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Buffalo Police Officers Suspended After Shoving 75-Year-Old Protester Buffalo Police Officers Suspended After Shoving 75-Year-Old Protester
(about 11 hours later)
Two Buffalo police officers were suspended without pay on Thursday night after a video showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester, who was hospitalized with a head injury, the authorities said. Prosecutors are investigating the actions of two Buffalo police officers who were suspended without pay on Thursday night after a video showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester, who was hospitalized with a head injury.
The video taken by WBFO, a local radio station, shows the man approaching a group of officers during a protest stemming from the death of George Floyd. After he stops in front of them to talk, an officer yells, “push him back” three times; one officer pushes his arm into the man’s chest, while another extends his baton toward him with both hands. The video taken by WBFO, a local radio station, shows the man, identified on Friday as Martin Gugino, approaching a group of officers during a protest stemming from the death of George Floyd. He was identified by the Western New York Peace Center, a nonprofit that named him in a Facebook post, saying he is a peace activist and member.
The man is seen flailing backward, landing just out of range of the camera, with blood immediately leaking from his right ear. The video shows an officer leaning down to examine him, but another officer then pulls the first officer away. Several other officers are seen walking by the man, motionless on the ground, without checking on him. After the video shows Mr. Gugino stopping in front of the officers to talk, an officer yells “push him back” three times; one officer pushes his arm into Mr. Gugino’s chest, while another extends his baton toward him with both hands. Mr. Gugino flails backward, landing just out of range of the camera, with blood immediately leaking from his right ear.
Mayor Byron Brown said on Thursday night that the man was in serious condition. An officer leans down to examine him, the video shows, but another officer then pulls the first officer away. Several other officers are seen walking by the man, motionless on the ground, without checking on him.
The video, which rapidly spread across social media, added to a growing body of videos from across the nation that showed officers responding to protests against police violence with more police violence. Fury among online supporters of the protests was heightened by the police department’s initial claim that the man “tripped and fell,” a description at direct odds with the video. On Friday, the Erie County district attorney’s office said in a statement that prosecutors were investigating the incident. It said Mr. Gugino was unable to provide a statement to investigators on Thursday night at the Erie County Medical Center, where he was taken for treatment for the head injury.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York condemned the actions of the officers in a statement late Thursday night. He was still in serious but stable condition on Friday, the Erie County executive, Mark Poloncarz, wrote on Twitter. He said an official at the medical center told him that Mr. Gugino was “alert and oriented.”
“The incident in Buffalo is wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I’ve spoken with City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and we agree that the officers involved should be immediately suspended. Police officers must enforce — NOT ABUSE — the law.” The video, which rapidly spread across social media, added to a growing body of videos from across the nation that showed officers responding to protests against police violence with more police violence. Fury among online supporters of the protests was heightened by the Police Department’s initial claim that he “tripped and fell,” a description at direct odds with the video.
“It sickens me,” the Erie County executive, Mark Poloncarz, wrote on Twitter about the video, which includes both vulgarity and disturbing images. The Buffalo Police Department told local news media that five people were arrested during the protest. A police spokesman could not be reached on Friday.
The Buffalo Police Department told local media that five people were arrested during the protest. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York condemned the actions of the officers in the video late Thursday night.
The mayor, Mr. Brown, said in a statement that he was disturbed by the episode and that the city’s police commissioner had ordered an immediate investigation. “The incident in Buffalo is wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “I’ve spoken with City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and we agree that the officers involved should be immediately suspended. Police officers must enforce — NOT ABUSE — the law.”
“It sickens me,” the county executive, Mr. Poloncarz, said on Twitter about the video, which includes both vulgarity and disturbing images.
The mayor, Byron Brown, said in a statement that he was disturbed by the episode and that the city’s police commissioner had ordered an immediate investigation.
“After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership and members of the community, tonight’s event is disheartening,” he said.“After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership and members of the community, tonight’s event is disheartening,” he said.
Like other cities in New York, Buffalo has widely deployed law enforcement during the protests. On June 1, officers in armored vehicles fired tear gas after asking a crowd to disperse. Several stores were looted; a vehicle drove into a group of police officers, injuring two; and two people were struck by gunfire. The next day, Mr. Poloncarz said he was imposing a curfew because of those events, when a “peaceful protest devolved into violence.”
In response, the New York Civil Liberties Union raised concerns that the curfew would be disproportionately enforced against nonwhite residents of the state. On Thursday, John Curr, the director of its Buffalo chapter, referred to the treatment of Mr. Gugino, saying the “casual cruelty” of the officers was “gut-wrenching and unacceptable.”
“Suspensions and an investigation are already in order, but there is little more we have to see to know what took place,” Mr. Curr said in a statement. “Police officers cannot continue to hide behind the lie that they are protecting and serving.”
Mr. Curr said city leaders “need to take this as a wake-up call and seriously address the police violence during this week’s protest and the culture of impunity that led to this incident.”
The Buffalo Police Department has been accused in lawsuits in recent years of discriminating against minority groups. In 2018, the department was sued in federal court for discriminating against people of color through traffic enforcement practices that included checkpoints in neighborhoods where a majority of residents are black.
Chinyere Ezie, one of the lawyers litigating the case, said additional plaintiffs had been added to the suit, amended in April. Ms. Ezie said the video showing Mr. Gugino’s treatment highlighted “systemic problems and institutional failures” in the department’s enforcement, even when both the city’s mayor and police chief are black.
“It is a lens applied as to who and what is criminal,” she said. “We are seeing a pandemic of police brutality in a racial justice lens. “