They know we all have cameras now, right?

In a move sure to restore trust in law enforcement both in the Buffalo, New York community and indeed, the nation, the entire Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team have resigned. The move came in the aftermath of two members of the team forcefully shoving and injuring a protestor. And I think this will go along way towards mending our country's wounds. That by showing that no police officer is above the-huh? Oh, they resigned in solidarity with the-ah-ok, that's...that's not great.

Pictured: A phalanx of Buffalo PD officers, seen here
heroically confronting a grave threat to public safety.

"C'mon, you've got to admit we have a point."

-90's hip-hop group N.W.A.

So the officers who resigned didn't resign from the police department, just from a volunteer squad assigned to crowds and large gatherings like Thursday's Black Lives Matter demonstration at Niagara Park. They're still like, employed and getting paid and, you know, policing, except now they're doing so angry. Well, angrier. I mean, they quit the squad because they felt that the cops suspended without pay for pushing the protestor, Martin Gugino, were treated unfairly. And they were. Kind of.

Cops shouldn't be lying in the first place,
but everyone has a camera, so lying about
things like this is both idiotic and insulting.

We're talking about police officers who shoved a seventy-five year-old man to the ground, severely injuring him, and then lied about it. They said he tripped. Cool. He didn't. Anyway, it seems like fair treatment would have been termination and criminal charges for the shovers as well as punishment for the other cops who walked right by while this man was bleeding on the ground from severe head trauma. But sure, the real victims here are the cops who are so brutally being held accountable for things they clearly did. Because again, they're on video.

"In many ways you should be blaming
gravity. You're beef's with Sir Isaac Newton."

-John Evans

According to the President of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association:

"Our position is these officers were simply following orders...to clear the square. It doesn't specify clear the square of men, fifty and under or fifteen to forty. They were simply doing their job. I don't know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backwards."

-John Evans, clarifying that the 

"Benevolent" part is meant ironically

Sorry, how'd this get here?

I uh...so, couple of things. I realize that dragging the Nazis into any debate seriously undermines one's credibility, but I'm not sure claiming that the "officers were simply following orders" is really the best way to get the public on your side. Also, I don't know that we need John Evans' estimation here. There's a video that shows the cops pushing Martin Gugino. Sure, he fell backwards, but then that was bound to happen when the cops pushed him. And while I'm sure the order to clear the square didn't include an age bracket, it also didn't call for inflicting grievous injury, so shut up maybe?

I don't know, I want to be able to trust law enforcement. We all want to be able to trust them. But one incident like this is enough to seriously damage the reputation of police everywhere and we've seen like dozens just in the last week. And that's just the ones people have managed to capture on video. Hey, you don't suppose this is what people of color have been saying for like, all of American history, do you?

"Yes."

                           -This guy