I think the mayor made a "politically correct" call on this one, and it was the wrong call. This well known activist in the community, regardless of his age, got in the cop's face while the cop was marching to clear the street. The other cop gave him a push out of the way. He didn't pepper spray him or taze him or smack him with his baton. I'm sorry the guy cracked his head on the sidewalk, but that happens sometimes when people fall. The cop directly behind them called an ambulance. Yes, it would have been a nice thing to do if one of them had stopped to see what he could do for the old guy 'til the medics arrived, but do the cops do that? I don't know. This wasn't patrolling the midway at the County Fair. They were apparently clearing a protest that had gotten out of hand.
It's the mayor who made the bad call because he has been meeting with protesters (a good thing) and trying to calm things down. Then an old guy gets hurt in the fray and it sounds good to call it police brutality. It's guff. The guy fell down and hurt his head. It's unfortunate but it wasn't intentional nor was it "undue" force. I don't blame the team for resigning. When you've doing your job and the boss undermines you, it's not worth risking your life for anymore.
If there's something I haven't seen that I should know, please advise.
"If there's something I haven't seen that I should know, please advise."
What you obviously haven't seen in a while is your humanity. Be advised, you better go find it.
Police are there to serve and protect. Is there something overly complicated about "serve and protect"? They are entitled to using force insofar, and to the degree necessary, as required to protect goods higher than those they damage. Shoving the old fart within an inch of his life was disproportionate, brutal, and a textbook example of what is wrong with U.S. police. What is more, the unit then lied about the incident, which is even more of a telltale sign for what is wrong with policing. The two ghouls should be fired immediately, as should be those who lied about it, and they should be personally liable for all the costs emerging from their brutality. The unit that is refusing to do their assigned job should be given another chance resuming it, and otherwise also be dealt with like someone unwilling to do the job requested from him.
If you don't understand that (sadly, care4all also doesn't seem to care for all), there really is no way to help, unless, of course, you retrieve your misplaced humanity. You, and folks like you, who stand behind the police even when they are clearly in the wrong, are the support that enables the ghouls. They then sit on juries and fail to convict police murderers for reasons defying any and all efforts at understanding. That's bad enough. They are one of the main reasons why Floyd ended up dead, and for the outrage and the riots playing out on the streets right now. The outright Nazis on this thread, eager to have a police state, aren't even worth a mention.
I hate, really, hate smartphones. In many a way they are a symptom of what is wrong with this Me! Me! Me! Western world. There is just one redeeming quality about them: They serve to document police brutality, and police murders, in particular. From Scott, to Arbery, to Floyd to the old guy, and all too many before and since, police have a harder time to get away with their lies. That's undeniably, undoubtedly, unambiguously a good thing. All that's missing right now is folks finding their misplaced humanity and mete out punishment commensurate to the brutality meted out to perfectly non-threatening victims.