BLACK PRISONERS TREATED NO BETTER THAN SLAVES
Black Law Enforcement Speaks Out on Arrestee Treatment By Galveston, TX Mounted Police
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dated: Wednesday August 07, 2019
The recent images that have emerged of two mounted police officers of the Galveston, TX Police Department leading a black male prisoner by a rope tied to his handcuffed hands must be considered as clear and significant evidence that racist attitudes and behaviors still exist in law enforcement.
These images and the treatment that was afforded to Donald Neely are reminiscent of the treatment shown to slaves in the 1800’s at the height of the fugitive slave hunter movements that were part and parcel of the historical origins of the institution of American policing. It is no less offensive today as it was then.
To say that these officers exhibited “poor judgment” and that their prisoner transportation practice was “not correctly or properly used” must be considered a gross understatement, inadequately offered as a means of deflecting from the racially charged perception that these images depict and the officer’s actions have invoked.
The members of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc. stand with the Neely family in calling for a full, complete and transparent investigation of this incident. It must be understood, as well, that there must be a significant level of accountability for the lack of professional judgment that was shown in this incident.
The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc, a 501.(c).(3) non-profit, is a premier national organization representing the interests and concerns of African American, Latino and other criminal justice practitioners of color serving in law enforcement, corrections, and investigative agencies throughout the United States, and the communities in which they serve.
