This Officer Lost Her Badge After Intervening In Police Brutality

Police in riot gear
Zain Murdock
May 5, 2021

It was 2006 in Buffalo, New York. Cariol Horne had just been called to help another officer with an arrest. But when she got there, it was a white officer choking a handcuffed Black man! Horne ran to the scene.

She saved his life by releasing him from the chokehold – so the white officer punched her in the face! She reported this entire situation to the police station, but SHE was the one that got fired! 15 years later, she’s finally seeing some change.

As of 2021, she’s now eligible for back pay and pension benefits. And not only that, but a new law was passed in Buffalo City Council – Cariol’s Law.

Cariol's Law will make it illegal for cops to protect each other's abuse, and protects officers who intervene in police violence or expose corruption. But Horne’s fight isn’t over. She wants this law to be national – so officers can’t just “leave one department and go to another one … [to] continue to do the same thing.”

Horne’s taking a jackhammer to the “blue wall of silence.” She was fired for doing the right thing, and it shows the truth about “good cops” – they don’t stay cops for long. Not only do police officers not always follow the law or face accountability, the system PUNISHES them if they do the right thing!

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