‘According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key major instigator of people engaging in those activities…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump was excoriated by the mainstream press and hordes of disapproving social media commenters on Tuesday for suggesting that a 75-year-old man who was pushed by police officers was in fact an Antifa operative.
But as it turns out, Trump may have been correct.
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. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020
Martin Gugino became a celebrated victim of alleged police brutality when a video surfaced online showing him falling to the ground after two policemen repelled his unusual attempt to obstruct a line of officers from clearing a city street in Buffalo, New York.
The video purports to confirm yet another incident amid widespread allegations of abuse of power by law enforcement in the wake of the George Floyd killing.
However, Gugino’s blog, his social media posts and an ongoing police investigation tell a very different story.
Gugino, who lives in the town of Amherst just northeast of Buffalo, previously maintained an address in Berkeley, California, according to online records.
On his blog “Persistent Vegetative State,” he brags about the number of times he’s been arrested and escaped prosecution.
His Twitter account is overtly anti-police, though it’s been blocked from public view since the controversy erupted. The account has 13,400 followers. A picture of teenage, Antifa-supporting climate-change activist Greta Thunberg sits atop his timeline.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who is black, said Gugino is a known, dangerous provocateur.
“There has been vandalism, there have been fires set, there have been stores broken into and looted. According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key major instigator of people engaging in those activities,” Brown said in a press conference.
Brown refused to dismiss the two officers involved in the pushing incident at that time.
Despite the brazen insistence of mainstream media outlets that deny any wrongdoing on Gugino’s part, footage shows him clearly agitating police officers in a manner meant to provoke a response.
According to one protestor, he was “acting like an asshole” and “trying to get punched in the face.”
Gugino also appears to attempt to capture the police officers’ radio frequency through a process known as “skimming.” The 75-year-old moves his phone in a suspicious manner from one officer’s chest-mounted radio mic to anothers officer’s radio communications belt just prior to being shoved.
Skimming is reportedly an Antifa tactic to monitor police movements and conversations.
As of Wednesday morning, Buffalo city leadership buckled to political pressure and arrested and fired the two offending police officers. They pleaded not guilty and were released without bail as a crowd of hundreds of supporters gathered outside the city’s courthouse to cheer them.
