Horse-mounted police led handcuffed black man through the street on a rope
A photo of horse-mounted police leading a hancuffed black man through the street with a rope has sparked outrage.
The Galveston police department has apologized to the man, 43-year-old Donald Neely, after officers were condemned for the incident that was branded offensive, unnecessary, and racist.
Neely was reportedly arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespassing on Saturday. The mounted officers handcuffed him, then ‘clipped’ a ‘line’ and led him to a police staging area eight blocks away.
Galveston Police Chief Vernon Hale issued a statement Monday that said: ‘First and foremost I must apologize to Mister Neely for this unnecessary embarrassment.’
‘Although this is a trained technique and best practice in some scenarios, I believe our officers showed poor judgement in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of the arrest.’
President of the Galveston Coalition for Justice, Leon Phillips told The Houston Chronicle that the image of Neely and the officers reminded him of racist images of the 1920s.
He said: ‘All I know is that these are two white police officers on horseback with a black man walking down the street with a rope tied to the handcuffs, and that doesn’t make sense, period.’
Mother 'let venomous fire ants bite her twin baby boys and give them horrific injuries'‘And I do understand this – if it was a white man, I guarantee it wouldn’t have happened.’
Hale said the officers, identified only as P Brosch and A Smith, did not act maliciously, but said the Galveston police department has changed its policy to prevent officers from using the technique.
Houston NAACP chapter president, James Douglas, said he was glad the incident changed police procedure, although said Hale failed to address the officer’s conduct.
Douglas said: ‘This is 2019 and not 1819. “I am happy to know that Chief Vernon issued an apology and indicated that the act showed poor judgement, but it also shows poor training.’
‘Even though the chief indicated that the technique would be discontinued he failed to address the lack of respect demonstrate by the officers in the episode.’
Neely has since been freed from jail on bond. Misdemeanor criminal trespassing in Texas carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in prison and a $2,000 fine.