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Cariol Horne, a former Buffalo police officer, has been granted the back pay and benefits she was previously denied.Credit...Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News
It was a cold November day in Buffalo when Officer Cariol Horne responded to a call for a colleague in need of help. What she encountered was a white officer who appeared to be “in a rage” punching a handcuffed Black man in the face repeatedly as other officers stood by.
Officer Horne, who is Black, heard the handcuffed man say he could not breathe and saw the white officer put him in a chokehold. At that point, court documents show, she forcibly removed the white officer and began to trade blows with him.
In the altercation’s aftermath, Officer Horne was reassigned, hit with departmental charges and, eventually, fired just one year short of the 20 on the force she needed to collect her full pension. She tried, and failed, more than once to have the decision reversed as unfair.
#policemisconduct #policebrutality #blacklivesmatter #buffalo
That’s great, but they’ll have to do much more than just financially compensate her. The police department needs to be sue, so that it will be motivated to discipline its officers in following the law and using appropriate force, if for no other reason than to deter future lawsuits and public scrutiny in the future.