Elderly man horribly hurt by Buffalo police

And these kinds of attitudes are part of why we are where we are. Never willing to hold police accountable and always looking to excuse their abhorrent behavior.

I saw this video on my friends Facebook page. The man is pushed after he approaches the olive and says some things (side note-I would like to know what he said. I’d bet whatever he said provoked the officer that pushed him. I’m NOT excusing the shove, it was the wrong action. But I’m nosy and want to know what was said).

Aren’t police officers trained in CPI? I had to take it when I was working in the schools and in day facilities. It trains you on how to de-escalate a situation. With that training, using physical restraint is an absolute last resort. If someone is only shouting at you and refusing to do what you say, you do not put your hands on the person. You only do that after they engage in property destruction (and even that depends on what exactly they are breaking. If it’s snapping pencils you don’t restrain but if they’re slamming desks into the windows you do.), physical aggression against themselves, you, or someone around you. NOT WORDS.

This man didn’t attempt to physically harm himself or those around him. He said some words. There was no need to shove him. I hope he will be ok.

I had to watch that video a couple of times because I thought that he was just left there and nobody called for help/nobody showed up to help when he was obviously bleeding from his ear. But there is one officer who calls for a medic. At the very end you can see 2 people in military camo run over to the man on the ground. I assume they were the medics.

I watched the video several times. I wondered why the elderly man was there, but I also could clearly see that he wasn't attacking police or doing anything except being where the police did not want him to be. It appeared as if he were asking them a question. He certainly wasn't being violent.

So you have a nonviolent person walking up to a line of police officers and he's elderly/older. So he could easily be confused. I am beyond dismayed that after all the police have been going through that their response to ONE ELDERLY PERSON is to shove him aside. I mean there wasn't even a parade of elderly people ready to attack with their canes. Then, when an officer when to help him (same officer that pushed him??), another officer pushes him away. WTF?

I know TV shows aren't real life, but in a lot of police dramas, you see that the new cops HAVE to listen to the seasoned cops or they will lose their jobs. Almost no matter what goes on, these new cops are told to do whatever the seasoned cop says. It makes me think of two of the cops in the George Floyd murder. One was on his 3rd shift and another his 4th day. It is not a reason to watch someone die, but we have cops that fear for their jobs if they do one thing not in accordance with their seasoned officer. This is SO wrong and that has to change. It reminds me of lambs going to slaughter. They know, but they don't think there's anything they can do. Something like our President firing anyone who disagrees with him and terrifying so many people who need their jobs that they will say and do anything to keep them. We have to stop this mentality!!! We have to allow good people to speak up and get rid of the bad people. 

I am with you on this.  This elderly man was grabbing at the Police.  The Police are under so.much.pressure.  Police are getting shot and killed.  They have very little time to think/react.  Yes, they pushed him.  But it was a push.  I am sure they had no intention of him getting so injured.  He should not be grabbing at Police!  That man put himself in danger. 

No he was not..go look at it again. It appears he's waving what looks like a phone that he has in his hand. Not once did he grab at the police officer


No the guy who pushed him was not the one who tried to help. The one that pushed him kept walking away.

Absolutely! I am a Kindergarten teacher and I am CPI trained. I am a SPED inclusion teacher and often have violent, explosive children in my room. This year, I had 3! One little boy would hit me, kick me, scratch me, throw things at me, bite me....on almost a daily basis. It is NOT fun to stand there and get kicked repeatedly over and over (I would often have to act as a barrier between him and other students). It would be very easy to let my frustration get the best of me, grab him, using too much force and hurt him. So I just DON’T. I call for backup, and then we use every de-escalation technique we have before putting him in a very technical restraint. And if we ever did have to put him in a restraint, we had to fill out paperwork afterwords to document. We never actually did end up restraining him this year—we only used de-escalation.

I could get easily frustrated. I know he’s just a kid—but you try getting hit and kicked and bitten on a daily basis. You WILL get frustrated. But I am the adult in the situation. I am bigger and stronger than him. It is MY JOB to protect HIM, even when he is trying to hurt me. If I didn’t think I could do it, I would ask my principal not to put children with extreme behaviors in my room! 

 I have seen many videos of GOOD cops de-escalating people. I have seen videos of cops managing to talk down suspects that were actually pointing guns at them. So it can be done. I’m not saying that cops don’t have the right to use force when they fear for their lives—because of course they do. But we have to stop using that as an excuse to justify senseless brutality.

Why so much emphasis on the fact he was elderly? Whether it was a 20 year old approaching, or a 99 year old approaches should it make a difference? Should deference be given due to age? Would we be more understanding of the police action if the person was 19? I just hate all of this.

I didn’t know he was elderly until I came here and saw it on this thread. He didn’t look elderly to me. He looks like a couple of my runner friends who are in their 40s to me.

No matter the age or skin color, there was no need for excessive force in this situation.

Wrong. If police can’t handle the pressure of their job and to act responsibly, without brutality and violence, then they aren’t cut out for their jobs and either require more training, or need to looknfor work elsewhere.

There was no reason as presented in the video to touch the man. You have no idea how hard he pushed him, clearly hard enough to knock him over. So yes, in this situation force = excessive force. This is the text book definition of assault. If someone comes up to you in public and pushes you hard enough to to fall and bleed from the ear do you want them charged with assault? Police are supposed to serve and protect — where is either?

 Most people have a level of respect for the elderly in the way they speak and treat them. An elderly person, because of their age, does not have the same balance or strength that a much younger person has, pushing them the way we see in the video, has far greater consequence for an older person than a younger one. Not to mention that it was a very sudden gesture, Sudden actions can catch people unaware far quicker when one is older than when you are younger. You're reactions are quicker when you're younger.

Physical contact should be a LAST resort. This cop pushed that man within seconds of encountering him. Would you push someone at the store who was in your way? I doubt it. You would have found another way to solve the problem. That cop could have, too. 

I have a question for all of the cheerleaders for law enforcement.

Let's say my daughter was a gang member and she spent most of every day of her life with the other gang members dressed in gang colors with the gang's identifiers tattooed on her face and body, carrying a gun roaming the neighborhood.

Let's say her gang was responsible for terrorizing the neighborhood, assaulting, shooting and killing the residents, and that had been going on for decades. The residents finally get all up in arms saying this has to stop.

Then I come on the board and say, MY daughter is not like them nor is she responsible for what her fellow gang members do. You are all being mean to me for speaking up and defending my gang member daughter. Not all gang members are bad people

The problem with all who keep defending this horror show is that none of you can see further than the end of your mostly white noses. I understand why cops are like they are. They are raised by, married to or otherwise supported by people who have no clue nor will they ever have a clue. If they did have a clue they would never let their loved one join that blue gang.

If my daughter was a gang member I would be ashamed of her and ashamed of myself for raising her. I'd either kick her ass or cut the cord and never have anything to do with her again. I certainly would never ever come on a public message board and defend her.

I know it's a waste of breath to even put this out there and that makes me incredibly sad. I have developed a deep and abiding disgust for anyone supporting cops.

I would call an ambulance, I would call the fire department, but I would never call a cop and expect that they would help me. It would be a crap shoot as to whether they would help or shoot my brown husband. I would never take that chance.

Gov Cuomo stated at his new conference that he had spoken to the man.  I'm not sure that is correct.  


On another note: In general an eldery person would seem/appear to be less of a threat then a 20 year old.