I’m sorry that the guy got hurt. But . . . he approached an advancing police line, he was warned several times to get back, he didn’t, it looked like he was reaching for one of the cops, and he was pushed back. It didn’t look like the kind of push that should have caused someone of normal physical abilities to fall down and get hurt, especially that severely. What are the cops supposed to do if some refuses several orders to move back? Just say never mind and let him through? Then the stupid police put out a statement saying he just tripped and fell, without mentioning he had been shoved so now it looks like an attempted cover up.
It does look like he tried to grab an officer. The shove was not hard but knowing some 75 year olds it does not take much for them to lose their balance like that.
Old dude is hospitalized in serious condition. Cops suspended.
Yeah - sorry that happened to him and I imagine that wasn't the officers' intent for him to get hurt that way - but pops showed poor-judgement in apparently confronting the police in what appeared to be an already heightened situation
"tripped and fell"
I don't care what job title you have, anything recorded can and will be used against you. Do these officers just make up excuses for their actions on a whim assuming that not a single person in a mass protest is recording exactly what they're doing?
That was a *complete* mood killer for me, seeing that man get hurt like that.
It's bad enough that they shoved him. We don't know what he said to the officers when he approached them, but they don't appear to be threatened by him. So if they want to claim they were defending themselves, that pretty weak. Any one of the officers, who are supposed to be well-trained in community relations and in de-escalating civil tension, could have guided him to the side and asked him what he wanted.
But after he fell, at least one officer started to go to him to potentially render aid, as he was already bleeding. And that's when this went from simply a poor way to handle an old man with a question to reprehensible behavior. Because as the officer started to offer help, the others pulled him back in line and the rest of the formation just stepped over him and kept going.
That is NOT excusable. That is not protecting and serving. That is callous and at best, negligence. At worst, it's criminal assault.
> who are supposed to be well-trained in community relations
But are cops well trained? They don't seem to have enough manpower to actually do policing never mind do policing and practice policing.
You would think with all the media attention this is gathering that every cop would be extra careful about what they do but there are still other videos of individual cops stupidly doing wrong things. Like firing rubber stoppers at people on their porches.
People under assault from overwhelming numbers of violent attackers, supported by Government, are bound to react poorly to stressful situations. Democrats whine about Trump's leadership and all I see is a collection of democrat controlled areas that look like Beirut. Democrats failed here and with Covid.
From the overall comments non-blacks are held to higher standard of victim participate. Obviously its wrong, we should all be held accountable to the same sandards. the ones that will end up suffering more are the honest working poor.
The stupid old man asked for it and got it. Having said that, the cops handled it as badly as they could short of shooting him. Did you not expect a lanky old fart with such a high center of gravity not to fall backwards and splot his head open?
You cannactually see the blood spreading on the sidewalknfrom his head.
When he touched the cop, they should have grabbed him, cuffed him, and sent him to the station to be processed. Now more lives are ruined or lost because a cop and troublemaker had a pissing contest.
"The stupid old man asked for it"???? How does an unarmed 75 year old surrounded by 30+ young officers in riot gear ask for having his skull cracked open? What could he have possibly said that would have warranted that response? For all I know he approached the officer and said "Hey, do you know when Body Shop dayshift is going to reopen? I'm sitting on a fat stimulus check." Seriously, I didn't see a volatile situation there and one uniformed officer escorting him to the side near the building to clear the walk was all that was required.
Turns out pops was a "local activist" - saw a video of him earlier today where he looks like he's wearing lipstick (not that there's anything wrong with that) - anyway I assume the video I saw on TV is an old video and not a video of today w/ him recovered (so not sure he's status but hopefully he'll fully recover).
This is another example of what can happen to anyone regardless of race when they confront, or do not comply w/, the police - can you imagine what it would have been like if the 75 y/o man was black (and an apparent lipstick wearer to boot); it would continue to be shoved-down everyone's-throats the absolute *singular* narrative that police exclusively target blacks and that blacks are exclusively singled out for specific actions.
Shithead cop. If he was so afraid of a 75 year old man while wrapped up in his riot gear, he should have restrained him instead of lashing out like an idiot.
And yes, I'm aware that he *might* have had a weapon, but all the more reason to restrain rather than pushing him away and letting him use it.
The situation w/ pops seems like a series of events gone wrong w/ an unfortunate ending:
1) seems the police at the moment was engaged with a group of protesters - IDK the details but it appeared to be a heightened situation
2) pops IMO used poor judgement approaching the police in the middle of an apparent engagement w/ a group of protesters - it'd be similar to a 75 y/o man trying to get into the middle of a meley of full-grown men even if they were all civilians
The cops did not target pops - pops approached the cops in the middle of an apparent engagement, and even then they just pushed him off to the side IMO to get him to clear out, IMO if it was their intent to hurt pops they could have done a lot worse - it was not a given/known that pops would subsequently lose his balance from a non-violent push seemingly meant to clear a particular area - it was an unfortunate and IMO unplanned result but things are often not gonna be rosy when cops are trying to assert their authority with people unwilling to comply - pops either unwittingly made a mistake approaching cops under those circumstances, or he was actively defying the cops' orders as many an "activist" seem to do.
"All 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response team have resigned from their posts in the special unit.
The mass resignation is meant as a show of support for the two fellow officers who were suspended without pay Thursday night after a video of them shoving 75 year old protestor Martin Gugino went viral.
'Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,' John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told WGRZ."
________________________________
Was it an order to say that Martin 'tripped and fell' too?
Old man was reaching in the area of the officer's gun. Spare the bullshit of how old man was holding a phone, and therefore couldn't actually grab it. That's your angle, the camera's angle. The officer's is very different.
18 comments
Old dude is hospitalized in serious condition. Cops suspended.
I don't care what job title you have, anything recorded can and will be used against you. Do these officers just make up excuses for their actions on a whim assuming that not a single person in a mass protest is recording exactly what they're doing?
That was a *complete* mood killer for me, seeing that man get hurt like that.
But after he fell, at least one officer started to go to him to potentially render aid, as he was already bleeding. And that's when this went from simply a poor way to handle an old man with a question to reprehensible behavior. Because as the officer started to offer help, the others pulled him back in line and the rest of the formation just stepped over him and kept going.
That is NOT excusable. That is not protecting and serving. That is callous and at best, negligence. At worst, it's criminal assault.
> who are supposed to be well-trained in community relations
But are cops well trained? They don't seem to have enough manpower to actually do policing never mind do policing and practice policing.
You would think with all the media attention this is gathering that every cop would be extra careful about what they do but there are still other videos of individual cops stupidly doing wrong things. Like firing rubber stoppers at people on their porches.
You cannactually see the blood spreading on the sidewalknfrom his head.
When he touched the cop, they should have grabbed him, cuffed him, and sent him to the station to be processed. Now more lives are ruined or lost because a cop and troublemaker had a pissing contest.
This is another example of what can happen to anyone regardless of race when they confront, or do not comply w/, the police - can you imagine what it would have been like if the 75 y/o man was black (and an apparent lipstick wearer to boot); it would continue to be shoved-down everyone's-throats the absolute *singular* narrative that police exclusively target blacks and that blacks are exclusively singled out for specific actions.
And yes, I'm aware that he *might* have had a weapon, but all the more reason to restrain rather than pushing him away and letting him use it.
Shithead cops.
1) seems the police at the moment was engaged with a group of protesters - IDK the details but it appeared to be a heightened situation
2) pops IMO used poor judgement approaching the police in the middle of an apparent engagement w/ a group of protesters - it'd be similar to a 75 y/o man trying to get into the middle of a meley of full-grown men even if they were all civilians
The cops did not target pops - pops approached the cops in the middle of an apparent engagement, and even then they just pushed him off to the side IMO to get him to clear out, IMO if it was their intent to hurt pops they could have done a lot worse - it was not a given/known that pops would subsequently lose his balance from a non-violent push seemingly meant to clear a particular area - it was an unfortunate and IMO unplanned result but things are often not gonna be rosy when cops are trying to assert their authority with people unwilling to comply - pops either unwittingly made a mistake approaching cops under those circumstances, or he was actively defying the cops' orders as many an "activist" seem to do.
"All 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response team have resigned from their posts in the special unit.
The mass resignation is meant as a show of support for the two fellow officers who were suspended without pay Thursday night after a video of them shoving 75 year old protestor Martin Gugino went viral.
'Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,' John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told WGRZ."
________________________________
Was it an order to say that Martin 'tripped and fell' too?