As noted by Mapping Police Violence, America’s largest database of police killings, of the 1,098 people in America killed by police, although representing 13 percent of the population, 24 percent were African American.
With a track record of murdering millions using military brutality and deadly economic sanctions across the globe… America’s politicians and military, however, are race, creed, and color-blind.
While it made the news last week, the outrage of police brutality against a peaceful 75-year-old white man was limited to page 26 in this past Sunday’s New York Times, the self-proclaimed “Paper of Record.”
Last Thursday, in Buffalo, NY, a video showed a squad of stormtrooper-geared police marching down the street shoving Martin Gugino, splitting his head open as the fell backwards.
Laying on the ground, motionless and bleeding, the brave police in riot gear marched on, leaving Gugino lying there.
The two police officers seen on the video pushing Mr. Gugino, Aaron Torglaski and Robert McCabe, were suspended without pay pending an investigation.
In response, on Friday, all 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team resigned from the unit to protest the suspension and show support for their fellow two officers.
Defending the action of the two suspended officers, the president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, John Evans, stated, “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders.”
TRENDPOST: Regardless of committing no crime that imperils the life of anyone, “simply executing orders” has now become, by their actions, “simply executing” anyone who stands in the way of America’s militarized stormtrooper police force.
TRENDPOST: Hospitalized over the weekend, Mr. Gugino was listed in serious but stable condition. As for the one-sided reporting on police-state brutality and concentrating on Black Lives Matter, since Sunday, there have been no updates on Mr. Gugino’s condition in the Buffalo Times or New York Times, nor from other media outlets.
Remaining in critical condition, Mr. Gugino was back in the news today only because President Trump tweeted that that the longtime peace activist got what he deserved because he was an agent provocateur: “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment,” President Trump tweeted. “@OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
TRENDPOST: Last Wednesday, at the “Black Lives Matter” demonstration in Washington, D.C., one of the protesters, a black activist, Mike DeAngelo, climbed a lamppost to address a large crowd, saying,
“We’re all mad, we’re all frustrated. No matter what your skin color is, this is not white versus black… We already know the history of that story. This right here is love versus hate, right versus wrong. We cannot expect a person that hates us, with generations of teachings and learnings, to overnight, love us. So, we’ve gotta protect ourselves.”
When asked whom he was referring to as the “person that hates us,” DeAngelo said it was “the police.”
Police Can Lie. You Can’t
When George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, the spokesman, i.e. mouthpiece, John Elder, sent a brief statement to reporters under the subject line: “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction,” stating the reason for killing Floyd was that he “physically resisted” arrest.
In the “old days” of pre-cell phones and cameras everywhere, it would have been an open-and-closed case. Caught on videos, however, the incident clearly showed the Minneapolis police department lied. Floyd, begging for his life, was choked to death for allegedly passing a phony $20 bill.
Moreover, anyone daring to resist, guilty or not, is, by the words of Elder and the militarized police state of America, an accepted cause to be killed.
We Like to Lie
After the Buffalo Goon Squad shoved Martin Gugino, splitting his head open and sending him to the hospital, the official Liar-in-Chief said he “tripped and fell.”
Last week in Philadelphia, a video showed a cop hitting a man with his baton, but the official police liar said the victim deserved what he got because he pushed the officer off his bike.
Also widely circulated was a video from Rancho Cordova, CA, of a tough cop beating a 14-year-old boy while he was pinned to the ground.
Why? Because the boy was “uncooperative” and the officer tried to detain the youth, whom he suspected of “criminal activity,” claimed Tess Deterding,
police spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
Brutality Rules
As the protests against the horrific killing of George Floyd raged last week, numerous incidents of police violence continued to erupt. Videos and eyewitness accounts include incidents of police kicking, punching, pepper-spraying, gassing, and even driving their police vehicles directly into protesters.
The escalating police violence has induced critical comments from international observers including Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who, in reaction to the U.S. protests, said, “All police officers who resort to excessive use of force should be charged and convicted for the crimes committed.”
Some of the incidents of police brutality since the death of George Floyd:
- In Minneapolis, MN, the city where Floyd was killed by a policeman on 25 May, police shot paint canisters at a woman who was standing on her private property. A video shows an officer yelling, “Light ‘em up!” before the projectile was fired onto the woman’s porch.
- On 28 May, a video showing a large male NYPD officer violently shoving a small female protestor to the ground went viral with over six million hits. The woman was released from the hospital with a concussion.
- In Los Angeles, CA, a video shows a police car ramming a protester to the ground, briefly trapping him under the engine. In a separate incident, a military veteran who was protesting said he was holding his hands up when police shot him in the head, legs, and stomach with rubber bullets.
- In San Jose, CA, reported by police to be “dancing in the street,” a man was handcuffed by two officers, and then, minutes later, was joined by three additional officers who pinned him face down to the ground. Neighbors witnessing police bullying the man came out shouting, “He’s from around here, he exercises every day, we know his routine, he didn’t do anything wrong.”
- In Fort Lauderdale, FL, a black woman kneeling and with her hands visibly in the air was pushed down by police.
- In Austin, TX, an investigation is underway after a pregnant woman was hit with a rubber bullet in her stomach.
TRENDPOST: A 1998 report on police brutality published by Human Rights Watch cited that only some 30 percent of citizens complaining of police physical and verbal abuse actually filed a complaint, due to fear of retribution or lack of trust in the legal system when it came to police breaking the law. The report concluded that filing a complaint against the police was “unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating.”
Unless we move toward a society in which it is believed and practiced that All Men are Created Equal, and we bring Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men, the once Land of the Free will continue to devolve into the Militarized State of America.
Indeed, this trend holds true throughout the world.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As economic conditions decline, violent crime will escalate. In such instances where an officer is faced with a kill-or-be-killed situation, we stand firmly on the side of police.