Mounted Police Under Fire For Leading Prisoner By A Rope
[guest post by Dana]
This is really ugly. Especially given that it’s 2019 and the prisoner didn’t resist arrest. But what makes the degradation even worse is that, according to the Chief of Police Vernon Haley, “the officers could have waited for a transport unit at the location of the arrest”. But instead they chose to humiliate the prisoner by walking him through the streets on a leash:
The Galveston Police Department has issued an apology after disturbing images of an arrest sparked outrage on social media. The photo, taken by a witness, shows white officers leading a black man through the streets of Galveston, on horseback, tethered to what looked like a leash.
More:
Donald Neely, 43, was arrested by the Galveston Police Department on Saturday, August 3 and charged with criminal trespassing.
Police say Neely went into the Merrill Lynch building on the corner of 22nd and Mechanic Street and refused to leave.
Police say the officers led him around the corner of 21st and Market, where the mounted patrol unit was staging when the photo was taken.
Neely was also arrested at the same building three and a half weeks ago. According to court documents, on July 12, Neely entered the Galveston Park Board office on the second floor “without the consent” of a park board member. He was charged with criminal trespassing that day too.
You can see video here.
According to Neely’s sister, her brother is homeless and mentally ill. Neely has been been charged with criminal trespassing at least six times this year, including an arrest in Galveston.
After the video was released on social media, outrage followed. Galveston Police Chief Vernon Haley offered his apologies to Neely on behalf of the department, and said that the approved technique (the method of handcuffing someone and escorting them between two mounted officers is usually used in volatile situations) would be reviewed:
“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 arrest. My officers did not have any malicious intent at the time of the arrest, but we have immediately changed the policy to prevent the use of this technique and will review all mounted training and procedures for more appropriate methods.”
NAACP president James Douglas commented upon seeing a photo of the incident:
When I looked at the picture, I saw utter disrespect for another human being. The first thing that came to my mind was this is 2019 and not 1819.
Douglas said the image is disturbing because it harkens back to the dark days of the antebellum South when black people were forced to walk alongside mounted slave owners. During the Civil Rights Movement, mounted patrol units often evoked fear among peaceful protesters.
According to the police, the two officers were not facing formal disciplinary action. Neely’s family and attorney are asking for the body cams from the two officers. The body cams had been activated.
“If this individual had been white, this never would have happened,” Douglas said.
He’s right.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Racist punks!
nk (dbc370) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:06 pmThe stupid burns.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:09 pmWhat kind of person makes the decision to lead a black man through the streets tethered by a rope? There is no other reason for this other than an intentional choice to humiliate him. If, as the Chief said, they could have waited for transport (which we can assume is part of the protocol), why not wait? And if they knew that tethering was protocol with violent prisoners, surely they knew that they could call for a car to transport.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:09 pmNever do anything you aren’t prepared to see on YouTube.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:10 pmI think it’s more than stupid. It’s cruel, and intentionally so. That makes them more dangerous than being stupid.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:10 pmThe only possible thing you could think was going through these officers’ minds is that they had had run-ins with Mr. Neely in the past, were tired of continually encountering him when he is having a mental episode, and wanted to — ahem, ahem — “teach him a lesson.” But that’s really not their place, and as Kevin M points out, if they didn’t recognize how horrible this would look then I think there’s a better than even chance they are not fit to be law enforcement officers.
JVW (54fd0b) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:21 pmAlso, since the staging area they were leading him to was just around the corner, they could have dismounted and walked with him.
nk (dbc370) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:29 pmTexas, heal-thy-self.
=sigh=
‘Galveston. Oh, Galveston…’ – Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell, 1969
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:30 pm6. Law Enforcement officers, like politicians, are generally unfit for their jobs by dint of their desire to be one.
5. You see numerous examples of police cruelty and brutality quite often that are excused by citizens talking about how “dangerous” it is to be a police officer, and how “they just want to return home alive.” What gets missed is when they pull stunts like this, police officers make their own jobs harder — and unnecessarily so.
Gryph (08c844) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:36 pmI’ve added this to the post:
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:42 pm“If this individual had been white, this never would have happened,” Douglas said.
This is most likely mindless speculation that isn’t all that helpful, in the same way that assuming that a black suspect automatically presents a heightened danger to law enforcement isn’t helpful. In Fullerton some years back, a white transient guy struggling with mental health issues was beaten to death by cops, including one Latino cop, partly because they supposedly had run-ins with him in the past and were tried of having to deal with him. Mr. Douglas probably has no idea whether or not those cops were nasty racists or just rotten bullies with bad attitudes.
JVW (54fd0b) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:44 pm11. How easy do you think it would be to find footage of another black man being led around like this? How easy do you think it would be to find footage of a white man in the same condition? You don’t have to bother answering, but it makes for an interesting thought exercise.
Gryph (08c844) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:51 pmI remember that, JVW. Thanks for the reminder. Kelly Thomas. Absolutely horrible what happened to him. Do you think that this was in Texas makes a difference in likelihood of something like this happening to a black man?
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:55 pmNeither belongs in law enforcement, so the distinction doesn’t mean much.
Gryph (08c844) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:55 pmIt may or may not be relevant to note the race of the chief of this racist police department
Kishnevi (f60e29) — 8/14/2019 @ 6:58 pmhttps://www.galvestontx.gov/ImageRepository/Document?documentID=6843
I hope the City of Galveston has good insurance.
Paul Montagu (a2342d) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:02 pmThere should be footage of white people.
I live in a place where there are very few black people.
Back a few years out at UCSB they’d have a huge Halloween bash that got way out of control.
steveg (354706) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:03 pmFloatopia was another.
The mounted police would run through like the cavalry and the dismounts would do the cuffing and roping. Then they’d tie everyone to a rope and use a horse to walk them back to the chainlink at the Isla Vista Foot Patrol office and cuff their hands overhead up on the fence.
Saw a lot of white kids lead out on a leash.
On a day when actually important things like Google’s news suppression algorithms drop, it’s always nice to read old reliable day-old MLKULTRA propaganda bashing white proles from the middle of nowhere instead.
Because what’s really important is somebody did something that kind of looked like a racism, despite by all accounts not having actually hurt anyone. Paying attention to this, and not, say, the far more egregious sins of a multibillion dollar company that affects all of our daily lives, is what’s known as ‘punching up.’
SDNY Prison Warden (583f4f) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:03 pm“On a day when actually important things like Google’s news suppression algorithms drop, it’s always nice to read old reliable day-old MLKULTRA propaganda bashing white proles from the middle of nowhere instead.”
You should start your own blog, where you can post about whatever you like.
Davethulhu (bc6fa6) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:06 pmJames Byrd…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:08 pmSDNY Prison Warden,
Feel free to skip any “MLKULTRA propaganda bashing white proles” posts.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:08 pmYou should start your own blog, where you can post about whatever you like.
That would be 8chan for the VPN creep, but it’s been shut down.
nk (dbc370) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:09 pmsteveg (354706) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:03 pm
Kishnevi (f60e29) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:10 pmThat’s the point. It’s a technique for crowd control and restraining a larger than normal number of arrestees. It’s not a technique for use on one homeless man who needs to be walked to a patrol car at the end of the block.
Do you think that this was in Texas makes a difference in likelihood of something like this happening to a black man?
I wouldn’t want to speculate either way. I would be suggesting that Galveston is more likely to have racist cops than. . . who? New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Plano, Omaha, Macon, Juneau? I don’t know enough to make a determination.
JVW (54fd0b) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:10 pmClearly the fact that Neely is black makes for some horrible optics. This just isn’t the same as rounding up students for too much partying at UCSB.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:12 pmWhy is my comment in moderation? I don’t see any obvious triggers.
Kishnevi (f60e29) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:13 pmRedneck sh!tkicker cops would do this to anybody, I think. Anybody weaker than them, that is. These days, they might even feel more comfortable that they’d get away with it doing it to a white person than to a black person.
nk (dbc370) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:18 pmJust released it, Kishnevi.
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:18 pmThanks!
Kishnevi (f60e29) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:20 pmAbout using a rope to lead a prisoner:
Dana (fdf131) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:22 pm30. I’ll concede that this may not have been a blatant case of racism. I can’t read minds. That said, in what universe is this a good idea in the age of smartphones, the internet, and 24-hour news cycles?
Gryph (08c844) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:24 pm27… I expect Texans are happy that their lawmen aren’t as trigger-happy as those in the Windy City.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/14/2019 @ 7:50 pmAsk the nine Dallas cops who were wounded (you can’t ask the five who were killed) how happy they were to be ambushed because other cops had killed two men in Mississippi and Louisiana.
nk (dbc370) — 8/14/2019 @ 8:07 pmI was triggered by your daring to point out the obvious
steveg (354706) — 8/14/2019 @ 8:24 pmFrom redneck sh*tkickers to reverent respect, what a mood swing.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/14/2019 @ 8:38 pmThey need to do this in Chicago.
newrouter (130006) — 8/14/2019 @ 8:42 pmNote that this incident occurred in north-east Texas. It did not occur in south-west Texas.
Texas at the time of the Civil War was just as divided as the United States. We agreed to Anexation in 1845, but then suddenly we’re involved in a war?
My ancestors fled Alcase-Lorraine for exactly this reason. To avoid religious wars. They immigrated to Texas in 1844. They saw no reason to revolt against the Constitution they had just sworn an allegiance to. One of my great uncles was drafted by the Confederacy, which Texas had joined, and surrendered and joined the Union army as soon as he got the chance. He fought in the last battle of the Civil War, at Palmetto Ranch, after General Lee had surrendered.
I don’t know what this has to do with anything. Governments have a responsibility their citizens. Since when?
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/14/2019 @ 10:00 pmHere is a horrible, horrible double murder that the Lame Stream Media largely ignored.
And this was not classified – as a hate crime.
Fifth Person Found Guilty in 2007 Christian/Newsom Torture Murders
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/08/fifth-person-found-guilty-in-2007-christian-newsom-torture-murders/
Stop for a moment and consider if the races were reversed – there.
Can you say DOUBLE STANDARD? GLZ.
Gary L. Zerman (a1521c) — 8/15/2019 @ 6:23 amAnd here is another stark example of the Far Left/Dem Party/Lame Stream Media/Hollywood Celeb – DOUBLE STANDARD.
CNN’s April Ryan Got Security To Supposedly Protect Her From Trump Supporters. Here’s Her Guard Beating Up A Journalist https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/08/14/video-april-ryan-bodyguards-assaulting-reporter-camera/
DOUBLE STANDARD(s) = NO STANDARD(s). GLZ.
Gary L. Zerman (a1521c) — 8/15/2019 @ 6:42 amWho knows if a white suspect would be treated the same way. We need more evidence. From watching the video, almost no one seems to have been around. Also, its incredible awkward, since the policeman have to constantly stop to make sure the suspect is between the two horses. But we don’t know the facts. How far to the police station? How long did the suspect have to walk? It could have been a 10 minute walk, and 20 minutes waiting for a police van.
Otherwise, its just bad optics.
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/15/2019 @ 4:21 pmUltimately, its a so what?
rcocean (1a839e) — 8/15/2019 @ 4:24 pmThis has happened before with a black officer and white suspects so I don’t see this as racist, but the police are changing their policy and I doubt the mounted police will be making arrests by themselves.
Note to GG: The report says this happened in Galveston, which is definitely South Texas.
DRJ (15874d) — 8/16/2019 @ 11:39 am