Black Man Led Behind Horseback Police Using Rope

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Horses? Why are there police on horses?

There's one for the other side of the state line from me in my metro. Recently they thought about doing away with the Mounted Patrol but there ended up being enough strong support for it that they decided to maintain it. There's not a large amount of them though (I think only 9).

Originally they were used for crowd control, crime control/deferrence and community relations but when they were going to be shut down a few months ago they decided to shift the main focus at least to be more related to reducing violent crime (not exactly sure how though) because unfortunately that area continues to have a high amount of it.

In terms of crowd control the police department here that has it states that 1 horse is the equivalent of 8-10 on foot police officers and can move people with little force.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Fun fact...most (might be all) police horses used by NOPD are trained by inmates at Angola as part of a prison rehab type program.

Is there a prison in Louisiana by that name? You can't mean the horses are trained by inmates in Angola, Africa, right?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not exactly certain why anyone would think transporting a person in that manner would ever be appropriate. I can imagine many things that could go wrong with that. I feel like the main purpose is to maintain control of the suspect during transport--that method, in the very least, seems to not be able to guarantee that. I find it a degrading way of handling a suspect. You would think it would be a similar process to bicycle police because I feel like for them they call for a vehicle to pick the suspect up.

 

[Hikergirl]

The only explanation I can see is that it was creepily gratifying to the "officers".
Just awful. Retrain? No. They need to be fired.

Why, because of what it "looks like"?
It seems this IS procedure in certain circumstances, so the officers deserve some sort of due process, and if it is found there was no malicious intent then re-training is appropriate.

 

[Searc]

I’m horrified to think that there could ever be a scenario where this is appropriate. Respect the dignity of every human being!

I'm horrified, but not surprised, that some see no problem with what the "officers" did.

 

[LSUmiss]

Personally if I were arrested I much prefer being led by rope to being beaten and tazed. No harm no foul. People see things in racial terms so easily now. It wasn’t a man being led by cops but immediately a black man being led by white cops so optics that could be capitalized on.

If you want to read a good story about the Galveston police department Google Brandon Backe Galveston wedding. This was a lilly white event invaded by irrational storm troopers even though Backe pitched for the Astros at that time. It is quite the story b

Things will never improve so long as people see things based on race. We are all from the same lineage and to describe people based on race is so limiting considering the uniqueness that each person has to offer.

Give me a break. It will never improve as long as ppl refuse to see racism that DOES still exist.

 

[LSUmiss]

Is there a prison in Louisiana by that name? You can't mean the horses are trained by inmates in Angola, Africa, right?

Yes sorry Angola is the state penitentiary.

 

[pahoben]

Give me a break. It will never improve as long as ppl refuse to see racism that DOES still exist.

Thank you for your penetrating and objective insight.

 

[dish rag]

Just awful. I feel so bad that this man was humiliated in this manner. No one deserves this.

 

[RangerPooh]

An image of a white slave owner or overseer leading a slave was what conjured in my mind. Disgusting.

 

[Dan Murphy]

For those who have not seen the video and/or photos.

https://www.today.com/video/officer...-black-man-by-rope-in-viral-photo-65489989597

 

[bcla]

Who would think this was a good idea for any reason?

From my reading of this case, the use of ropes was really designed for large crowd control situations where they might need to move several people who have been arrested in a chaotic situation where they might not be able to bring in a car. However, the image of a single black arrestee shackled in handcuffs and being attached to a rope conjures images of escaped slaves being marched to collect a bounty.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The news report I saw last night said that no police car was available to transport the man. Well, why didn't they wait til one became available? Was someone's life in imminent danger?

Also, the police have dealt with this homeless, mentally ill man before. They should know better than to treat anyone(!) like this.

 

[Jdbsfw]

Definitely a tough image based on historical context and there are more black people in Texas (by population) than any other state so there probably should have been a discussion about how this would look in 2019 and the practice ended. Officer safety is critical but surely there’s a better way

 

[Hikergirl]

Give me a break. It will never improve as long as ppl refuse to see racism that DOES still exist.

Has anyone here said racism doesn't exist? No.
The problem is that the race card gets played all the time for every single thing. Not everything that happens to a black person is racist because it happens to be done by a white person.
Intent matters.

 

[LSUmiss]

Has anyone here said racism doesn't exist? No.
The problem is that the race card gets played all the time for every single thing. Not everything that happens to a black person is racist because it happens to be done by a white person.
Intent matters.

Racism is so ingrained & institutionalized in our country that ppl may actually tell themselves that they’re not being racists, but their actions tell a different story. I hear ppl ALL THE TIME make racists statements & they would swear they’re not racists b/c racism in their opinion is more egregious like burning a cross in a yard or making someone drink out of a separate water fountain.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Racism is so ingrained & institutionalized in our country that ppl may actually tell themselves that they’re not being racists, but their actions tell a different story. I hear ppl ALL THE TIME make racists statements & they would swear they’re not racists b/c racism in their opinion is more egregious like burning a cross in a yard or making someone drink out of a separate water fountain.

Preach.

 

[Hikergirl]

Racism is so ingrained & institutionalized in our country that ppl may actually tell themselves that they’re not being racists, but their actions tell a different story. I hear ppl ALL THE TIME make racists statements & they would swear they’re not racists b/c racism in their opinion is more egregious like burning a cross in a yard or making someone drink out of a separate water fountain.

Fair enough, but my comments are more about the subject of this thread and the assumption that this was done because the white police officers are just a couple of racists.
I think there is some middle ground between- they are racist and racism doesn't exist. People just have to be willing to look for it. These police officers may just be oblivious to how this appeared, they may have just thought they were doing their job- bring a suspect in. Maybe they lack common sense or even a little intelligence. I have no idea, but IMO knowing that matters before determining they are in fact racists.
That in no way means that I don't recognize racism is alive an well, and out there.

 

[bcla]

The news report I saw last night said that no police car was available to transport the man. Well, why didn't they wait til one became available? Was someone's life in imminent danger?

Also, the police have dealt with this homeless, mentally ill man before. They should know better than to treat anyone(!) like this.

From what I heard they were fairly close to the police station and probably could have walked him there.

 

[bcla]

Fair enough, but my comments are more about the subject of this thread and the assumption that this was done because the white police officers are just a couple of racists.
I think there is some middle ground between- they are racist and racism doesn't exist. People just have to be willing to look for it. These police officers may just be oblivious to how this appeared, they may have just thought they were doing their job- bring a suspect in. Maybe they lack common sense or even a little intelligence. I have no idea, but IMO knowing that matters before determining they are in fact racists.
That in no way means that I don't recognize racism is alive an well, and out there.

Not sure if the officers were racist, but man this was completely tone deaf. Part of the job of policing includes public trust in the fairness and impartiality of officers. What they did severely hurt their ability to get the public to trust them.