BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — In a national case of police brutality out of Memphis, attorney Ben Crump referenced former Buffalo Police Officer Cariol Horne for her heroic actions in 2006.
“Cariol Horne was a black police officer,” Crump said. “She witnessed one of her fellow officers brutalizing a black citizen, and she tried to intervene, and got assaulted herself when she tried to stop. Because she intervened she was retaliated against.”
Cariol Horne was fired by the Buffalo Police Department after intervening when she says her patrol partner put a man in a chokehold and she tried to help the suspect.
“The only thing I did was grab his hand from around Neil Mack’s neck,” she said.
Horne was fired in 2008 for that, and it wasn’t until 2021 she was able to get her state pension.
During the 14 years since the incident in Buffalo, Horne says she worked to pass Cariol’s Law, which provides protection and the duty to intervene when officers post imminent threat to citizens.
“We want accountability. It has accountability. Any officer on the scene and sees wrongdoing they can intervene,” Horne said.
Horne says Cariol’s Law is on the state senate floor, and she wants it to be passed on a national level.
She believes Cariol’s Law could have prevented what happened in Memphis.
But Horne’s intervention recently caught her on the wrong side of the law. According to DA John Flynn, Horne was arrested and arraigned today for attempting to prevent officers from making an arrest during the Buffalo Blizzard.
DA Flynn says on Christmas, when BPD officers were interviewing a suspect on Bailey, Horne tried to prevent the officers from doing their official duties, refused multiple orders by police to leave and at one point pushed an officer.
“I asked the officer to take the people already arrested for looting to take them off the ground,” Horne said. “It was triggering to see people arrested placed in the snow and ice when you’re arrested you don’t get placed snow and ice you get put in a cop car.”
Horne will be due back in court in march.
