10-12-07, 9:37 am
If white officers don’t respect the community most Black officers come from, how then can they respect the Black officer? Imagine a Black officer who was caught beating and choking a white male and a white female officer attempts to intervene by pulling the male cop’s arm from around the man’s neck. Now imagine the Black male officer delivering a hard punch to the white female officer’s face. Picture the response from other officers toward the Black officer. Picture the outrage from Internal Affairs (IA or in Buffalo bizarrely named the Professional Standards Division) and the resulting actions from them and his precinct. White news outlets and stations would go crazy with stories and broadcasts.
As it happens this is a true story except for one small detail: the offending officer is a white male. The female officer is in fact African American. Picture the response from the other officers toward the Black cop. Picture the outrage from Internal Affairs and the resulting actions from them and her precinct. If you are a Black police officer and you get punched in the face by a white officer, would your department allow you to file charges against him? What if the assault occurred in the line of duty? What if the white officer was in the act of choking a suspect who was already handcuffed and you were ordering him to stand-down, stop and he refused to listen, so you tried to grab his arm from around the suspect’s neck? What if the Black officer were a 5’2” Black woman? What if there were Black male officers there and they didn’t come to the defense of the assailed Black officer? What if that city had a Black Chief of Police and a Black Mayor and both adamantly refuse to come to the aid of the sister or punish the white cop?
I’ve written before how this incident started when Buffalo Police Officer Greg Kwiatowski figured out a way to beat and choke a Black man – Neal Mack – Blackwhile answering a domestic call on 11/1/06. Officer Cariol (Carol) Horne was on duty and went upstairs to Mack’s apartment after answering a call where she found Mack already handcuffed and the brave soul Kwiatowski busy using him as a punching bag. The kicker is, it shouldn’t be the race issue it has become. But Buffalo police officials and their IA unit turned it into a race issue by refusing to charge and indict Kwiatowski (long known to be a walking race issue among many in the Black and police community. In 2000 he and other officers started a bar-fight when he saw 2 Black men entering with 2 white females and an accompanying white male. This was just hours after attending a Diversity Training session. ) and then going out of their way to pin charges on Horne-who had to leave work under Injured On Duty status due to injuries sustained from Kwiatowski’s blow.
Charges against Mack were dropped on 6/19 by Judge Debra Givens because the officers forced their way into Mack’s apartment without a warrant and then tried to massacre Mack and members of his family. The ex-girlfriend that Mack was seen arguing with by the Mailman had previously left. Horne was hit with eight charges for possibly saving Mack’s life; these include insubordination, obstruction, and making a false statement. She was denied the right to file charges against Kwiatowski, and later hit with 3 more charges for doing an interview on a Black talk show.
Some brothers are saying we’ve moved from Jim Crow to JimCrow.com. Buffalo still has the old Jim Crow. A quick summary of our political misdirection show most of the town’s most powerful Black leaders-including the Mayor Byron Brown-throwing their lots behind James Keane a white County Executive candidate with a long history of voting against measures that support or fund Black community agendas, some of them proposed by the same Black leaders now backing him, including making Martin Luther King’s Birthday a holiday. Is it a surprise that the Black Commissioner backs the erring white cop?
The local white media has been airing the police version of the incident between Officer Horne and Officer Kwiatowski as if it were a fight. This science fiction is pretty much proven false based on two points: 1) When it’s between a male and female in most cases, especially when the female gives up considerable size and weight to the male Officer (estimated to be as tall as 6’3” 250 lbs) 2) When those conditions exist, it’s called an assault. On the other hand I don’t care if the female cop was Laila Ali, no man has a right to abuse or assault her, especially if he’s wearing a blue uniform and a badge.
Extended abuse continues as a result of the department's bad feelings towards Horne over the growing support she has garnered from local Black media and activist groups. On the morning of a Disciplinary Hearing at Police Headquarters on 9/15, members of the BLAC (Buffalo Local Action Committee, their chapter of national LACs operating in conjunction with the Nation of Islam and the Millions More Movement) held a rally reportedly attended by as many as 200 in support of her. They demanded that charges against her be dropped and Kwiatowski be fired.The dept. was shocked at the turnout and wanted the crowd to leave, instead Horne and her Attorney's left, and shortly thereafter Horne told me she was ordered to return to duty against doctor's orders. Strange but true.
Horne worked at the downtown HQ under the protective watch from several Black men dispatched by the BLAC, the NOI, and most notably a former Marine named Norris 'Poppa' Beasley. The following Monday (10/2) Horne underwent rotator cuff surgery, the dept. ordered her back to work the next day. She went back with her arm in a sling but took the following days off due to pain and of course sluggish reactions to medications. What type of commissioner – Black commissioner at that – volunteers to have all of the brain and common sense sucked out of his head and makes these decisions or allows these decisions to be made against her?
I haven't heard of Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson ordering no such disciplinary hearing for Officer Kwiatowski. 'In disciplining him, their case against Carol falls apart. I wouldn't be surprised if he's exonerated... he's charged (on 9/18) with Assault, based on Perjury and making a false statement,' disclosed her new attorney Anthony Pendergrass.
I don’t have to tell you what the sentiments of white officers are toward Kwiatowski, even though he is said to be one of Buffalo’s 20 worst officers they are firmly behind him. Reactions toward Horne from the Black police are as mixed as a bag of nuts but recently the African American Police Union contributed $1,000 to her defense fund. Many white police officers in Buffalo, just as in many other cities do not curtail they're collective low regard for Blacks just because some of them are wearing the same uniform. The general consensus among Black officers in NY's 2nd largest city is they are often seen as little more than security guards. Given this condition, the only way for them to overcome this is to stand together beyond just the name of their Black police organizations and take an ice-cold departure from the thin-blue-line. When disrespect is manifest from white cops, then you stand together and mean business with no compromise when it comes to the safety of Black suspects and/or officers.
It is entirely possible to be close friends to a white officer and break ties with them if you have to, when these situations crop up. If you want to see how this is done, your best example is to observe white officers, Irish officers, Italian officers. Individually you will find many to be as dumb as brick, but once in a while an army of idiots can look ingenious if they have unity and persistence. I'm not trying to inspire 'reverse-racism' or division. I am merely suggesting the best methods of collective Black interdepartmental survival and respect.
During the summer Horne saw her divided union appointed attorney take a hike and she hired a real lawyer, Pendergrass; the same attorney who represented Mr. Mack and got his charges dropped. On 9/18 Officer Horne, Pendergrass and his partner Civil Rights Attorney Dr. Kenneth Nixon, filed charges against Greg Kwiatowski. You can send contributions to the Cariol Horne, LDF. M&T Bank 1290 Jefferson Ave. Buffalo, New York 14211.
--Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion, Contact him at
