A handcuffed black man who was led through the streets by two horse-mounted officers while tied to a rope has sued police over the incident.
Donald Neely, 44, filed a lawsuit last week in Galveston county district court, alleging the officers’ conduct was “extreme and outrageous”, physically injuring Mr Neely and causing him distress and humiliation.
He is seeking $1million (£770,000) from south-east Texas city and its police department.
Photos of incident, which took place in August 2019, showed Mr Neely being led by the officers on a rope connected to handcuffs, reminiscent of pictures showing slaves in chains.
Mr Neely, who was homeless at the time, was sleeping on a footpath when he was arrested for trespassing and led around the block to a mounted patrol staging area.
In body-camera video one officer could be heard twice saying that leading Mr Neely by a rope down city streets would look “bad”.
The lawsuit accuses the city and the police department of negligence and said the officers should have known Mr Neely would consider it offensive to be led by a rope “as though he was a slave”.
“Neely felt as though he was put on display as slaves once were,” the lawsuit stated.
Soon after the incident, Galveston’s police chief offered an apology for the officers’ actions.
Vernon Hale said in a statement that, while his officers used a technique that was acceptable in some situations, such as with crowd control, they “showed poor judgment in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of arrest”.
