Buffalo police officers arrested after shoving 75-year-old protester

[CatWoman]

Two Buffalo, New York, police officers are now facing criminal charges in connection with the graphic caught-on-video shove of a 75-year-old man during a protest, prosecutors said.

Officers Aaron Torglaski and Robert McCabe were charged with second-degree assault during their video arraignments on Saturday and were released on their own recognizance. They both entered no guilty pleas and are expected back in court on July 20.

The Thursday protest at Niagara Square had less than 20 demonstrators and several members of Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team, officials said.

One of the protesters, Martin Gugino was seen on video walking in the direction of the crowd of uniformed officers when Torglaski and McCabe allegedly shoved him.


Gugino fell flat onto his back and bumped the back of his head on the concrete, video shows. The sound of the man's head hitting the ground silenced the crowd, according to the video.

A trail of blood can be seen seeping from the head of the motionless man as several officers walked by him.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/buffalo-police-officers-arrested-shoving-75-year-protester/story?id=71106787&fbclid=IwAR02KMyikR7wLOmCUPe4fwvkeZuOWXLsgbbxsDyc2vam7ohM_333lOfoeXQ

[Lars39]

1. "Bumped"? Cracked!

[essme]

2. Thank god for cell phones

Thank god.

[Maeve]

3. Yep! it was 'additional video' that made them open the investigation

Otherwise...

[Dennis Donovan]

4. Recommended.

Their culture will not change unless they are held as accountable as any regular citizen would be.

[shockey80]

5. Cops need to learn when you simply push old people, children, women,

they can get hurt very badly. It's like cops can't adjust to the situations they are in. That old guy was not a threat. They could see he was an old guy. Have some fucking control. All they had to do was walk around him.

[sfstaxprep]

10. To Be Fair, They Did Walk Around Him

While he was lying on the ground.

[The Magistrate]

13. Not a Threat? Why You Poor Naive Child....

He might have exploded at any second! He could have been a bomb, an anti-fa suicide bomber bent on taking every cop in Buffalo with him! How could they have known for sure he wasn't? Better for cops to stay safe than be sorry! It's war out there on the streets!

The training police receive nowadays is of such sorry quality this is not likely to be much of an exaggeration. They are taught to regard damned near anything as a threat to their lives. People go into police training and emerge as dedicated cowards, and there is no one who bullies with more enthusiasm than a frightened coward.

[Blue_true]

14. Too many departments hire candidates that escalate fast, it seems.

Slowing things down to deescalate a situation and negotiate with people being policed is a sign of weakness to them, not something that has the highest chance to lead to an appropriate resolution of the situation.

[Sherman A1]

6. Good

It is encouraging to see more held accountable. Perhaps the tide is changing somewhat.

[Blue_true]

15. Yeah, police chiefs are being asked hard questions about the conduct of

officers under their command. The Right view this as attacks on police, in fact it is an attempt to make policing more effective and responsive to citizens.

[Staph]

7. If you look carefully at any of the video

you will see that Mr. Gugino had a police helmet in his left hand. Was he trying to return the helmet to the police? I'd like to know that part of the story.

[ARPad95]

9. Yes, and it looks like he was trying to show them what was on the cell phone in his right hand.

Maybe he had video of a previous hostile encounter when a riot officer lost or had his helmet removed and was trying to show the video identifying that officer to the commanding officer?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. Those damned "bad apples" keep falling everywhere.

The excuse that is used whenever a police officer is caught doing something evil is that "there are only a few bad apples" in law enforcement. Too bad videophones are showing that to be a lie. The videos of policemen bashing protestors at will show it's not a few bad apples -- it's an orchard of them.

The mayor of Buffalo was on Rachael last night, tap-dancing through the interview. When she asked, "Why did policemen just keep walking past this man who lay there bleeding from his head?", the mayor said, "There were medics there within seconds after he fell. Notice he's still going with "fell" rather than what we clearly see in the videos, that he was pushed. Unfortunately for the mayor -- and fortunately for us -- the tape runs for a long time, and it is not until the national guardsman appears that anyone pays attention to Mr. Gugino.

[sfstaxprep]

11. The Mayor Of Buffalo Is CLEARLY On Police's Side

Even in this matter.

[beachbumbob]

12. its a start, but convictions are always elusive.

but it is a start.