A picture to shame America
Black suspect led on rope in shocking echo of slavery
IN a scarcely believable scene, a black man is led on a rope through a US city by two white policemen on horseback.
The shocking image, which immediately triggered memories of the American South’s shameful history of slavery, brought widespread condemnation yesterday.
But despite civil rights groups saying the sickening practice was redolent of 1819 – not 2019 – the police chief of Galveston, Texas, could only issue a mealymouthed apology.
Pictures of 43-year- old trespassing suspect Donald Neely showed him handcuffed and tethered as he was led around.
Commenters called the scene ‘disgusting’ and ‘degrading’, but Police Chief Vernon Hale said: ‘This is a trained technique and best practice in some scenarios.’ However, he admitted that his officers, while acting without malice, ‘showed poor judgment in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of arrest’.
He said his department has ‘immediately changed the policy’ to prevent use of the technique, adding: ‘We understand the negative perception of this action.’ Mr Neely was freed on bail.
James Douglas, president of the Houston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said: ‘This is 2019 and not 1819. I am happy to know that Chief Vernon [Hale] issued an apology and indicated that the act showed poor judgment, but it also shows poor training.’ And Leon Phillips, director of the Galveston County Coalition for Justice, told the BBC that Mr Neely was ‘mentally ill’, adding: ‘This was a stupid mistake. What I do know is that if it was a white man, there’s no way they would have done that to him.
‘This is 2019, it’s not 1819’
The police chief says they didn’t break any policy, but what is the policy on transporting a prisoner? How do I know that the policy wasn’t written in 1875? There are a lot of unanswered questions.’ It comes as the Trump administration has seen a rising number of protests against police mistreatment of black citizens. Eric Logan, 54, was killed by Sergeant Ryan O’Neill in June as the officer investigated car break-ins in South Bend, Indiana.
Officials said Logan moved toward Mr O’Neill with a knife, prompting the officer to fire. But this claim was disputed by Mr Logan’s family, who said the officer shot Logan while he was walking to his mother’s home. His relatives sued the police. Mr O’Neill resigned last month.
And dozens of demonstrators – black and white – marched in Colorado Springs on Saturday in protest over the fatal shooting of 19-year-old De’von Bailey during a routine police stop.