Cops Are Trying to Get Buffalo’s Parking Commissioner Fired

The Buffalo Police Department wants the city’s new mayor to fire the city’s parking commissioner because its leaders believe he hates cops — but the only evidence for his supposed hatred is an Instagram story reposted by an organization he left in December.

The parking commissioner, Justin Booth, led the cycling advocacy group GoBike Buffalo for 18 years until January 2026, when he joined Mayor Sean Ryan’s new administration as Buffalo’s parking commissioner. His portfolio centers on parking policy, with some overlap into street design and pedestrian infrastructure.

On June 2, GoBike Buffalo’s Instagram account reposted an image, originally published by a Philippines-based account, that depicted a cartoon cat and dog embracing while standing next to two bicycles. The caption reads: “Life Is Hard But I Made Friends Through Biking,” followed by the simplified Chinese phrase 愿你平安 (roughly, “wishing you safety”), “Stay Safe 24/7,” “Always rooting for them,” and “1,312,247,365 ACAB.”

Streetsblog was unable to reach the original Philippines-based account for comment on the meaning of the numbers. In his July 23 email to Deputy Mayor Maria Whyte, first obtained by The Investigative Post, Buffalo Police Lieutenant Michael Maritato interpreted “1312” as code for “ACAB” and “247,365” as shorthand for “24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year” — though the intended meaning and origin of the string of numbers as used in the original post remains unclear.

“Simply, put, GoBike Buffalo/Justin Booth is stating that All Cops are Bastards, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” Maritato said. “This along with SEVERAL posts from the GoBike Buffalo page showing a clear anti-vehicle agenda that is horrifying to all residents, visitors, employees, police and vehicle owners who have any involvement within the city limits.”

After listing Booth’s other perceived infractions — such as “taking pictures on what appears to be his personal cell phone of personal vehicles with [police union] stickers” — Maritato demanded Booth be “terminated from his position due to his blatant discrimination.”

Booth didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Ryan administration declined to comment. Maritato and the Buffalo Police Benvelonent Association did not respond to requests for comment, either.

Kevin Heffernan, GoBike Buffalo’s interim executive editor, disputed Maritato’s analysis and pointed out that Booth left the organization more than six months ago. “The Instagram story in question was shared entirely by mistake,” he said. “Our social media team shares dozens of active mobility content pieces created by other accounts every week. This particular post was shared for its initial pro-cycling message only, and we did not realize any additional coding was included in the copy below.”

It’s also possible the original Filipino account included the “1,312…ACAB” line without any real awareness of its meaning in American activist circles — simply because it had seen the phrase elsewhere and thought it read as edgy or aesthetically “cool,” in much the same way Americans sometimes obtain tattoos in Chinese or Japanese script without knowing what the text actually says.

Heffernan added that the organization regularly works with the Buffalo Police Department to distribute safety equipment and strategize around local safety initiatives. Heffernan himself met with Maritato on Aug. 7 to discuss the furor over the Instagram story and overall traffic safety in Buffalo.

Maritato’s heated email marks the second recent clash between Mayor Ryan and his police department.

On July 16, the Ryan administration publicly committed to a long-overdue overhaul of Niagara Square, a public space surrounded by a hellish traffic circle directly in front of City Hall. The redesign will create a single lane of traffic and involve more aggressive parking enforcement to reduce blind spots. In a recent survey administered by City Hall, Buffalo residents who use all modes of travel described the square as dangerous.

Buffalo Police officers routinely violate basic parking laws in the area, and without specifically naming them, city officials declared that agency vehicles would be subject to the enforcement push.

Buffalo police immediately catastrophized the new policy, arguing that they need to park illegally to respond to crime faster, even if that means sidling up to a Tim Hortons or blocking a crosswalk while running inside a municipal building to handle some paperwork.

There is currently no evidence that the Buffalo Parking Department has ticketed any police officers for illegally parking department vehicles since the city’s announcement.

Buffalo Police officers face a thorny contract negotiation with the Ryan administration, which inherited a department working without a contract since June 2025. Negotiations are set to begin in earnest next month in September, and the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association has requests that include higher pay, better residency incentives and more improvements that its leadership argues would keep it competitive with other departments in upstate New York and curb staffing and overtime concerns.

Buffalo-based political strategist Jack O’Donnell said the controversy reflects a broader deterioration in relations between City Hall and the police union, not simply outrage over a mistaken Instagram repost.

“I think what we have here is a larger failure to communicate,” he said. “To a lot of the rank and file and the union leadership, they see that [the new parking system and Instagram post] as indicative of what they believe is the worldview of folks in the administration.”

He added that the campaign against Booth resembles a conventional pressure tactic ahead of contract negotiations, with unions often trying to generate public support to strengthen their position at the bargaining table. Still, O’Donnell cautioned that back-and-forths over parking “are not super productive towards negotiating a contract.”

John Davidson, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told WBEN in July that officers have received warnings from the city’s parking department that said they would be giving tickets for parking agency vehicles illegally throughout the city. This remains an extremely foreign concept to many officers — an alarming fact that could benefit City Hall as it looks to counter the union’s escalating tactics.

“I think they’re gonna see that it’s Sean Ryan and Justin Booth being upset at the Buffalo [Traffic Violations Agency] for being so vocal about not having a contract,” Davidson said.