It would have looked much less terrible if the officers had gotten off of the horses and walked alongside the suspect with the horses. It would have prevented the need for the leash as well.
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If the guy tripped, he’s restrained. Nothing about this scenario is in absolute control. Police cause falling fatalities to prisoners even without having a full-size horse in motion less than an arm’s length away. The horse doesn’t have to be super-skittish.
It’s needless and pointless endangerment.
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Was about to ask if they understand optics or just don’t care.
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They were two blocks from the staging area. One cop could’ve walked with him, but that wouldn’t be a good optic either. Or they could’ve just waited until a squad car was available.
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A couple of blocks. But that’s beside the point.
If they had a short distance to go they should have walked him there on foot. If they had a long distance to go they should have waited for a patrol car.
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A police horse will usually not become uncontrollable even under surprising gunfire. Perhaps it’s different in Texas, but over here are used in crowd control situations like rioting soccer fans fighting each other, using fireworks. Serious injuries I’m aware of: zero.
Why wouldn’t that be a good optic? You’d have to drop the rope, of course, but otherwise I genuinely don’t see the problem.
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I would also assume losing the rope, but you never know. If they didn’t drop the rope, then the optic of leading a black man on a leash wouldn’t be any better.
I would hope the cops would have better judgement, but here we are…
Apart from the slaves, I fail to see the difference to real life. Or rather: A lot of what i read from the US in the last 10, 15 years or so reads like dystopian sci fi to me.
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Consider the cop’s boss, Vernon Hale, is black.
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How is the horse trained to prevent the guy from passing out for medical or drug issues, or going limp, or just tripping on the pavement and falling under its hooves? This isn’t a crowd control situation, it’s a forced restrained walk, where the officer isn’t in full control of their prisoner.
The relative calmness of the horse isn’t the issue here. It’s the lack of care of a restrained human. You should look up the number of times police have killed people just by handcuffing them and then not exercising proper care on a flight of stairs.
Flights of stairs don’t get wildly skittish, either.
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I don’t care how disciplined the horse was. If the cop was on a motorcycle instead of a horse this treatment would have been just as dehumanizing and equally inexcusable.
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Word; accidents can still happen, regardless if that horse had been a magical flying unicorn… and this was still a needless potential liability at the minimum; even before you get the racist and dehumanizing nature of the treatment of the alleged perp.
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Maybe some of his friends are black, too. /s
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I would like to think that a magical flying unicorn would have said “Fuck this shit. I am getting you out of here and away from these racist cops.”
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Texas? That tracks.
Do they do this with everyone they arrest when on horseback, or only specific people?
And your point is? I’m honestly not sure. Because their boss is black, they can’t be racist? Or because he’s black and (apparently) fine with this, then this is fine? Or were you making another point I’m missing?
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“the technique was acceptable in some scenarios.”
Really?
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Maybe they were trying to say that blacks are the real racists? I’m not sure either… only that we’re blowing this out of proportion, and it’s not really that bad. We’re all just seeing klansman where only cops exist, apparently… I mean, it’s not like there is a history of law enforcement being in bed with racist terrorist organizations or anything like that… 
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I think by bringing up the black police chief, they’re also making the “Because Obama was President, we’re now in a post-racist society” kind of claim.
“How could white police officers be racist if their boss is black?” is a question that will never need to be taken seriously.
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