Buffalo police officers who pushed 75-year-old protester cleared by arbitrator
Two Buffalo police officers have been cleared by an arbitrator after they pushed a 75-year-old man to the ground during a racial justice demonstration.
In June 2020, amid racial justice protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a viral video showed two police officers in Buffalo, New York, pushing an elderly man, who fell to the ground and hit his head. The man, Martin Gugino, was hospitalized and suffered a fractured skull. An arbitrator has now ruled the officers didn't violate the police department's use-of-force guidelines, The Associated Press reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The arbitrator also ruled that Gugino didn't comply with commands to leave and that he "appears to have not been able to keep his balance for reasons that might well have had as much to do with the fact that he was holding objects in each hand or his advanced age," per Axios.
The two officers, who were clearing the area of protesters due to a curfew, were suspended without pay in 2020 after the incident, but charges against them were dropped last year. According to the AP, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told the Buffalo News the officers will be reinstated, while an attorney for Gugino said this ruling does not affect his lawsuit against the city.
