Earlier this week, two police officers in Buffalo, New York were suspended after video emerged of them shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground while attempting to enforce curfews in the city. The incident resulted in two officers being suspended, and now all 57 other members of the department’s emergency response team have resigned in solidarity and “in disgust.” Good riddance!
- Buffalo’s Police Benevolent Association confirmed the resignations. They told Spectrum News that the 57 officers resigned “out of support for the suspended officers, as well as the disgust with the admin.” Additionally, PBA president John Evans told WGRZ that the decision was the result of “the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders.” Were they ordered to use unnecessary force? Huh.
- They were “just doing their jobs,” right? That’s what Evans thinks. “Our position is these officers were simply following orders from Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia to clear the square,” he told The Buffalo News. “It doesn’t specify clear the square of men, 50 and under or 15 to 40. They were simply doing their job. I don’t know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backward.” Something tells me the victim, Martin Gugino, feels differently about what went down.
- Uh, I think these guys are on the wrong side here… Instead of resigning in solidarity with peaceful protestors who are standing up for the rights of black Americans, these officers decided it was better to stick with the two officers who were suspended for using extreme force to push an elderly man to the ground and leaving him there as he bled from the ear. Sounds logical to me.
- They have completely missed the point. Erie County Executive Marc Poloncarz admitted that he was “exceptionally disappointed” that all the officers chose to resign since it “indicates to me that they did not see anything wrong with the actions last night.” Well, no, they didn’t. Like many police officers, Buffalo’s force seems to believe that their job is to be violent brutes in the name of law and order. Way to demonstrate the very reason people are protesting to begin with, guys.
- The local government and Buffalo police still insist Gugino “tripped and fell.” Despite the suspensions and the resignations that followed, Michael J. DeGeorge, the director of communications for the City of Buffalo, still say that Gugino “tripped and fell” during a “skirmish.” Sorry, but the video proves otherwise.
#Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown live on @wgrz Daybreak (3/5):
Why did the city/police spokesman first allege the elderly protester “tripped and fell?” pic.twitter.com/CxFkf6MH1C— Melissa Holmes (@2MelissaHolmes) June 5, 2020
