Statement from the Community Safety and Solidarity Coalition (CSSC) on the Allen, TX Shooting

 

New York, NY, May 17, 2023 ... The Community Safety and Solidarity Coalition (CSSC) condemns the horrific May 6 attack at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen Texas.  Once again, dangerous ideologies seem to have been weaponized to terrorize a community, killing eight, wounding seven and forever scarring innumerable friends, neighbors and community members. Available evidence appears to show that the suspected shooter, Mauricio Garcia, was obsessed with violence and subscribed to a range of extremist ideologies, including antisemitism, violent misogyny and white supremacy.

We, leaders of organizations representing racial, ethnic, religious, LGBTQ+, and other groups who all have been targeted by hate-fueled violence, extend our deep sympathy to the community of Allen, TX and urge collective action to support them. An attack on one of our communities is an attack on all.

The information being revealed about the suspected shooter again demonstrates that hate is often sweeping and broad: his online posts are filled with antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic, anti-Asian, white supremacist and other extremist rhetoric. None of us is safe when such hate proliferates online and offline.

On the heels of the first year since the deadly attack at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, in which the shooter, motivated by racist and antisemitic ideologies, targeted a Black neighborhood for lethal violence.

We are dismayed but not surprised that our Coalition once again comes together to deal with tragic loss caused by extremism and hate. During the United We Stand Summit, the signatories to this statement announced a new coalition, focused on safety and solidarity of communities that have been targeted by hate and extremist violence.  Our work together is focused on planning, education, sharing resources and rapid response.

We ask the Administration to accelerate the promised outcomes from the United We Stand Summit and to fully implement the National Strategy to Counter Domestic Terrorism in a civil rights-protecting manner. We call on Congress to provide adequate resourcing toward these objectives, including adequate funding for community security grants and other key mechanisms for protecting communities.

We come together again, to mourn, to comfort and to call for meaningful action to combat hate and extremism of all forms.

The undersigned organizations – representing communities that have been targeted again and again – all understand that we are not safe until we all are safe and that we cannot fight hatred, violence, and white supremacy alone.

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Signatories, on behalf of the CSSC:

ADL
Jewish Federations of North America
National Urban League
The Asian American Foundation
Values Partnerships