VIDEO SHOWED HE DID NOT JUST FALL

Every Buffalo Cop in Elite Unit Quits to Back Officers Who Shoved Elderly Man to Ground

 

By Tracy Connor

 

Daily Beast 

June 5, 2020

 

A video of Buffalo police officers shoving an elderly police activist to the ground, then walking by him as a pool of blood collected around his head, shocked the nation.

Their colleagues? Not so much.

All members of the Emergency Response Team resigned from the unit on Friday in support of the officers who were suspended without pay for their aggression toward Martin Gugino, 75.

“Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President John Evans told local station WGRZ.

The 57 officers will remain on the police force but are no longer on that team.

The New York State Police said they would be sending additional troopers to the region in response, and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said “contingency plans are in place” to handle the situation.

“If they resigned, I’m exceptionally disappointed by it because it indicates to me that they did not see anything wrong with the actions last night,” Erie County Executive Marc Poloncarz said at a press conference.

The Buffalo Police Department initially reported that Gugino, a longtime peace activist in Buffalo, was injured during protests on Thursday night when he tripped and fell.

They switched gears after video surfaced showing that he was clearly shoved and fell backward, cracking his head on the ground, causing blood to trickle out of his ear immediately. Officers simply walked past Gugino as he lay motionless.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he got nauseous after seeing the video.

“It was the same feeling I’ve had for 90 of the past nights when I would get the death totals from coronavirus,” he said. “I would physically get sick to my stomach, and when I saw the video I got sick to my stomach.”

Cuomo also said suspension wasn’t enough.

“I think the city should pursue firing, and I think the district attorney should look at the situation for possible criminal charges,” he said.

However, Evans, from the Police Benevolent Association, dug in further on Friday in support of the officers.

“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 14 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 backwards.”

The incident in Buffalo happened against a backdrop of aggressive behavior by police around the nation—from the tear gassing of peaceful protesters to clear space for President Donald Trump in Washington to footage of NYPD officers, including supervisors, taking batons to demonstrators out past curfew.

Gugino was out after curfew in Buffalo “because he feels that our civil liberties are so in danger, which they most certainly are,” Vicki Ross of the New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee told the Associated Press.

She said Gugino was involved with the center and “is a peaceable person.”

“There is no way that he was doing anything to accost or hurt,” she said.

On his Twitter feed, Gugino objected to the curfews for protesters and cops’ efforts to enforce them, writing at one point, “fuck the police.”

“The cops should not have clubs. And should not be in riot gear. The National Guard should arrest the police,” he tweeted earlier this week.

Buffalo Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mass resignations.