The Daily Beast reports:

A video of Buffalo police officers shoving an elderly peace activist to the ground, then walking by him as a pool of blood collected around his head, shocked the nation.

Their colleagues? Not so much.

All members of the Emergency Response Team resigned from the unit on Friday in support of the officers who were suspended without pay for their aggression toward Martin Gugino, 75.

“Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” Buffalo Police Benevolent Association President John Evans told local station WGRZ.

The 57 officers will remain on the police force but are no longer on that team. The New York State Police said they would be sending additional troopers to the region in response, and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said “contingency plans are in place” to handle the situation.

“If they resigned, I’m exceptionally disappointed by it because it indicates to me that they did not see anything wrong with the actions last night,” Erie County Executive Marc Poloncarz said at a press conference.

The Buffalo Police Department initially reported that Gugino, a longtime peace activist in Buffalo, was injured during protests on Thursday night when he tripped and fell.

They switched gears after video surfaced showing that he was clearly shoved and fell backward, cracking his head on the ground, causing blood to trickle out of his ear immediately. Officers simply walked past Gugino as he lay motionless. [Continue reading…]