Categories for News

Jun 28

2020

HarpData tries, tries again

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HarpData, already months behind completing a project to provide wi-fi access to thousands of Buffalo students, sought work on another school district job earlier this year and is now complaining it didn’t get the contract. The district’s purchasing director rejected the company’s bid, deeming HarpData a “non-responsible bidder.”  Now, three months later, HarpData is crying foul. Two weeks ago, months after the deadline to object had passed, the company filed a formal protest with the School Board, alleging irregularities in the procurement process and bias on the part of the district’s purchasing director.  But district officials are adamant they had[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 25

2020

Ali Ingersoll tells WGRZ about brutality claim

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Ali Ingersoll spoke with Michael Wooten and Maryalice Demler on WGRZ about a May 10 altercation between two white Buffalo police officers and an African American man who filed a notice of claim Thursday alleging brutality. As Investigative Post previously reported, Quentin Suttles, 30, was pulled over by Officers Ronald Ammerman and Michael Scheu as he drove the wrong way down a one-way street by East Eagle and Madison streets. The stop escalated into a tussle between Suttles and the officers, and a witness shot a video that showed Ammerman repeatedly punching Suttles in the face. Suttles, who suffered a broken[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 24

2020

Mayor skedaddles when protesters approach

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Donald Trump fled to a bunker in the basement of the White House earlier this month when protesters rallied in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Mayor Byron Brown did him one better tonight when he fled in a police car when a group of about 70 protesters began marching down his street. Our Ali Ingersoll was taping the march. Here’s what she recorded and posted on Twitter. Police were waiting outside the mayor’s house when the group arrived and the mayor was escorted out. pic.twitter.com/T5qO6HLzhd — Ali Ingersoll (@Ali_IngNews) June 25, 2020 You can view Ingersoll’s complete Twitter feed of[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 24

2020

Police arrest Niagara Square protesters

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Buffalo Police today arrested 13 protesters who had been occupying Niagara Square for a week and a half.  The order to clear the square came directly from Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood, police spokesman Captain Jeff Rinaldo told Investigative Post. The arrests were made about 1 a.m. Wednesday, just hours before the department put in place a new policy to issue appearance tickets for low-level offenses rather than taking people into custody.  Juan Santos, a protester who was arrested, spoke with Investigative Post, and said they were detained and held in Central Booking for nearly five hours before being issued appearance[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 23

2020

Pandemic cited as child porn complaints spike

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The COVID-19 pandemic has yet another dark side: child pornography complaints have doubled since March. The reason: children are home from school and frequently on their cell phones and other digital devices, making them more susceptible to overtures from predators. New York State Police report the number of complaints in March, April and May jumped from 1,339 last year to 2,640 for the same period this year. (No local data is available.) The increase is even more pronounced nationally, up from about 3 million last year to 7.7 million during the same period this year, according to the National Center[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 16

2020

Union shares Buffalo police contract

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Today Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told reporters that it was the responsibility of the city’s police union to make its contract public. “Why doesn’t the media ask the police union to make the contract public?” Brown said. “Why are the requests always of the city?” Well, the union did release it — yesterday. The Buffalo Police Benevolent Association forwarded a copy of the contract to Investigative Post so that we and our partners at WGRZ-TV could analyze it.  The document is 382 unwieldy pages, comprising agreements, amendments, arbitration awards and memoranda dating back to 1986.  “The union contract is a[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 12

2020

Online petition seeks Brown’s resignation

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A group of local community activists have launched an online petition demanding the resignation of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. The activists say Brown has failed to show leadership in the two weeks since demonstrators took to the streets to protest police brutality. The petition states: From the start on Saturday, May 30th, protestors were met with lines of militarized police. Cops were armed with rubber bullets and tear gas while helicopters occupied the sky and armored vehicles occupied the streets.  Among the results, the petition continues, were assaults on activists Myles Carter and Martin Gugino — the latter attracting national[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 6

2020

Mayor defends police, attacks their union

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Mayor Byron Brown was interviewed Friday evening by CNN’s Chris Cuomo and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. To both, he lamented the injury to Gugino and praised his police commissioner for quickly suspending the officers and launching an internal investigation of their actions. Brown also defended the Emergency Response Team officers who marched past Gugino as he lay bleeding on the ground, immobile except for eerily slow flexing of the fingers on his right hand. The ERT officers, Brown explained, are trained to keep moving in formation, leaving the injured for medics “embedded” behind their front line. Those medics, he said, attended[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post