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A view of the city of Galveston Texas (Illustration image). CC BY-SA 3.0 TheAustinMan

Since Saturday, August 3, a photo of two policemen and an African-American they had just stopped provokes controversy. Dragged by a rope, many Internet users see it as a symbol of the American slavery period. It took three days for the Gavelston police chief in Texas to apologize.

It is especially this rope that triggered a torrent of outrage on social networks. Internet users have drawn a parallel with an engraving of the slave era, which shows two white men on horseback whipping a slave, tied by a rope to one of the two mounts.

" We are in 2019, not 1819, " reacted on his side James Douglas, president of the Houston branch of the NAACP, the first organization of defense of black Americans. Even Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, from Texas , denounced " racism at work ."

A black man, dragged with a rope by police officers on horses, in 2019. This moment demands accountability, justice, and honestly-because we need to call for racism at work. https://t.co/j4H8ZinfEP

Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 6, 2019

Saturday, August 3, Donald Neely, the African-American on the photo, is arrested for violation of home. But when being transferred to the police station, there was no car available. He is escorted by two mounted police officers. In any case, this is the argument put forward by Vernon Hale, the Galveston police chief. In front of the critics, he apologized. He promised that the regulations on arrest procedures would be reviewed, and that this situation would not happen again.

►Also read: United States: African Americans more likely to be killed by police