Emergency services were understaffed and there weren’t enough plows for the city of Buffalo. All over Twitter, people are reporting that the surrounding wealthier towns had their roads cleared while Buffalo residents were still snowed in. More than 1 in 4 Buffalo residents live in poverty, and go figure, Buffalo is under-resourced … for some purposes, anyway:
Within Buffalo, the neighborhoods dominated by people of color are further underresourced:
With many Buffalo streets still unplowed, the police have gone to work—on punitive measures. As of Tuesday Buffalo still had a travel ban in place, while surrounding communities were just under a travel advisory. Not only local police but National Guard military police and state troopers were being put into place to ticket people violating the travel ban, i.e., people trying to leave after days trapped in places that might not be safe or secure, or might lack adequate food.
And the local police were all about investigating those dollar store thefts. “Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the department has had to divert resources away from recovery missions because the crime that is occurring cannot be ignored,” WKBW reported.
”Cannot be ignored” is of course a statement of values. What the police are really saying is that they are there to protect businesses, not people in need of help. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s still a shocking brazen admission of priorities.
