galveston police parade handcuffed black man

In today’s episode of “Have white people and American law enforcement lost their damned minds?”:

The Galveston, Texas police department is apologizing for a photo taken this past Saturday (August 3rd), showing two white officers on horseback leading a handcuffed Black man down a city street — on what can essentially be described as a leash. A rope was tied to the handcuffs of 43-year-old Donald Neely, who had earlier been arrested on a charge of “criminal trespass.”

According to a statement issued by the Galveston PD, “This technique of using mounted horses to transport a person during an arrest is considered a best practice in certain scenarios, such as during crowd control, the practice was not used correctly in this instance.” You think?

Police chief Vernon L. Hale, III also issued a statement personally apologizing to Mr. Neely “for this unnecessary embarrassment,” but continued down a well-worn path of “our officers showed poor judgement” and “did not have any malicious intent.” Institutions — or their servants — need not have “malicious intent” in their own narrow outlooks on the world, to serve and uphold practices based in racist historical biases. After all, what can the image possibly remind you of?