Though over the past few years, hacktivist group Anonymous' presence was surprisingly unfelt in comparison to prior years, they've re-emerged to take a stand. The recent protests taking place across the world to fight back against systemic oppression and police brutality led Anonymous to make a statement after the death of George Floyd. They took over the Minneapolis PD website and shut down the city's website.
Apparently, Buffalo PD didn't get the memo when the decided to shove an elderly protester to the ground and allowed him to bleed without providing any sort of assistance. Given the reason for the protests, it shouldn't be all that surprising but Anonymous took their own stand against the matter. The hacktivist group have shut down the Buffalo, NY government website is response to the elderly man getting knocked down.
"The Buffalo state website and system has been taken #Offline. Pushing a 75 years old peaceful protester is criminal. It's your systems that got pushed down now," a tweet from Anonymous wrote along with a screenshot of the website being shut down.
Mugshots of the two officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, surfaced earlier today after they turned themselves in and were charged with second-degree assault. They were still met with support from their colleagues after their release, though that might be enough evidence to address the corruption within the Buffalo PD police department.
Anonymous Shuts Down Minneapolis PD & CIty Websites
Anonymous returns in the midst of the George Floyd protests across the world.
The work of Anonymous has been highlighted over the years, specifically when political and social tensions rise. This week, Americans across the country have united to protest this grave injustice that are the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, abd
Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images
After a few years of remaining low-key, Anonymous came out with a message at the wee hours of the morning with a demand: officers need to be held accountable for their actions. "Officers who kill people and commit other crimes need to be held accountable just like the rest of us," he said. "Otherwise, they will believe that they have the license to do whatever they want."
Shortly after, the Minneapolis PD and the City of Minneapolis websites were disabled, thanks to Anonymous. Several users have confirmed that the site is inaccessible. As of Sunday morning, both website servers are still completely down.
The video was initially shared with an Anonymous-affiliated Facebook page, though they didn't confirm whether they were behind the hacking. Instead, they retweeted several Twitter users suggesting that they did.
