A police chief in a Texas town apologized for the indignation over a photo of two of his agents escorting a black man holding a rope while riding.
This is just sickening and uncalled for.
This young man was born in Galveston, Texas.
This invokes painful imagery of slave catchers and runaway enslaved Africans. pic.twitter.com/ZHEmyCYbUE
Many Internet users were shocked by this photograph become viral, evoking in their view the abhorred era of lynchings in America slavery. The suspect, Donald Neely, arrested for a property breach and handcuffed, would normally have been taken to the police station in a motor vehicle, but only mounted police officers were available, Monday evening chief Vernon Hale said. of the Galveston Police. Donald Neely was escorted on foot, held by a rope, between two mounted agents.
"A bad decision"
"Although this is a technique taught and the best practice in certain circumstances, I feel that our agents made a bad decision," said the police chief in a statement posted on Facebook. Many people have asked that the agents be sanctioned or even dismissed from the police for having inflicted on Donald Neelly this degrading treatment, recalling the enslaved slaves, black lynched or condemned voluntarily exhibited on public roads.
"Racism at work"
"We are in 2019, not 1819," said James Douglas, president of the NAACP's Houston branch, the first US black defense organization, quoted in the Houston Chronicle . "A black man dragged by a rope by police officers, in 2019. (...) We must denounce what it is: racism at work", commented on the Texan Beto O ' Rourke, Democratic presidential candidate of 2020.
Police Chief Vernon Hale reported that he had decided to stop this method to escort people arrested. "First and foremost it is my duty to apologize to Mr. Neely for this unnecessary embarrassment," he added.