FIRST READ

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects to the 10 lives lost at a Buffalo supermarket, which was a community gathering place for so many people.

DEADLY MASS SHOOTING IN BUFFALO

A racist mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo left 10 Black New Yorkers dead and three other people injured after a white man allegedly drove hours from his Southern Tier home in order to target the majorityBlack community. He allegedly livestreamed the shooting online after planning the attack for months. Posts online apparently made by the alleged shooter included a lengthy manifesto that references the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which posits that people of color are systematically replacing white people and displacing their electoral influence. The alleged shooter has been indicted on first-degree murder charges, although federal investigators are also looking into bringing hate crime and domestic

STILL INCALCULABLE

In late May 2020, as the United States approached 100,000 lives lost to the relatively new COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times commemorated by name those lives on its front page, declaring the loss “incalculable.” As the country approaches an unfathomable new benchmark – 1 million lives lost in the pandemic – the Times again tried to capture the depth of sorrow experienced by those victims’ loved ones on its May 15 cover.

“Sean Patrick Maloney did not even give me a heads up before he went on Twitter to make that announcement. And I think that tells you everything you need (to) know about Sean Patrick Maloney.”

– Rep. Mondaire Jones, on Maloney’s decision to run in the district that Jones current represents based on the new draft maps, via Politico

“This was what caused the death of many people over the weekend: simply wearing the skin they are in.”

– state Senate Majority Leader Andrea StewartCousins, speaking about the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, via Politico New York terrorism charges against him as well.

BIDEN, HOCHUL COMFORT VICTIMS

Immediately, Democratic lawmakers and other officials called the Buffalo shooting a racist act of domestic terrosism that targeted Black New Yorkers. Gov. Kathy Hochul called out social media platforms in the immediate aftermath of the shooting for allowing the video of that attack to be streamed online and for permitting the proliferation of white supremacy online. President Joe Biden visited Buffalo soon after the shooting as well, where he similarly spoke out against white supremacist extremism as calls for stricter federal gun laws were rekindled. Hochul announced several bills and executive orders meant to combat both online extremism and to tighten the state’s already strict gun control laws. She required through executive order the state police to file for extreme risk protection orders under the state’s Red Flag Law in instances where it could be needed after the law enforcement failed to invoke the law with the Buffalo shooter last year. Hochul also set up a new unit focused on domestic terrorism within the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services in order to track the spread of white supremacist ideologies online.

ADAMS GOES TO ALBANY

New York City Mayor Eric Adams made a rare appearance in Albany to push for his priorities as state lawmakers wrap up for the year. Some unfortunate timing meant that he missed both legislative leaders and the governor when he visited – all three were in Buffalo for the president’s visit – but it didn’t damper his enthusiasm or confidence. Adams focused on a handful of issues that topped his agenda – an extension of mayoral control of schools, home rule on speed cameras and renewing or replacing the 421-a tax break for developers to build affordable housing. Things seemed to be looking good for Adams when it came to a mayoral control extension as a key lawmaker in those debates said the mayor will likely get what he wants, albeit with some tweaks. And soon after his visit, Adams and state lawmakers said they reached a deal on speed cameras that will allow the city to keep them on 24/7 while also extending and expanding the existing program. The fate of the developer tax break, however, is far more uncertain.

ADULT SURVIVORS ACT SET TO PASS ASSEMBLY

After it once again unanimously passed the state Senate, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie indicated that the lower chamber had the votes to pass the Adult Survivors Act. The bill would create a lookback window for people who had been victims of sexual abuse as adults to bring civil suits against their alleged abusers. Despite its broad bipartisan support, it stalled in the Assembly last year. But now that it appears poised to pass the state Legislature as a whole, Hochul said she would sign the bill once it hits her desk.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, center, visited Albany last week to make sure state legislators were aware of his priorities as the final dealmaking happens before June 2.

Injury rates surge at Amazon’s New York facilities

Injuries at Amazon warehouses and logistics facilities in New York climbed 64% in 2021 over the previous year as the company continues to expand its footprint in the state, a new analysis by the National Employment Law Project found. In 2020, Amazon facilities in New York saw an injury rate of 5.5 injuries per 100 fulltime equivalent (FTE) workers, and that rate rose to 9.0 injuries per 100 FTEs in 2021.

The increase follows a national trend – Amazon’s injury rates across the country rose 20% in 2021, but the increase was even steeper in New York. The project’s analysis, which relies on data that Amazon reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, found that the rate of injuries at Amazon’s New York facilities in 2021 was higher than Amazon’s overall injury rate in the United States that year.

Overall across the country, Amazon’s injury rate is higher than non-Amazon warehouses, according to another analysis of OSHA data by a coalition of labor unions called the Strategic Organizing Center. The vast majority of injuries – recorded nationwide and in New York specifically – were identified as “serious injuries,” meaning they kept employees from continuing their normal job duties or caused them to miss work. “The vast majority of these injuries are musculoskeletal injuries, repetitive strain injuries from lifting repeatedly at an excessively rapid pace over a long period of time,” said Irene Tung, the author of the National Employment Law Project’s report. “Those are serious and often disabling injuries that can stay with workers for their entire lives.”

Amazon did not comment on why injury rates at its New York facilities might be higher than in other parts of the country. “Like other companies in the industry, we saw an increase in recordable injuries during this time from 2020 to 2021 as we trained so many new people,” spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in an emailed statement.

Tung has a guess about why data showed a dip in 2020 and then an increase in 2021. In 2020, Amazon said it was suspending enforcement of its productivity quotas during the COVID-19 pandemic, but reinstated them by that October. “When Amazon suspended its signature quota-based disciplinary system in 2020, worker injuries declined,” Tung told City & State. “When it began aggressively disciplining … based on those quotas, worker injuries skyrocketed again.” – Annie McDonough

THE WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY 5/23

The state Legislature is in session three days this week, marking the penultimate week of the 2022 legislative session.

INSIDE DOPE

On the docket will be the Adult Survivors Act, mayoral control of New York City’s schools and the Clean Slate Act on conviction records.

TUESDAY 5/24

City & State and CADCA present an 11 a.m. webinar: “At-home Drug Deactivation: Next Steps in the Fight to End the Opioid Crisis in New York State”

WEDNESDAY 5/25

The New York City Council Finance Committee meets for a fiscal year 2023 executive budget hearing at 10 a.m.