All 57 members of Buffalo’s Emergency Response Team RESIGN in ‘disgust’ over the suspension and criminal probe of two cops for shoving a peace activist, 75, to the floor during protests
Fifty seven officers have resigned from their positions on a Buffalo Police squad in support of two colleagues who were suspended after they were filmed shoving a 75-year-old peace activist to the ground, causing him to crack open his head.
The two officers were suspended without pay and are now under criminal investigation after footage showed them knocking Martin Gugino to the ground and leaving him with critical injuries in front of Buffalo’s City Hall in upstate New York on Thursday night prior to the city’s 8pm curfew.
All 57 of the Buffalo police officers on the department’s Emergency Response Team have resigned from their positions on the special unit following Thursday’s incident in Niagara Square. That’s according to Buffalo PBA President John Evans, who confirmed a report you saw first on Spectrum News Friday afternoon. What You Need To KnowEntire Buffalo Police ERT resigns to support two officers who were suspended after pushing 75-year-old man ThursdayThe officers have only resigned from the ERT; They have not resigned from their police officer rolesThe injured man, 75-year-old Martin Gugino, was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. He is active and alert as of Friday afternoonThe officers have not resigned from their police officer roles. It comes after the suspension of two ERT members who shoved a 75-year-old protester in Niagara Square Thursday evening after video from Spectrum News and a local radio station surfaced showing the incident. That man, activist Martin Gugino, was taken to Erie County Medical Center with serious injuries to his head, though he is active and alert today. Evans says the members resigned to support the two suspended officers, and in disgust of how the administration is handling the entire incident. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz learned about the group action during a press conference Friday afternoon.”I’m very disappointed if they resigned. I don’t know how many individuals there are, as I said I have no oversight directly, that is no oversight over the Buffalo Police Department. My goal as county executive is to ensure the safety and welfare of the entire public. The individuals who are protesting, our general members of the public who may be not as well as our local police force, because I want each and everyone one of them to be safe in all our endeavors,” Poloncarz (D) said. The Buffalo Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment. A press conference with police was originally scheduled to be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday, but was postponed and hasn’t been rescheduled yet. Mayor Byron Brown released a statement Friday afternoon, saying:”The City of Buffalo is aware of developments related to the work assignments of certain members of the Buffalo police force. At this time, we can confirm that contingency plans are in place to maintain police services and ensure public safety within our community. The Buffalo police continue to actively work with the New York State Police and other cooperating agencies.”New York State Police have confirmed they are aware of the resignations and will be “adding additional troopers in the region.”
More than 50 police officers in Buffalo have resigned in support of two colleagues who were suspended after video showed them shoving a 75-year-old peace activist to the ground who then cracked his head and was hospitalized with severe injuries. The resigning 57 officers comprised the entire Buffalo police department (BDP) emergency response team. They will still be employed by BDP and be paid, but they will no longer work on the emergency response team. The shock development, which triggered a wave of social media outrage, is likely to heighten tensions in the city in New York state, which like many other places has seen widespread anti-police-brutality protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer. The protests have been marred by widespread incidents of police violence against demonstrators and the media that have triggered condemnation by civil rights groups in the US and overseas. Many of them have been filmed and spread via social media. The brutal attack on Martin Gugino by the Buffalo police seemed to strike a particular chord. Video from the public radio station WBFO shows Gugino approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they clear demonstrators from Niagara Square around the time of an 8pm curfew. Two officers push Gugino backward, and he hits his head on the pavement. Blood spills as officers walk past. One officer leans down to check on the injured man before he is urged along by another officer. Prosecutors are now investigating and two officers have been suspended.“Why? Why was that necessary? Where was the threat?” asked the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, at his daily briefing on Friday, saying he had spoken to Gugino. “It’s just fundamentally offensive and frightening. How did we get to this place?”But the local police union boss defended his officers. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” said John Evans, PBA president, according to WGRZ. Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, said contingency plans were in place “ensure public safety”. Additional state troopers will be in the city through the weekend to assist Buffalo police, according to a state police spokesman. Brown said they were working with other agencies. Gugino was hospitalized and was “alert and oriented”, according to a Friday morning tweet by Mark Poloncarz, the Erie county executive. Poloncarz at a briefing later in the day wished Gugino a “speedy recovery” and said the incident “created a black mark, a stain on the city of Buffalo”. Gugino is a retiree who lives by himself in the area, say friends who describe him as a veteran peace activist driven by his faith and a desire for social justice. He is involved with the Western New York Peace Center and Latin American Solidarity Committee, said Vicki Ross, the center’s executive director.“I can assure you, Martin is a peaceable person,” Ross said. “There is no way that he was doing
