The Trump Effect visits Galveston Texas. I got a Facebook message that said a kid took a picture of a black man that was being pulled by an officer on a horse with a leash.
It does not matter if the black man in the photograph is a criminal. The depiction of his interface with police officers is unforgivable and deserving of much more than a simple reprimand/ I called the Galveston Police Department and am awaiting a callback.
Adrienne Bell posted the following Facebook message.
We have verified with law enforcement officials in Galveston, that the photograph taken in Galveston is real. It is hard to understand why these officers felt this young man required a leash, as he was handcuffed and walking between two mounted officers. It is a scene that has invoked anger, disgust, and questions from the community.
We will be watching for the Galveston Police Department’s response to their investigation of this matter and the accountability of the officers involved. Swift action is needed to ensure that no one is demeaned in this manner again, and arrest procedures are fair, just, and humane.
Galveston Police officer on horse pulls a black man on a leash
The normalization, of racism, sexism, xenophobia, misogyny, criminality by a sect, and just basic indecency, makes these occurrences since the election of the current president vogue.
Galveston Police Department Press Release
- Who is this man?: Donald Neely (06/15/1976)
- Why was he detained or arrested?: He was arrested for Criminal Trespass at 306 22nd Street.
- It appears the man is being led by officer holding a rope tied to the man’s hands. Is that accurate?: No. Mister Neely was handcuffed, and a line was clipped to the handcuffs
- Where was the man being led to?: Mister Neely was being led to 21st and Market, where the Mounted Patrol Unit was staging from.
- Were the officers body cameras on at the time this man was being detained?: Yes, the body cameras were activated
The officers involved were familiar with Mister Neely, and were aware that he had been warned against trespassing upon this specific location several times.
“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.” Chief Vernon L. Hale, III
It is ironic that they do not want to call it a leash. It is attached to the handcuffs. It is a leash. They also say that there was no ill-intent by the officers. The problem is that some see others as less than and as such doing the wrong to them may not seem to come with ill-intent. Patrick Crusius killed 22 people in El Paso. He was not gunned down. He was escorted with dignity to a police car.
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someone posted this comment on the FB post:
“The MAN in the photos is my brother in law Donald Neely. He is mentally ill and homeless with family just over the causeway in Texas City. We have attempted many times to bring him home but he refuses. He gets arrested often for trespassing. After calling GPD and getting no where we have contacted our family lawyer who is working to get answers as to what occurred and why. We would like to thank everyone who has shared the original post and encourage you all to continue sharing! #wearenotourancestors #dontlookaway #share”
I am so sorry about your brother in law’s predicament – he needs help and support, not this demeaning treatment. I wish you and your family all the best and I hope Donald gets the help and treatment he needs.
If it’d been a poor white guy like me than nobody would give a damn
But they didn’t do it to a poor white guy. Have you seen that done to any white guy?
No one deserves to be treated without dignity. And yes classism is real and poverty class folks experience degradation also. And that’s not okay either. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. However, there is a long history of slavery in this country and being chained or leashed to a horse is part of that history. This is particularly dehumanizing because of the history and symbolism.
Our family members & neighbors are ill, get picked up by police, kept in jail or hospitalized, then kicked out the front door the next morning or 36 hours later. Thing is: they need care. It is understood that money has been cut. It is understood that there are not enough beds to keep these patients where they should be. It is understood that there is no money for follow-up care.
What is NOT understood is how a man is paraded down a street, by two people paid by tax payers,between two (2) horses, fer chrissakes, without someone stepping up to stop it. Or how the hell these civil servants thought it was a perfectly fine idea in the first place, the freakin goobers. Those fuckers on horses are freakin goobers. I honestly hope justice is served.
Such hate and name calling. He broke the law and was not being harmed. Shame on you.
Law enforcement humiliating someone in public. Sure. Harmless.
I posted the original photo. It’s a true story. I do not believe the statement issued by GPD is entirely accurate or honest.
So much of a political activist that you have to promote people shitting on your own race of people no?
You are disgusting – obviously another racist
Public Shaming. This technique is used to keep white people in line as well. Like Lyndon Johnson said, you can take the poorest white man and as long as you can show him that there’s a black man below him you can pick the white man’s pocket.
what’s wrong with these idiots
Is Texas the new Alabama, it certainly seems to be a little backward these days. However, I suppose this was better than simply shooting him since he was a trespasser! SMH!
Please someone start a petition to have these officers fired.
Yes, PLEASE!!!
HOW DO WE GET THOSE SO-CALLED POLICEMEN FIRED???
Looks like the Old South is in fact rising again. How thoroughly disgusting. How degrading to any human being. What’s the matter with people? How low can we get as supposedly the most intelligent animal on earth? This is monstrous! Fire this stupid cop immediately!!!!!!
There is no good reason for these police officers to treat this man like an animal. Would they have done this to a white man? Chief Vernon L. Hale, III, YES there was malicious intent. Regardless of whether or not he is a criminal, you do not treat human beings like dogs. Shame on you sir AND you police officers.
OMG! GIVE IT A BREAK! HOW ELSE R U SUPPOSED TO TRANSPORT A LAW BREAKER WHEN YOUR ON HORSEBACK? GET A LIFE AND STOP TRYING TO CAUSE TROUBLE WHERE NONE IS PRESENT!
What do you do when you’re on horseback? You call for back up and have the suspect transported to booking, a common procedure even when the arresting officers are in a vehicle but have other things to take care of on the scene.
Even if there were absolutely no vehicles available, why the leash, tether, chain, whatever you would prefer to call it? A handcuffed person on foot could never outrun two officers on horseback.
The press release says the officers knew are familiar with the man and one of the man’s relatives posted above that he is mentally ill. This makes the whole situation even worse.
The officers who did this failed to use common sense or follow other established police protocol. Their poor judgement here makes me question how they might respond during situation that is actually stressful, like a domestic violence call or an active shooter. They should be fired for the safety of Galveston.
You should have you privilege to use a computer revoked. Why the tether? BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE POLICY IS. A guy takes off running becuase he is loose and now you have two officers on horseback chasing him through downtown. Just freakin’ brilliant.
Hard to believe but very few departments these days that are headed by black police chiefs actually sit around and dream up ways to create racist tactics. Wow…there’s a shocker.
You need to be in Portland with the rest of crazies.
OMG – Angela, are you that dense?
Galveston police, get off your horses and arrest this man properly. You are a disgrace.
All that was needed for a tragedy to happen was if the horse with the leash became startled or frightened, and had decided to run. This man would have been seriously injured or killed. There is a 110% chance that if the prisoner had been white, this leash would not have been attached. Shame on these officers.
So just HOW did Chief Hale know that his officers ‘had no malicious intent’? Of, they said so! Case closed.
I am equally outrage by this racist act. We all need to voice our disgust and demand that our laws are enforced with integrity, equally across the board.
Are we taking America back to the 1950s with this kind of treatment of non-white individuals? Shame…..
The imagery here looks more like slavery days circa 1840….
This image evoked so many emotional ties to the treatment of slaves and to more recent social history. It is difficult to believe that the officers involved were not aware of this when they made the decision to walk Mr. Neely to their headquarters. Anyone witnessing the incident could certainly view it as a visual rather than verbal racist comment. I am writing my observations as an elderly white woman.
Please see the coverage about an off-duty cop that shot and killed a man and gravely injured both of his parents in a Costco. The murderer was not charged and the judge refuses for video surveillance to be released to the public.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-06/costco-video-deadly-shooting-off-duty-lapd-officer-disability
I consider myself a left leaning person, for Bernie, straight Dem voter but I also think that the chief’s response was a fair one and should be taken at face value. Only If this did happen again, he should be fired.
The optics of this require an immediate response of apology to the community and to the family and especially to Mr Neely. If the department came forward without massive public outcry I might believe the lack of malicious intent by the department. The only way for those officers to avoid the racist label is voluntary apology and community service or similar to replace this with a better image. This image is far too similar to what was done to the civil rights marchers to be brushed off with a review of procedures comment.
People across the U.S., not just in Texas, need to demand the firing of these officers. If this is how they conduct themselves in public, what would they do in private, particularly in a place where there is no surveillance?
Probably by the book, just like this incident. If you want to blame the policy, even though it is color blind, do so. Attacking the officers for following training and procedures that have determined to be the safest for the suspect, the officers and PUBLIC AT LARGE, is sub-moronic. You meet that standard splendidly.
You cannot possibly be that slow intellectually… As someone else here has mentioned, if the horse and officer tethered to the suspect had been spooked by a car or truck horn or other event, the suspect would have been dragged on the road while handcuffed behind his back.
No one claimed that the procedure has been “determined to be the safest for the suspect” except for you. Even the police statement contradicts your idiocy.
“I believe our officers showed poor judgement in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of arrest.” Chief Vernon L. Hale, III.
OF COURSE they had malicious intent!! They wanted to shame him!
And who care if he was hooked to his handcuffs by a line, rather than a rope…he was STILL on a leash!! YES, LEASH!!!!!
For shame.
You’re a moron. A mind-reading moron, but a moron nonetheless.
What is he trying to say by performing this inhuman act? Cop should be fired for abusing a citizen?
Suck Azz Galveston Police; have this Black suspect walking like a encaptured salve in chains. If he were white – NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. RACIST PIGS!
The community allowed it. Shame on them! When any human being it being treated inhumanly those committing the crime should be treated the same in real time. Period!
Calling it a rope instead of a leash makes no difference. It was unnecessary, unacceptable behavior. We citizens all know that. Why don’t our police officers? I strongly believe they should face some form of punishment or maybe even be fired. I question your statement that they had no malicious intent. They certainly weren’t treating this man with the respect that all humans deserve. Make it clear to everyone that this will to be tolerated!
The REAL crime is that there aren’t places for the mentally ill to go for treatment like there used to be here in California before Reagan closed them dumping these people into the streets where they STILL are totally unsupported and filling the jails and prisons!
This is just news to try and divide people. This is the procedure when you are on horse back. This man was well known to the officers and had been arrested many times. That’s what is wrong with the world today the criminal has more rights than the police. I don’t know why anyone would want to be a police today. If you do anything you are in the wrong. They did not do anything but make this man walk ! He was trespassing and have done this several times. If he was at your house I bet you would want the police to come and get him. As long as they are not hurting him in any way people need to stop with all this crap. One day the police are just going to stop arresting anyone because they will be scared they will get in some type of trouble for doing their job! once that happens all of you will wish you have let them do their jobs. I know there are a few bad cops out there but not all are bad and these cops were doing the normal process for being on horse back. Shame on this news story and all of you trying to make something out of nothing!
Donna, based on your response I have to assume you are a police officer, or more likely, the wife or mother of a police officer. It’s not healthy or right to back everything the police do whether it is right or wrong.
Wrong. No, this is not the normal process for police who are on horseback in Galveston, or you would have previously seen countless other photographs and videos of prisoners being led on horseback. As the police chief notes, this is NOT normal. It merely happens to be included as an option in the rulebook and in their training.
If this was commonly done by officers on horseback (anywhere), 2019 would not be the first time that you would have seen this image being posted in the press…
Same 2 cops that will put their lives on line if community has crisis. Hope man gets helps he needs. Law probably doesn’t like it any better than you do.
Do we know specifically what the approved police procedure is for mounted police officers to deal with people who are being arrested? It SHOULD be to call for a vehicle to transport the subject to the jail for processing. Given the officers had the leash (call it what it is) in their possession, it makes me believe that the circumstance has come up before and maybe that IS the approved police procedure. That might explain why the police chief wanted to downplay the event and why he is not saying the officers did anything wrong and why they are not being punished for this unacceptable behavior.
If this actually IS the official police procedure for mounted police officers to handle a subject being arrested in the field by mounted officers, then it probably should be the police chief that loses his job!
“I believe our officers showed poor judgement in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of arrest…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.” Chief Vernon L. Hale, III.
MORON EFFECT. The stupidity of the “fire everyone in sight” crowd here would be entertaining if it wasn’t so God-awful appalling. The cops were using the policy they were trained to use, and the same one used on two white guys led by a black officer on horseback in a previous incident. No difference in treatment. A mentally ill repeat offender on a criminal trespass is not a soccer mom with a littering offense. Are people supposed to wait until they are knifed leaving their workplace before a protest may be made?
Point to one thing, ONE THING, the officers did that indicates in any way they treated Mr. Neely differently than they would anyone else. I understand they let him wear his welders mask because that helped him feel safer; they could get a reprimand for going out of their way to make it easier on him.
You people screaming so loudly are pathetic. You are just making it crystal clear how far from reality you live and why mainstream Americans think you are lunatics when you come up with this stuff. The pushback on your brand of hysteria is already starting. Get used to it. Normal people are tired of the insane getting to run the asylum.
What nonsense are you talking about? I don’t see any welders mask in the photos, do you?
When is the headline lie going to be replaced? He was NEVER pulled, he walked between them. Even in the pictures you post you can see that. Never let accurate reporting get in the way of an incendiary headline, it seems.
No one cared about him, especially his family, until they thought they could get some money out of it. Now they are all offended. It didn’t offended you that your family with mental problems was living on the street without food or shelter.