Online petition seeks Brown’s resignation

• Share on
• 
• 
• 
• 

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 attention to the city and its policing issues.

“Byron Brown does not care about Black and Brown folx,” the petition, written by a group that identifies themselves as “BIPOC,” or “black, indigenous, and people of color.” The organizers declined to identify themselves to Investigative Post, citing “Brown’s penchant for retribution.”

“And to be clear, none of this is new,” the petition continues, then lists what the organizers characterize as Brown’s failures to deliver justice to victims of police violence over his 14 years in office:

Organizers told Investigative Post they’d intended to launch the call for Brown’s resignation sometime in the weeks ahead. They decided to launch it today, instead, prompted by what they say is the mayor’s tepid proposal for police reforms, which Brown unveiled at a press conference Wednesday.

Organizers began to promote the petition on social media at noon today.

Online petitions of this nature have rarely, if ever, led to a mayor’s resignation.