Buffalo Cop Loses Job And Pension After She Intervenes With Fellow Officer Choking A Suspect

[SunSeeker]

This is a story from 2014, that shows what happens to cops who intervene:

In Buffalo, New York a former police officer is fighting for her pension after being fired from the city's police department for interfering with another officer she claims was abusing an arrested suspect. Cariol Horne was fired from the force in 2006 and charged with obstructing another cop during an arrest over a domestic dispute, ABC 7 reported last week. 

Horne claims that fellow Buffalo officer Gregory Kwiatkowski was abusing a suspect who had already been placed under arrest in handcuffs. "He was handcuffed in the front and he was sideways and being punched in the face by Gregory Kwiatkowski," explained Horne. Horne said she intervened when she saw Kwiatowski begin to choke the man. "I'm like, 'Greg! You're choking him,' because I thought whatever happened in the house he was still upset about so when he didn't stop choking him I just grabbed his arm from around Neal Mack's neck," said Horne.

ABC reported that Kwiatkowski then turned and punched Horne in the face. She said she needed the bridge of her nose replaced after the blow. The obstruction charge against Horne stated that she "jump[ed] on officer Kwiatkowski's back and/or [struck] him with her hands." However, in his own testimony, Kwiatkowski said, "she never got on top of me."
...
Meanwhile, ABC noted that Kwiatkowski later was forced into retirement following two separate incidents, one in which he punched another officer while off duty, another in which he choked a fellow officer while on the clock. In May of this year, he was indicted, along with two other officers, on charges of federal civil rights violations towards black teen suspects.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvaqa3/buffalo-cop-loses-job-and-pension-after-she-intervenes-with-fellow-officer-choking-a-suspect?fbclid=IwAR3Ik-paTlQlkDCbIupajaYr67j9eecKza4LuxvnBolka6UOiz82r3HgpJs


She never got her job back or her pension. Lawmakers are now looking into it, hopefully she'll get her pension for her 19 years of service. https://buffalonews.com/2020/06/09/buffalo-lawmakers-reexamine-police-use-of-force-policy-cariol-hornes-pension/

[superpatriotman]

1. A real pickle for the union

Who to defend?

[whistler162]

6. Hard choice.....

the white male or the black female..... so difficult! <SARCASM>

[IronLionZion]

10. Defend the bad cop, punish the good cop

since she clearly forgot her place

[Alacritous Crier]

2. Just like any other gang....

Snitches get stiches.

[Celerity]

4. +100000

The copper unions need to be crushed to dust via RICO Act prosecutions.

They are giant organised criminal gangs.

[zaj]

11. Ever wonder why they are the only union Republicans exempt from union busting?

[BComplex]

26. Good point.

They are RICO, under the "corrupt organization" part of the definition.

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

[betsuni]

5. K&R

[Hav]

7. That wouldn't happen if the good apples were in charge

and if they were the ones setting the tone for the rest. Instead the good apples seem to be in the minority getting kicked out by the fascist pieces of shit types. Just another indication how much work needs to be done and the need to get rid of all the rotten pieces that have infested the police from top to bottom.

[SunSeeker]

24. Good point.

Depressing, but good point(s).

[napi21]

8. I believe her case should benefit from all the publicity around the current murder by cop event.

I'm positive if I were her lawyer it would give me several prime examples of why an officer should intervene when another officer is out of control/

[WVreaper]

9. Just a guess

Police Union only protects good white cops.

[SunSeeker]

14. Yup. Her partner broke her nose but kept his job and pension.

SHE was the one who lost her job and pension.

[Kaiserguy]

19. Police Union only protect bad white cops

or so it seem.

[lpbk2713]

12. Let no good deed go unpunished.

...

[warmfeet]

13. Cross that blue line,

penalized for life.

The current system does not work.

Time to change.

[Lonestarblue]

15. There are good cops out there, and they need to take a stand.

I do hope the good ones outnumber the bad (though that’s hard to know). Perhaps the good ones should hold a vote to decertify the union. Strong-arm union tactics and resistance to any changes seems to be a large part of the problem. Maybe the best idea for some police departments like the one in Minneapolis is to disband the department and get rid of their toxic union head. Otherwise, any change will be rejected by the police union. And police all over the country are still feeling protected because they’ve still using abusive practices even though they know someone will be creating a phone video.

[Caliman73]

22. Well this one good cop took a stand to protect a life...

What she got in return was: a broken nose, fired, lost her pension, years of legal battles, and a still unresolved situation.

How, pray tell, are we to expect the "good cops" to risk everything, like Serpico and other officers who "take a stand"?

Here are the outcomes of a few other good cops.

https://www.ranker.com/list/police-department-whistleblowers/brent-sprecher

[DENVERPOPS]

16. I've seen it

The bad officers gang up and make life miserable for the good ones until they quit or retire.....

[progree]

17. And the good cops might not get the backup they need when in a dangerous situation

"if you’re considered an individual who can’t be trusted, you’re not going to have the timely back-up from other officers"
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/06/07/duty-to-intervene-floyd-cops-spoke-up-but-didnt-step-in/

Incidentally, the article pointed out that two of the four officers in the George Floyd incident were minorities, specifically hired as part of a program to diversify the overwhelmingly white Minneapolis police force -- Thao (Hmong) and Keung (biracial African American). So while that might help (Keung did the most objecting, per their lawyers), it's not always enough.

[Layzeebeaver]

18. Back in the late 80's...

I was working on a short term project in buffalo NY

Anyway... there was this really good ZZ Top tribute band playing on a night we are all not going to work the next morning.

So... we tied one on that evening. When we left the joint the cops were outside. But we didn’t see any crazy over-lord behaviour. We all made it back to our hotel with no issues.

That said, we can’t do that today!

The buffalo Cops have devolved, and us “non-cops” have evolved.

[C Moon]

20. He was sentenced to 4 months in prison for one of the charges

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdny/pr/former-buffalo-police-lieutenant-sentenced-federal-civil-rights-conviction

[SunSeeker]

23. That was for SUBSEQUENT misconduct, committed AFTER Cariol Horne was fired.

He broke her nose, yet they fire HER. He got NO punishment for assaulting Horne or choking the defendant they had arrested.

They should have fired Kwiatkowski in 2014 when he punched Horne, then there would not have been these subsequent attacked for which he was jailed.

And yet he got to keep his pension. She didn't.

It iis fucking infuriating.

[Cha]

21. Yes, please get Cariol Horne's Pension back!

Mahalo, SunSeeker

[cab67]

27. She's up there with Hugh Thompson

[BSdetect]

28. She must have grounds to sue.

[malaise]

29. Institutional Racism at work

It's spread everywhere - just like Covid-19

[Dennis Donovan]

30. UPDATE: Her firing is being reassessed

Link to tweet

[ck4829]

31. So THAT'S how you get fired as a cop