New Yorkers on both sides of the political aisle came together Friday to denounce violence and hateful vitriol in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
At a small Brooklyn vigil outside the Barclays Center, right-wing and left-wing activists managed to agree on one thing — that Kirk, a polarizing political influencer, didn’t deserve to die just for speaking his mind.
“We can agree to disagree. We can debate. But violence is never the answer,” said the Rev. Kevin McCall, a longtime Brooklyn activist.
“Yes, he said some things I didn’t agree with. Ninety percent of the stuff — no, 100% of the stuff — he says I did not agree with. But that doesn’t make him a lost soul.
“The Bible that I read teaches us that we all are human beings, and we can be able to have disagreements,” McCall said. “But it does not say that you shall take a life because you disagree with them.”
The Brooklyn vigil was one of dozens held across the country to honor Kirk in the days after his viral assassination Wednesday on the campus of a Utah university.
Video of Kirk, who was 31, being cut down by a rifle shot during a Q&A session flooded social media, and set off another round of finger-pointing and political rhetoric.
Republican City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov said Kirk’s murder was un-American.
“This is the United States of America, for God’s sake,” the Brooklyn Council member said. “We should be able to have a conversation and disagree with each other civilly without being murdered.”
Vernikov blamed the media for much of the political discord.
“The media has to start speaking the truth in this country,” she said. “They have to. They must stop vilifying people they disagree with. Just because we disagree with each other does not make us nazis or white supremacists. And the media, shame on them, they know this. And they still pushed their very dangerous narratives that lead to something like what happened to Charlie Kirk. It must stop.”
McCall said activists, regardless of their agendas, deserve the right to speak out without the threat of violence.
“When I saw the video, of him being murdered in front of the world to see, it broke my heart, as a minister, as a reverend,” McCall said. “I’m compelled, as an activist, to say that Charlie Kirk could have been me. Just because I stand up for individuals that are marginalized of the African-American, Black descent, and I face and go against injustices that have happened in the Black and brown communities, I get threats all the time.”
The New York Young Republican Club was also planning a an evening vigil for Kirk in Manhattan at the Madison Square Park reflecting pool.
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