Policing Done Right

Black Buffalo Cop Fired For Stopping Chokehold Gets Pension

Kudos to Cariole Horne! In 2006, she was a veteran police officer in Buffalo, NY. She physically intervened during an arrest to protect Neal Mack, a 59 year old black man, after her white colleague, Gregory Kwiatkowski, put him in a chokehold for an extended period of time. She warned Kwiatkowski that he was choking Mack and grabbed his arm from around Mack's neck. Kwiatkowski responded in kind by punching her in the face.

Two years after the altercation and subsequent investigation, Horne (a mother of five) was fired without a pension. At the time, she had served on the force for 20 years and was just a few months away from receiving the pension. The police department claimed that she had put Kwiatkowski and other officers at risk, even though Mack was handcuffed and unarmed at the time. She lost everything, but Mack did not lose his life.

Long story short, after a 13-year legal battle Horne was vindicated and awarded her back pay, benefits, and pension yesterday. She always knew that saving Mack's life was the right thing to do and she never wanted another police officer to go through the same for intervening on behalf of a suspect when necessary. Apparently, the court determined that her actions were indeed warranted at the time of the incident, so any previous decisions that were made against her regarding benefits, pay, and pension were reversed.

God don't like ugly and, of course, there is more to the story regarding Kwiatkowski--but, this blogger is not going to waste another minute of her time on him because this was another situation in which the police needed to be policed. However, I do want to say "thank you" to Cariole Horne for what she did, which probably saved Mack's life, and it should not have taken 13 years for her to be vindicated. Click on the image or text link underneath to read the full article on MSN News.