Arbitrator clears officers who pushed Buffalo protester

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — An arbitrator has ruled that two Buffalo police officers didn’t violate the department’s use-of-force guidelines when they pushed a 75-year-old protester to the ground in June 2020 during racial injustice protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protester spent about a month in the hospital with a fractured skull and brain injury. In a decision Friday, arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick wrote that the level of force was justified because the protester refused to comply with orders to leave the scene, was acting erratically, and had walked directly in front of one of the officers.