Buffalo police officers quit unit to protest suspension of colleagues who were filmed shoving 75-year-old US man
- The video shows protester Martin Gugino bleeding after being pushed by one officer with a baton and a second one with his hand
- Local media quoted Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President John Evans as saying the officers were doing their job
Dozens of Buffalo police officers stepped down from the department’s crowd control unit on Friday, objecting to the suspensions of two fellow officers in the shoving of a 75-year-old protester who fell and cracked his head.
The footage shows a man identified as Martin Gugino approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they clear demonstrators from Niagara Square around the time of an 8pm curfew.
You see that video and it disturbs your basic sense of decency and humanity
Two officers push Gugino backward, and he hits his head on the pavement, the video shows. Blood spills as officers walk past. One officer leans down to check on the injured man before another officer urges the colleague to keep walking.
“Why? Why was that necessary? Where was the threat?” asked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at his daily briefing on Friday.
The governor said he spoke to Gugino, who had been hospitalised in serious condition. “It’s just fundamentally offensive and frightening. How did we get to this place?”
The police commissioner suspended two police officers without pay Friday, Mayor Byron Brown said.
