Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Friday marked a significant day in the East Buffalo community with the re-opening of the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue, just two months and one day after the racially motivated mass shooting that claimed the lives of 10 Black people at the grocery store.
Tops dedicated the store on Thursday, as crews went to work extensively renovating and remodeling the store shortly after the shooting took place on May 14. Everything in the store was stripped from wall-to-wall and replaced with all new shelving, products, and other aspects of the store to make it feel completely different from before.
However, there has been great disparity of opinion on the re-opening of the Tops and the timing of the decision so soon after the shooting.
A number of people have been in support of the store opening its doors once again, including a number of the employees that were working at the time of the incident on May 14. Whether it'd be to serve the community and provide the necessary resources for residents of East Buffalo again, or to prove the point that a racist terrorist will not win and keep the community down.
When the doors to the Tops re-opened at around 7:45 a.m. ET on Friday, a number of people flocked to the grocery store, with even a few people welcoming back the supermarket to the community
However, there were those on-hand Friday that were protesting the store's re-opening, saying that it's too soon for a community that hasn't properly healed from what took place on May 14.
"My apologies to Target, but this ain't Tops no more, to many of us in this community. This is Target, because we have a target on our back again," said Deacon Jerome Wright from VOICE Buffalo on Friday. "It is the only story, and that means anybody, any coward, racist, terrorist person who wanted to inflict damage on our community can come right here again and do it."
"Nothing has changed, except we lost 10 valued community members, four members of the community who are indelibly impacted for the rest of their life through injury, and an entire community that is still mourning, grieving, hurting and trying to process what happened. Yet, you want to act like nothing happened, business as usual. This is not business as usual for this community."
What Deacon Wright and the other protestors against the re-opening of the Tops are pushing for going forward is for a meeting with the appropriate people and members of the East Buffalo community to discuss what should be done about the block of Jefferson Avenue where the Tops is located, and how to properly memorialize the people who lost their lives and were impacted by the shooting.
In addition, the group continues to push for the proper resources and and references to bring another store to the neighborhood around Tops to help prevent another, what Deacon Wright refers to as, "food apartheid".
"Where are the resources? Where's the plan for the future for this community and its residents? We have none of that, but we want to celebrate the re-opening of trauma, pain, and we want to be indignified by having a makeshift community memorial and not a formal one from this community. It's too soon to re-open these wounds," Deacon Wright exclaimed.
"There are legions of us who will be out here every day until something changes, because we know that if it's up to them, it will be business as usual. But for us, our lives have been changed forever, and we need change here. We need resources, we need re-investment, and we need restoration. We need the money that's been flowing all over to come to this community and help clean it up. To take care of these dilapidated houses, to get more than one store here where we have some variety, and we can't be held hostage."
One spokesperson says the group will be out on Jefferson Avenue every day protesting until they deem that it's no longer necessary. This includes another protest that will begin on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET.
More from Friday's protest is available in the player below:
