Mychutzpah

Look who’s calling people “racist.” Could it be the same guy who said that immigrants or minorities or people of color would “infest” the town of Hamburg if he lost his race for town supervisor?

And what “troubling warning signs” does this right-wing culture warrior deem worthy of investigation?

From the article he himself posted:

The state police responded. They investigated. They interviewed the subject. And they felt at the time it was appropriate to have that individual brought in for a mental health evaluation

Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia

The article goes on to explain that the shooter made a generalized threat against his school last June. The threat was identified and reported. The police responded and investigated. The suspect was interviewed and then sent to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. So, on what planet does Mychajliw get the idea that “NO ONE acted”? Did he not read the article he linked to? And why did he bring up supposed investigations of “moms at school board meetings”? Obviously, we know why – he is still clinging to the Covid fights of yore, but I did not see anything in the NPR piece about moms at Conklin, NY school board meetings being investigated? Did you?

So, while Mychajliw – who is gratifyingly out of public office and is now a full-time right-wing professional propagandist – accuses the “left” of focusing on “feelings + ignor[ing] facts” he offers up feelings and ignores facts. Mychajliw says that the shooter was on police and school radar, and then says the school and police failed to “act”. Yet, according to the article he links to, the system involuntarily hospitalized him in the psych ward. The same guy who says facemasks are tyranny is telling you an involuntary psych hold is a lack of action.

The Republicans in this region have literally the most to answer for, yet they are completely absent from this situation, except for Nick Langworthy dropping some flowers off on Jefferson. Not so much as an effort to get their people to donate food or money to the people most directly victimized by a violence that is at least in part fueled by their rhetoric.

But let’s give Mychajliw the benefit of the doubt – that he is truly concerned about liberals substituting feelings for facts. This kid was investigated and held involuntarily for a mental health evaluation due to threats against his school. Yet he was able to purchase and possess the military hardware that enabled him to commit mass murder in a grocery store, and avoid injury from retired Buffalo cop Aaron Salter, Jr.’s gun. Want to eschew “feelings” and talk about facts? Talk about that.