57 Buffalo Cops Resign in ‘Solidarity’ With Officers Who Face Suspension After Getting Caught Pushing a 75-Year-Old Man
Fifty-seven Buffalo police officers, the entire department’s emergency response team, have resigned in “solidarity” with two officers who have been suspended for brutally pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground unprovoked Thursday night.
Members of the squad are seen in the graphic viral video walking past the man as he bled on the ground without attending to him. After one officer tried to help the man, the video showed another officer motioning to keep walking.
#BREAKING: I’m told the entire @BPDAlerts Emergency Response Team has resigned from the team, a total of 57 officers, as a show of support for the officers who are suspended without pay after shoving Martin Gugino, 75. They are still employed, but no longer on ERT. @news4buffalo
— Dave Greber (@DaveGreber4) June 5, 2020
The police department initially characterized the incident as a “skirmish” where “one person was injured when he tripped & fell.” When video of the incident went viral, the two officers were suspended without pay. The man who’s seen bleeding from his ear is in stable condition.
PBA union President John Evans wrote “they have tried to fuck over these guys like I have never seen in 54 years” and that the two officers “do not deserve to be vilified or treated like criminals,” according to an email obtained by Madison Carter, a reporter from Buffalo’s CBS affiliate.
The news drew a ton of reaction:
Two officers were suspended (merely suspended!) for assaulting and seriously injuring a 75-year-old man, and 57 officers resigned in *solidarity* with them. Disgraceful. There’s a toxic culture inside many police departments. End qualified immunity and clean up these departments! https://t.co/HUOxBHKbSP
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) June 5, 2020
Buffalo will be a bit safer tonight thanks to the selfless act of these officers.
— Seth Rosenblatt (@sethr) June 5, 2020
These 57 police officers should never again work in any police department in the United States. The city of Buffalo should do everything possible to fire them. https://t.co/yNRE27mOkJ
— Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) June 5, 2020
The number of atrocities committed with the words “just following orders” is too staggering to list.
I’m ashamed to have them associated with the city of Buffalo. https://t.co/CEOkW8GDKn
— Kishore “The language of the unheard” Hari (@sciencequiche) June 5, 2020
That’s why everyone leaves Buffalo. There, I have never told my feelings on Buffalo before. Great people all have left. But it’s horrible.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) June 5, 2020
Wow crazy that Buffalo ended up with an entire department of bad apples what are the chances https://t.co/yvfdxqRo4Z
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) June 5, 2020
