Shadow Politics, May 2, 2021
Shadow Politics with Senator Michael Brown and Maria Sanchez and guest Cariol Holloman Horne
Our guest is POLICE OFFICER CARIOL HORNE-Fired for Doing the Right Thing Wins Her Court Case! Maria and I will discuss police brutality, the George Floyd murder trial, the three guilty verdicts and its implications going forward with Officer Horne. Is the phrase "defund the police" the correct message? What has Cariol Horne learned from her experience that can help us understand how to end the abuse and murder of Black and Brown people in police custody?
Guest, Cariol Holloman Horne
Cariol Holloman Horne of Buffalo, New York, is known for breaking the blue wall of silence -- the informal rule among police officers in the U.S. which prohibits them from reporting on a colleague’s misconducts, errors and crimes.
Horne was a police officer in Buffalo, where she was born and raised. On November 1, 2006, she stopped her fellow Buffalo Police Department officer Gregory Kwiatkowski from choking a handcuffed arrestee, an African-American man named Neal Mack.
The action that Officer Horne took, which she was later vilified for, may have in fact saved the life of Neal Mack. In the wake of the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the question becomes whether similar actions would have saved his life.
Responding to a domestic dispute, and intervening to protect the suspect, Horne was charged with obstruction, sued by her fellow officer and later fired two months before her retirement, which resulted in the loss of her pension. Since Horne’s firing, she has become an outspoken activist against police brutality.
Cariol is a single mother of five children. She received the Harriet Tubman Award from the Erie County Legislature and was named Person of the Year by WUFO Radio. She received the Shero Award for Excellence in Community Service from the Los Angeles Urban Police Roundtable and was named UMOJA's Woman of the Year.
Named after her, the legislation called Cariol’s Law was signed into law in October 2020. The New York State Supreme Court reinstated her pension and ordered back pay on April 13, 2021.
Shadow Politics
Shadow Politics is a grass roots talk show giving a voice to the voiceless. For more than 200 years the people of the Nation's Capital have ironically been excluded from the national political conversation. With no voting member of either house of Congress, Washingtonians have lacked the representation they need to be equal and to have their voices heard. Shadow Politics will provide a platform for them, as well as the millions of others nationwide who feel politically disenfranchised and disconnected, to be included in a national dialog.
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