Anti-Racism and the Police

 This is The ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett, a podcast from the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, an organization dedicated to eradicating racism and hate and spreading anti-racism. Listen as Donzel talks about the relevant topics that will inspire you and help build your capability to take action and change the world, because none of us are doing enough as long as racism still exists. And now, here's your host, Donzel Leggett. Hello, and welcome to the 12th episode of The Arc of Change with Donzo Leggett. In this episode, I will introduce step three of the Arc process for personal transformation, building character and confidence to stand up, speak out, and take action to spread anti-racism by profiling a hero who chose to be the exception within one of the most insular, inflexible, and many times toxic cultures in the United States, the police force. Now let's get started with our show. So I am Donzo Leggett, host of the Arc of Change podcast and founder of the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, or ARC. Our vision at ARC is to build a racism-free world, and our mission is to provide inspiration, education, and support for you to transform, practice, and spread anti-racism. In this, our 12th episode of season one, I wanna talk about anti-racism and the police, and wanna do that by telling the story of Cariol Horne. Now Cariol Horne was a 36-year-old single mother of five living in Buffalo, New York in 2006. She was just like any other mother or father, parent focused on caring for and providing for her children, with the exception that she was also a Black woman police officer. Cariol did the best that she could in raising her children as a single mom while again, being a police officer, one of the more demanding jobs that you can have. She was a good cop. But as you can imagine, when you have little children and you're the main caregiver, there, there are gonna be times when the babysitter's late, when you have a sick child, or there's a problem with one of the children, and this might cause you to be late on a few occasions to work. Aside from that, she was always striving to be a good police officer and a good mom. Carriola worked 18 years on the Buffalo, New York, Police Department, and she was looking forward to the financial stability of hitting that 20-year mark. What was magic about that 20-year mark? It would fully qualify her for a pension and give her the flexibility financially of retiring early and doing something different. Pursuing a different career that was more aligned with her family responsibilities, allowing her to spend more time with her kids. Something that just wasn't as demanding on her time. She just had to do two more years. Two more years. Stay safe. Don't have any issues or problems within the department. In other words, just do her job. Do what she was told. Stay out of harm's way. Go with the flow, and don't make any waves. On the morning of November 1st, 2006, an incident occurred that put Carriola in a position where she had to make a choice, a difficult choice. A choice to either protect her own interests, the interests I just described, protect her pension, don't make waves, or do the right thing and stand up, speak out, and take action for someone else's interests and do what's right This was 15 years ago. Doesn't seem like that long, but this was before really the proliferation of CCTV, cellphone videos, and before many local police departments started wearing body cams On that morning, a postal worker in Buffalo on Walden Avenue flagged down a patrol officer to report an argument between a man and a woman at a two-unit house. Officer Horne responded to the call of an officer needing assistance. When Cariol arrived, she found that a woman had accused a man named David Neal Mack of stealing her Social Security check of $626. Mack, who happened to be a Black man, was also the woman's ex-boyfriend. Cariol and the other officer, a white male officer named Craig Kwiatkowski, decided to take Mack into custody based on the information they had gathered at the scene. But while attempting to take Mack into custody, a struggle ensued, and Cariol Horne saw Kwiatkowski put Mack into a choke hold. Cariol then heard Mack, who was also handcuffed with his hands behind his back at the time, say the infamous words we've all heard way too many times in these incidents between police and unarmed Black men. Those words, "I can't breathe." Again, a scene so familiar to us from other incidents that we've seen because of the proliferation of cameras since 2006. And of course, many of them have ended tragically for unarmed people of color, mostly Black men. But this is where the story became an exception. As Cariol looked at Mack, she saw a man who, in her opinion, was no longer presenting a threat and was being choked out. She saw a man who was being killed right before her eyes. Cariol was faced with a choice in that split second. Side with her fellow officer, Kwiatkowski, which the unwritten rule in the police fraternity is about always side with the blue. Don't cross the blue line, which is actually more like a blue mountain because so few have ever crossed it. Don't make waves. Protect her career, her pension, and her family. But with all that on the line, she still decided to say something, to stand up and speak out. She told Kwiatkowski to pull off the choke hold because he was killing Mack. But Kwiatkowski didn't, so she then did the unheard of. the unthinkable for a police officer. She decided to take action against her fellow officer. Cariou later said that she thought at that moment that if she didn't act, Mack was gonna die. He was handcuffed and was in a choke hold. She thought, "I literally thought he was about to die." When Horne heard the handcuffed man say he couldn't breathe again, she took action and forcibly removed Kwiatkowski's hand from around Mack's neck. Kwiatkowski then, according to Cariou, punched her in the face. Witnesses then saw both officers fighting with each other in the driveway of Mack's home. Visit us at joinarc.org to learn more about ARC. Donate to our cause and join the movement that will change the world The other officers at the scene intervened and order was eventually restored. Both officers were immediately placed on leave as the incident was investigated. Kwiatkowski was quickly exonerated of departmental charges related to the incident. And by June 2007, a city court judge had also dropped all criminal charges against the man they were trying to take into custody, David Mack. However, Cariol Horne, who remember, did the right thing and saved Mack's life, still faced departmental charges and remained on leave. Her case eventually was reviewed, and she was offered a four-day suspension as discipline for her actions to come back off of leave. Cariol refused, as she felt she did the right thing and should not face any disciplinary action. She wanted her case to go to a hearing. But by doing so, she risked being fired. And if she was fired prior to her 20-year service anniversary, she would lose her pension But Cariol Horne was steadfast in her belief that she did what was right, and she refused to take the suspension. When her closed-door disciplinary hearing was scheduled in September 2007, she walked out, insisting that it be open to the public. By then, Cariol had a group of supporters who saw her as being persecuted for doing the right thing and crossing the blue line. Cariol won the battle to have her public hearing, the first ever in the history of the Buffalo Police Department. During the hearing, David Mack, the man they were trying to take into custody and that Kwiatkowski was choking to death, testified that Kwiatkowski had him in a choke hold and that another officer used brass knuckles to try to subdue him. He credited Officer Horne as saving him. He said that, "Officer Horne saved my life. I wouldn't be here today if it were not for her actions. I couldn't breathe until she intervened. He was choking me, and I was handcuffed, and I heard her say, 'You're killing him, Gray.' And then she reached over and tried to grab his hand from around my neck." Kwiatkowski testified, too. He denied punching Horne in the face and said that Mack was fighting violently when he arrived at the scene after responding to an officer-in-trouble call. In May 2008, Cariol Horne was found guilty on 11 of 13 internal charges. The hearing officer's report stated that Horne, quote, "Created a substantial danger to the lives of all involved in the incident, including Mr. Mack. Her unwarranted use of physical force to intervene against Officer Kwiatkowski as he struggled with Mack could have had fatal consequences. It is difficult for this housing officer to imagine how any officer on the force, after the respondent's extreme lack of professionalism, could ever have any confidence that the respondent could be counted on to assist them in making a lawful arrest." Unquote. Cariol Horne was fired after 19 years on the force, leaving her just a few months short of her 20-year service anniversary, the tenure required, the magical number that she was planning for. to qualify for her pension, which would have been half her salary plus health benefits. The mother of five was fired by her department after it found that her use of force against a fellow officer who was literally killing a handcuffed man was unjustified, leaving her unemployed and without her pension for doing the right thing. Carriole continued to fight to get her job back, but a review by the Erie County District Attorney backed the police's decision in her case. And the state Supreme Court sided with the city in a court fight over whether the hearing was held legally. To add injury to insult, in February 2011, Kwiatkowski won a defamation suit against Horn, and she was ordered to pay him $65,000 in damages. Even though Kwiatkowski, who had retired by then, had been under investigation by Internal Affairs for two incidents, his alleged role in a fight that broke out at a bar after a police union awards dinner, and for allegedly grabbing an officer by the neck during a dispute in the police station briefing room. A year later, Horn thought she might finally see vindication when Mack's civil suit went to trial. She told a reporter at the time that she was living in subsidized housing, relying on child support and food stamps just to take care of her family. She said she was still suffering from a shoulder injury that she suffered in the altercation with Kwiatkowski. Unfortunately, once again, justice was not served, as the jury cleared Kwiatkowski and other officers in a five-to-one verdict. The only juror who sided with Mack was a Black female juror. The five who voted to clear Kwiatkowski were white. The Arc of Change podcast is brought to you by the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. Visit us at joinarcc.org to learn more about Arc and join our movement. But the story didn't end there. In 2014, Kwiatkowski and two other Buffalo police officers were indicted by the United States Attorney's office on charges that they violated the rights of four Black teenagers on May 31st, 2009. It was later determined that Lieutenant Kwiatkowski used unlawful and unreasonable force on each of the four Black teenagers, and he was found guilty and sentenced to four months in prison. Then came the murder of George Floyd, and people were outraged that there were three police officers at the scene who did nothing to stop former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin as he killed George Floyd under his knee This was the ignition for the national news outlets to finally take notice of Cariol Horne's story. Because had Cariol done what those three Minneapolis police officers did, and so many other police officers have done, who won't cross the blue line to do the right thing, David Mack would have also been murdered. In June 2020, just a few weeks after the George Floyd murder, Cariol Horne was interviewed on CBS This Morning, and shared what she thought after watching George Floyd stop breathing under the knee of Derek Chauvin, while the other three officers did nothing to stop him. She was asked why did she intervene, and she recalled that, "Mack looked like he was about to die. He was handcuffed and being choked, and had I not intervened, I believe he would have died." She appeared on CNN with the segment headline of Black Cop Fired After Stopping White Colleague's Choke Hold. She was also featured in the Washington Post with the headline George Floyd Died After Officers Didn't Step In. These Officers Say They Did, and Paid a Price. She started a GoFundMe campaign and soon raised more than $160,000. On June 30th, Cariol Horne had a news conference and relaunched a campaign, a campaign that she had started locally in 2016 to create a law which would require police officers to intervene when another officer is using excessive force. In her fight, Horne received local support that led to the Buffalo Common Council adopting the law, known as Cariol's Law or the Duty to Intervene Law, which created a duty for an officer to intervene when observing force he or she reasonably believed to be clearly beyond that which is objectively reasonable. The law was passed and signed by the city's mayor on September 29th, 2020. Horne also filed a lawsuit to overturn her 2008 termination in September 2020. And several months later, in 2021, a New York State judge ruled that Horne's pension, worth about $800,000, must be reinstated. The judge vacated her termination decision and reinstated her status back to 2008, making her whole with back pay. In an 11-page opinion, the judge wrote that, "The city of Buffalo has recognized the error and has acknowledged the need to undo an injustice from the past. While the Eric Garners and George Floyds of the world never had a chance for a do-over, at least here the correction can be done." He went on to quote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by stating that, "The time is always right to do what is right." Cariol Horne finally got justice. She finally received her due for being a courageous heroine. But it doesn't change the fact that this mother of five went through hell to do the right thing. She lost her job and her ability to take care of her family. For 15 years, she struggled. She was living in subsidized housing, relying on child support and food stamps. She had to work odd jobs, even though she still suffered from the shoulder injury from the altercation with Kwiatkowski, and had no medical benefits to get the treatment that she needed. At times, she even lived out of her car. She even had to face the indignation of losing a lawsuit and having to pay Kwiatkowski $65,000. She lost and had to pay the bad cop she tried to stop And above all this, she had her reputation tarnished, tarnished. She's branded a traitor who couldn't be relied on by her fellow officers. And according to the hearing officer who recommended firing her, showed extreme lack of professionalism, could never be trusted or counted on again by her fellow officers. All of this she suffered, instead of being celebrated as the heroine who actually was trying to protect the integrity of the badge by doing the right thing and intervening to save someone's life. She later appeared on CNN wearing a T-shirt that read, "George Floyd needed Carrie Ole Horn." She said, "I don't want other officers to go through what I've gone through, but I don't want any other victims to go through what George Floyd went through." Visit us at joinarcc.org. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and like us on Facebook. As I mentioned earlier, our vision at the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, or ARC, is to build a racism-free world. And our mission is to provide inspiration, education, and support for you to transform, practice, and spread anti-racism. This begins with your personal transformation to anti-racism And the steps to do that are as follows. First, erasing your ignorance about racism and hate. Then second, educating yourself about anti-racism. And finally, third, building the character and confidence to stand up, speak out, and take action to spread anti-racism. Cariol Horne's story is a perfect illustration of what step three is all about. In June 2021, ARC's Community in Action event focused on racism and policing. You can find the recording of this event on our website at joinarc.org. The discussion during that event not only focused on racism and policing, but it more pointedly focused on the idea that not all police are bad. But that to be a good police officer, you must be willing to stand up, speak out, and take action against the bad ones. But unfortunately, very few do. The insular, inflexible, and many times toxic culture of police forces creates and reinforces an environment that allows for racism and discrimination, among other bad things to exist, resulting in inequitable policing, which in so many times leads to brutal, and yes, deadly force used disproportionately against people of color and other marginalized communities. Again, very few officers historically have been willing to stand up, speak out, and take action against their fellow officers who do the wrong thing, including exhibiting racist, abusive, and hateful tendencies. They refuse to be the exception and cross the blue line. However, Cariol Horne became that exception. Even with so much at stake in her own personal life, she was still willing to sacrifice it and be the exception. And when she had the chance to back out, give up, or relent, she remained the exception. And in so doing, not only did she save a life, not only was she eventually vindicated, cleared, and had her pension reinstated, she also got legislation passed that requires officers in Buffalo to cross the blue line if they see wrongdoing from other officers, or they face prosecution themselves. Cariol's Law This is what good police officers look like. These are the police officers who should be celebrated. We need more good officers like Carrie Olhorn to be the exception and cross the blue line to improve policing for everyone and spread anti-racism. If there were more Carrie Olhorns that stood up and took action against bad cops, overall more people would respect the police, but specifically more people of color, and calls to defund the police would subside. If there were more Carrie Olhorns celebrated by police leadership and promoted, the culture of the police forces around this country would change, and the bad apples would be rooted out. If there were more Carrie Olhorns and they were celebrated, what Carrie Olh did would cease to be the exception and become the rule. Anti-racism is not anti-police, but it is anti-bad police, and we must call out those police officers who remain quiet and don't speak out, stand up, and take action against the bad police officers. And even more importantly, we must celebrate those who do. This goes for the Carrie Olhorns who did it in the moment, but also for those like Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and the other officers who did the right thing, crossed the blue line, and testified against Derek Chauvin. Good police officers must have the courage and confidence to stand up, speak out, and take action for what is right. Good police officers must be anti-racists. Visit us at joinARCC.org to learn more about ARCC. Donate to our cause and join the movement that will change the world. To find the Arc of Change podcast with Donzo Leggett and learn more about the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition or ARC, please visit us at joinarc.org. You can also subscribe to the Arc of Change with Donzo Leggett on your favorite podcast hosting sites. I greatly look forward to our next episode, an opportunity to inspire you to become part of the movement that will change the world by eradicating racism once and for all. Until next time, stay safe and continue to ask yourself, "Am I doing enough?" And remember that none of us are doing enough as long as racism and hate still exist. Thanks for listening and goodbye. The Arc of Change podcast with Donzell Leggett is brought to you by the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. To learn more about Arc, donate to our cause, and join the coalition, visit joinarcc.org. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and share this podcast to help spread our mission to change the world by ending racism once and for all. Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay safe and be inspired