People were first instructed to shelter in place, then evacuated from Destiny USA after an incident that resulted in a trash can getting shot. I’m not making light of this situation, whenever there’s any gunfire in a public shopping center that’s notable and must be taken seriously.
What happens so often in news coverage of Syracuse, it’s not the act that garners the attention, it’s the sensationalism that begs to make a story much larger than it is.
The Syracuse Police have stated that their response went exactly as planned. They’re trained in dealing with shooting incidents, such as what occurred the afternoon of Friday, February 24th. Multiple news outlets mobilized to send reporters to cover the scene as there’s footage of thousands of people fleeing the Mall in an orderly fashion.
The usual internet inspired Destiny Mall zeitgeist (defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.) was quick to generate a sense of chaos, which in this time in history hinges on getting eyeballs to a screen. What better way of doing this than to create an atmosphere of disorder and panicked shoppers. This fits the narrative that drives people to television news and newspapers websites. The more chaotic, the more viewers.
I knew a person who formerly worked for the Probation Department as he spoke with me before the Carousel Mall was rebranded to become Destiny USA. “We were told to expect an increase in criminal activity as this will be the largest retail/entertainment center in the region.”
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a trash can became the victim of gun violence. A worse scenario was foreseen. That fact that there hasn’t been a mass shooting event has been a blessing. However the man that gunned down people at a Buffalo Top’s Supermarket had Destiny USA on his short list.
Even before rebranding the existing mall had matched the footprint of Syracuse’s original downtown at its peak in 1959 when Syracuse’s population was 212,000. The original Carousel Center was 1.1 million square feet with the expansion, the completed Destiny USA is 2.4 million square feet.
“It is the largest shopping mall in the state of New York and the 9th largest in the country. In 2021, Destiny USA was included among the top 20 most visited shopping centers in America, attracting over 26 million visitors a year.” – Google
Given the number of visitors, this shopping center dwarfs the original core downtown Syracuse shopping district that disappeared along with 65,000 city of Syracuse residents. The construction of the entity immediately had an impact on retail. Regional malls surrounding the Syracuse area were forced to close and/or reinvent their properties.
While not comforting to people that may have experienced the shooting that claimed a trash can. A facility of that size is still statistically safe, despite those Hell bent on making it a festering destination for criminal activity.
