After all of the insanity of this past 2 weeks, it is exhausting to keep up with the constant barrage of seemingly racist behavior that is affecting this country. As I think about Glen Campbell’s historic song that puts my hometown of Galveston, Texas on the map, I am saddened to see that little island paradise make the news this way.
Mounted police officers in Galveston apprehended a mentally ill, trespassing subject. Instead of waiting for actual transport to take him to the station, they decided to walk this handcuffed, African-American man who was tethered to them by a leash of some sort, through the streets to take him to jail for booking. If this was the Old West, then I can see how this might be an appropriate way to transfer someone, but in 2019, racially charged America, I cannot see the justification. Even though Galveston Police Chief Vernon L. Hale, III (a man of color) has apologized for this egregious, dehumanizing act. I have a suspicion that those officers knew exactly what they were doing. If not consciously, then their subconscious has a lot of explaining to do.
"First and foremost, I must apologize to (the man arrested) for this unnecessary embarrassment. 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. My officers did not have any malicious intent at the time of the arrest, but we have immediately changed the policy to prevent the use of this technique and will review all mounted training and procedures for more appropriate methods. We understand the negative perception of this action and believe it is most appropriate to cease the use of this technique."- Galveston Police Chief, Vernon L. Hale, III
I will lovingly admit that I spent my formative years on that little island in Texas, and it terrifies me to think that in this day and age that I would live to see anybody treated that way. As a person of color and of a particular age, the imagery of a black man being tethered to the mounted police officer while handcuffed is pretty disgusting. I would like to believe that for most people that imagery would be disgusting, if not disturbing. No one should be detained that way, but the optics cannot be denied, and you know that picture below will be on the cover of White Supremacy Monthly for sure.
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| In the upcoming issue of White Supremacist Monthly: Bring Back The Glory Days |
Here’s a fun fact about my hometown that might explain why this is simply a bad look. The recently celebrated holiday of Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It dates back to 1865. It was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended, and the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. So, Texans held on to their slaves even after they were “freed” by President Lincoln, by simply not telling them they were free. That act alone is insidiously evil, but add Jim Crow Laws and you have a glimpse of post Civil War Galveston. So flashing forward 150 plus years later to see this kind of imagery is frightening.
Now these officers said that this guy is a repeat trespasser and had been warned several times about his offenses. Even with that as a reason to arrest him, it is still not an excuse to humiliate him. In an update to that story, this news agency found 2 white men who said that they were also detained in the same manner a couple of years ago, and that the officer that detained one of them was African-American. Can you imagine how a pic of THAT would have gone over on White Supremacy Monthly? But for the man in the news story, it is not a race thing. Since there is no documented history of black slave owners dragging any of his white ancestors through the streets to the plantation, it’s not ever going to be about race to him, but I digress. However, the African-American police officer that mistreated that young white man in the follow up news story is just as guilty of dehumanizing another human being as his white colleagues who were caught on film. Let’s be clear. It would not have been okay if ANY mounted police officer of ANY ethnic identity did this to ANYONE.
Police Chief Hale has qualified the intent of his officers as not being malicious, and we will have to believe him. In my opinion, this is really an issue of disrespecting simple human dignity coupled with a clear abuse of power. This is also about cruelty. This country has become a more cruel place since the change of administration. Some people now feel emboldened to display their racist disdain for others in a myriad of ways. What makes it worse? Everyone else feels powerless to do anything.
It’s as if we are in a 2020 holding pattern, hoping that election will change the crazy direction that we are traveling. Assuming we can get to it without any more divisive interruptions to our election process, there is going to be so much work to repair the damage that has already been done. However, if we do not try to actively purge this toxic and racist rhetoric and behavior from our present days and avoid the mistakes made through history, then we are passively sanctioning more pics like that poor man in Galveston, shootings like in El Paso, and yes, even another Charlottesville.
I know my Galveston can do better, and I hope it does.
Glen Campbell singing Galveston Oh Galveston:
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