Texas Mounted Officers Apologize For ‘Poor Judgment’ After Leading Man Behind Horse By Leash
The Galveston Police Department issued an apology on Monday evening after an image was circulated on social media showing two mounted officers, both white, leading a handcuffed black man behind their horses, attached by what looked like a rope or leash.
Adrienne Bell, a Democratic candidate running for Congress in Texas’ 14th District, posted the image to Facebook, saying the scene had invoked “anger, disgust and questions from the community.”
In a press release posted on Facebook Monday, the police department identified the suspect as Donald Neely. He was arrested for trespassing on Saturday, and a transportation unit was not immediately available at the time of the arrest so the officers escorted him to the Mounted Patrol Unit staging area in this manner.
The department acknowledged that the incident may have been “unnecessarily” embarrassing for Neely and apologized for the poor judgment of mounted officers P. Brosch and A. Smith.
“We understand the negative perception of this action and believe it is most appropriate to cease the use of this technique. The Police Chief has taken immediate action to suspend this technique of transportation during arrests,” the release stated.
The release also sought to clarify that Neely was not detained by a rope tied to his hands, but a “line clipped to the handcuffs.”
People on social media expressed disgust at the incident, calling it dehumanizing, unacceptable and reprehensible.
This is just sickening and uncalled for.
This young black man was put on a leash while handcuffed between two mounted horses in Galveston, Texas.
This invokes painful imagery of slave catchers and runaway enslaved Africans. pic.twitter.com/ZHEmyCYbUE— zellie (@zellieimani) August 6, 2019
Oh my god. Is that what I think it is? Oh jesus. Please tell me this isnt real. Shameful.
— Mags' Tweets (@magstweets8) August 6, 2019
Unreal. This is simply unacceptable.
— Matt Gowin 💡🐝🇺🇸💙🌊 (@GowinME) August 6, 2019
He was arrested for trespassing and instead of waiting for a car to come get him they clipped a rope to his hand cuffs and made him walk.
— Keyana (@thatskeyana) August 6, 2019
This is horrendous.
— Latania Marr y Ortega (@LMarr98) August 6, 2019
And we wonder why people think it's ok for them to offend people of color when our police force is doing it!
— Jan's way (@JanCloward1) August 6, 2019
This looks wrong. Should have called a cruiser. Would be nice to know what the back story is.
— pumpkin Spiced latte (@coreyshmuel) August 6, 2019
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.