New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called out President Donald Trump during his Tuesday briefing for a tweet posted earlier in the day where the president said a man injured by Buffalo police officers may be “an ANTIFA provocateur.”
The post, in which Trump also claimed Martin Gugino “fell harder than was pushed,” surprised the governor, who accused the president of creating his own facts.
“How reckless, how irresponsible, how mean, how crude,” Cuomo said. “I mean, if there was ever a reprehensible dumb comment and from the president of the United States. At this moment of anger, anguish, and anger, what does he do? Pours gasoline on the fire.”
Gugino, Cuomo said, remains in a Buffalo hospital but is out of intensive care. Two officers, 39-year-old Aaron Torgalski and 32-year-old Robert McCabe, have been suspended from the force without pay and charged with felony assault. They pleaded not guilty on Saturday and could face seven years in prison if convicted.
The incident happened Thursday night, a day before Gov. Cuomo announced his “Say Their Name” law enforcement reform agenda, which the New York state Legislature is taking up this week in Albany.
On Tuesday, the state Senate approved the biggest piece and most controversial piece of that agenda. In a 40-22 vote, senators passed a bill sponsored by state Sen. Jamaal Bailey, D-Bronx, that repeals Section 50-a of the New York Civil Rights Law, allowing a law enforcement officer’s disciplinary record to be made public.
Bailey’s bill does include some exceptions. Certain personal information would be redacted from public view, and the bill gives police departments and other first responder agencies the ability to not disclose “minor, technical infractions” in certain circumstances.
The demonstrations in Buffalo, New York City and elsewhere across the state and country arose from the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Video showed Minneapolis police officers pinning down Floyd, with one officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes before he died.
In a news conference Tuesday in New York City, representatives of various New York police unions railed against the agenda being pushed by Democrats in Albany. Mike O’Meara, who heads the New York State Association of Police Benevolent Associations, said the unions believe Chauvin’s actions were “disgusting” and called on the media to stop comparing officers to the cop accused of murdering Floyd.
“It’s not what police officers do,” O’Meara said. “Our legislators abandoned us. The press is vilifying us.”
Prior to the Senate vote, Cuomo said the current law enforcement model, which includes the “militarization of police,” needs to change.
“The police are public servants for that community,” the governor said. “If that community doesn’t trust and doesn’t respect the police, the police cannot do their job.”
