Police dispatcher suspended for calling protesters ‘wild animals’ who officers should ‘shoot to kill’

Buffalo Police Department is already dealing with fallout from two officers' assault on 75-year-old man

Police chiefs in Buffalo, New York have suspended a civilian employee after he called for officers to use lethal force at Black Lives Matter protests.

Bob Marth, a dispatcher who works for several security companies as well as the police department, wrote in his post that protesters demonstrating against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd are "animals" who should be shot.

"Enough is enough !!!" reads the now-deleted post, a screenshot of which was obtained by local media. "What is going on is uncalled for ..... F***** WILD ANIMALS ... and what do you do to an animal that's rabid out of control — you take it out !! Mayor stop being a patsy to these f***s and give the order !!! Allow the officers to shoot to kill !!"

In a written statement, police commissioner Byron Lockwood announced that his department was aware of Mr Marth’s post and was taking action.

“The Buffalo Police Department has become aware of a reprehensible social media post by a civilian employee of the Department on his personal Facebook page. I have immediately suspended the employee without pay and opened an internal investigation.”

The investigation into Mr Marth comes only days after the department suspended two officers who were caught on camera shoving an unarmed 75-year-old man to the ground as they walked by him at a protest last week. His head split open when he hit the ground, and a troop of officers in riot gear continued walking past as he bled on the pavement.

The two officers who pushed him, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, have since been charged with felony assault. Fifty-seven other officers resigned after their suspension, but several have denied reports that they did so out of solidarity with their colleagues.

Mr Marth is far from the first US police employee to have been suspended for a social media post since the death of Mr Floyd. In Troy, Alabama, a university police chief John McCall is being investigated for a post reportedly suggesting Mr Floyd was partly responsible for his own death, while an officer in Tallapoosa, Georgia has been suspended pending termination over a now-removed post thought to have been aimed at black protesters.

And in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a police recruit has been fired for making “racist and inappropriate” remarks via a pseudonymous Twitter profile.