Richard Hy

Hy graduated from North Tonawanda High School in 2005. ==Military career==

Hy became a US Army reservist immediately after graduating high school. He was honored as having achieved the highest possible score on the end-of-cycle physical fitness test. He then started his military career as a civil affairs specialist in the 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion. Hy served on two combat tours in Iraq and has been awarded the Combat Action Badge. As of 2020, he is a staff sergeant and training non-commissioned officer for the recruiting battalion of the New York Army National Guard. ==Social media career==

Hy's social media presence goes back as far as September 2014. Hy's posts on different social media platforms have resulted in two suspensions from the Buffalo Police Department, in 2016 Hy's social media platforms were estimated to be worth over $750,000 as of 2022. On September 15, 2024, Hy uploaded a video to YouTube criticizing the establishment and fundraising efforts of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post inside the Sterling Correctional Facility in Colorado, believing that the crimes of its members were too heinous to warrant them being a part of the organization. VFW was subject to a wave of criticism following the video, which ultimately culminated in a new guideline on October 11 that convicted felons currently serving time would no longer be able to join the organization. This resulted in the post falling below the 10-member minimum requirement, in turn resulting in the group shutting down. VFW Adjutant General Dan West stated that there was no plan to reinstitute the post or establish any new ones at a correctional facility. ==Law enforcement career==

Hy joined the Buffalo Police Department in 2012, starting out by patrolling the A district in South Buffalo. On September 13, 2016, Hy was suspended from the department again. He was charged with second-degree harassment, third-degree assault, and criminal obstruction of breathing after he and another officer got into a fight with local teenagers filming a rap video. In early June 2020, Hy was among the 57 officers on the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response team who resigned from the team during the Buffalo police shoving incident. On June 22, 2020, Hy was involved in the arrest of then-New York Supreme Court Justice Mark Grisanti. Hy was recorded reprimanding Grisanti for name-dropping political and law enforcement connections while officers were trying to deescalate a fight between Grisanti and his neighbors. A 2024 investigation by the New York State Attorney General's Office found that this was unprofessional behavior constituting misconduct. On September 3, 2020, Hy was recorded fighting a man while off-duty and in army uniform, for which he was subject to an internal investigation by the Buffalo Police Department. A lawsuit naming Hy was filed by Dean on August 30, 2022 over the incident. In October 2021, Hy and his attorney alleged in a press release that he had been repeatedly passed up for promotion due to his YouTube videos in violation of his First Amendment rights. Buffalo Public Schools allegations On April 26, 2025, on the Unsubscribe podcast, Hy alleged that the Buffalo Public Schools district had covered up and refused to work with law enforcement in cases of sexual assaults and abuse. Hy stated that the Erie County District Attorney's office and his superiors were also frustrated, to which they replied with no comment on concerns about compromising ongoing investigations. After these allegations were made, a 30-year-old referenced by Hy in his allegations was charged with second-degree kidnapping, two counts of luring a child to commit a felony, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, four counts of burglary, and five counts of assault causing injury on school ground, after being accused of kidnapping a student from Dr. Charles R. Drew Science Magnet School in February 2025. In May 2025, Hy appeared on the Unsubscribe podcast again, and stated that an alleged student rape had been mishandled by multiple teachers. On May 24, 2025, Hy made a threat to sue WGRZ for defamation on the Unsubscribe podcast for claiming that he was on the Brady List during coverage related to his allegations against Buffalo Public Schools. Unsubscribe host and fellow creator The Fat Electrician stated that he was helping Hy build a case for a lawsuit. In June 2025, the School Board selected Rupp Pfalzgraf LLC to conduct an independent investigation into Hy's allegations. In February 2026, Rupp Pfalzgraff released their report, stating that while not all of Hy's allegations were substantiated, they did find "confusion between emergency protocols, communication failures, inadequate video-retention practices, and gaps in post-incident documentation" across the district. == References ==