White Texas Cops Who Led Mentally Ill Black Man By Rope Knew It Looked “Really Bad”
Galveston police have released bodycam video from the officers who roped a mentally-ill Black man to one of their horses and walked him down the street with his hands cuffed behind him.
The video’s release follows public outrage over how the officers handled the arrest of Donald Neely on August 3 for misdemeanor criminal trespassing.
“This is going to look really bad!” Officer Patrick Brosch can be heard telling Officer Amanda Smith in the footage that was released Wednesday (October 2).
The officers claimed there were no police vehicles in the vicinity at the time to properly transport the 43-year-old man to the precinct and the Galveston police department admitted the officers used “poor judgment.”
Smith is reportedly the one that suggested they walk Neely to the station house.
“We’ve just gotta do what we’ve gotta do,” Brosch can be heard telling Neely.
Protestors accused the officers of being racist and Texas Rangers were called in to conduct an investigation.
“The Rangers subsequently conferred with the Galveston County District Attorney’s office, which determined that there was nothing that warranted a criminal investigation,” Chief Vernon Hale said in August shortly after the incident occurred.
He also apologized for the “unnecessary embarrassment” of Neely, whose family said suffers from bipolar disorder.
Hale also added that the officers were doing what they were trained to do.
“Although this is a trained technique and best practice in some scenarios, I believe our officers showed poor judgment in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of the arrest,” he said at the time.
Galveston police also conducted an investigation, but the report hasn't been released yet, The Daily Mail reports.
