Mayor Adams called on politicians and activists to care as much about the death of 11-yearold Kyhara Tay as they do about the racist attack in Buffalo.

“We must deal with this terrorist act that happened in Buffalo that took 10 innocent people merely because of their ethnicity, merely because of who they were,” he said at a Harlem vigil for the victims Monday night.

“But I say this over and over again. We have to be consistent. Because if you take the life of young Kyhara merely because of where she lived, you’re no less demonic than a person that took the life of those 10 innocent people in Buffalo.

“That mother, she mourned. And if you were to close your eyes and listen to the mourners in Buffalo who lost their loved ones, you would not be able to distinguish between the two different groups, because pain is pain. And the premature taking of the life of an innocent person is felt, and it doesn’t dissipate based on where you are geographically or who the person is that took your loved one. It’s the same.”

Adams also took aim at social media as contributing to both tragedies — white-supremacy discussion boards for the Buffalo massacre, and “drill rap” for glorifying gang violence in New York City. “There are many rivers that feed the sea of violence,” Adams said. “The river of the madness and sickness of social media that continues to give people this energy of hatred and destruction. What happened in Buffalo is no different than the sickness of social media that has music telling our young people to go after each other and shoot each other. It’s no different. It’s no difference.

“I must protect the innocent people of this city. And I’m not going to apologize for doing that. I must make sure that this baby can’t continue to lose their lives in this city. Every night, every night my phone goes off. Another child shot, every night. I’m going to stand. And all I’m asking you, stand with me.”