Current Events > Grand Jury Clears Buffalo N.Y. Police Accused Of Assaulting Elderly Protester

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https://www.npr.org/2021/02/11/967156442/grand-jury-clears-buffalo-n-y-police-accused-of-assaulting-elderly-protester

Erie County, N.Y., district attorney John Flynn said Thursday that a grand jury proceeding has cleared two police officers accused of assaulting a 75-year-old protester last summer.

The incident occurred in Buffalo on June 4 during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were captured on cell phone video shoving Martin Gugino to the ground.

Gugino cracked his skull on the pavement and sustained a brain injury, spending a month in hospital. Image of the confrontation went viral.

Speaking at a press conference, Flynn maintained that the assault warranted the felony charges that he filed.
"The video speaks for itself," Flynn said. "If the individual victim is 65 years or older and the perpetrators are 10 years younger, then it reaches that felony level."

The grand jury proceedings were held in secret and Flynn said he was unable to offer any insight into what evidence he presented or why the charges were dismissed.

He predicted that some members of the Buffalo community would accuse him of not prosecuting the case aggressively enough.

"I'm going to get that criticism, no doubt about it," Flynn said. "I'm telling you I sandbagged nothing. I put all relevant evidence into that grand jury."

The union that represents officers McCabe and Torgalski issued a statement praising the decision, saying the men were "following departmental procedures."

The two officers are not expected to face further charges.

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Daily reminder that cops can do anything they want to you without consequences.

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Are we calling video evidence an "accusation" now?

That is great. Good job. The police are so hard working and they have to live in a world where they are always seconded guessed. That old man could have been high on geritol for all you know. Thank heavy for the police. They beat up that old man to keep YOU safe and do they get a thank you. CE gonna CE .

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nothing is ever going to change regarding police brutality without a massive general societal upheaval. Working within the system will not work because they are the system. Changing public perception of them will not work because public attention is easily rerouted and the police do not care regardless

its just too deeply engrained in this country and they were given the keys to everything long ago. No amount of movements or protests or court cases are going to change course. It would have to be way bigger than that

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What the absolute fuck.

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I wonder what dp's take on this ruling is..

ScazarMeltex posted...

Daily reminder that cops can do anything they want to you without consequences.

Republicans aswell

Well we can't just hand wave this with white privilege. Even old white men can get brutalized by the police and not receive justice.

But yeah the events of the past summer feel like they won't have too much of a lasting effect. The cops basically have society by the balls despite being so obviously guilty of brutalizing the public.

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The system is broken and needs to be dismantled. Defund the police is too kind.

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We're probably less than a decade away from a full fascist coup with police and military backing.

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Note for the unaware, grand juries are basically rubber stamps for whatever the prosecutor wants. The threshold for getting a grand jury to issue an indictment is so damn low that any prosecutor worth two shits could indict anyone for anything.

So, to be clear, this prosecutor is either a) incompetent or b) didn't want an indictment.

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K181 posted...

Note for the unaware, grand juries are basically rubber stamps for whatever the prosecutor wants. The threshold for getting a grand jury to issue an indictment is so damn low that any prosecutor worth two shits could indict anyone for anything.

So, to be clear, this prosecutor is either a) incompetent or b) didn't want an indictment.

I've served on a grand jury, can confirm

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TommyG663513 posted...

Well we can't just hand wave this with white privilege. Even old white men can get brutalized by the police and not receive justice.

Think bigger: even white privilege didn't help an old, white man... who was protesting police brutality against black people.


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JakeFromm posted...

The union that represents officers McCabe and Torgalski issued a statement praising the decision, saying the men were "following departmental procedures."

They are openly saying it's departmental procedure to knock old people over so they crack their heads?

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"I'm going to get that criticism, no doubt about it," Flynn said. "I'm telling you I sandbagged nothing. I put all relevant evidence into that grand jury."

So how long until we find out this was a fucking lie?

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ACAB.

Don't care if I get modded.
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