Whether you watched Super Bowl 55 or not, one can imagine the crowd minimized inside the stadium meant a larger throng of humans outside. And those on the outside were no less inclined to go guzzle and get feisty, especially when their hosting home team Bucs seized the game and inherited the coveted Lombardi Trophy.
Naturally, with that kind of euphoria amped up by spirits (the liquid kind), some revelers got out of hand during what the media dubbed the “Lombardi Party,” portraying law enforcement officers donned with riot gear.
Nearby the stadium where the Super Bowl was held is a replication of The French Quarter and its Mardi Gras-like festivities and daring shenanigans; it is called Ybor City, and even has those second-story balconies ala French Quarter…where partiers congregate, throw beads, and guzzle copious amounts of those spirits we mentioned above.
Ybor City is patrolled by Tampa Police officers, some of whom ride atop horseback. Tampa’s Mounted Unit can be seen out and about during mega events such as the Super Bowl and on weekends when Ybor City is blanketed by people—it’s a go-to place in Tampa.
Because of the overwhelm of pedestrians on weekends, the city/police actually close some streets to accommodate the throngs of folks who patronize the bars, restaurants, tattoo parlors, art galleries, and other merchants doing business on the strip.
With the scene set, the post-Super Bowl spillover culminated in hordes of people revved by their Bucs’ win. Some acted out, poorly. In came the cops on foot patrol and the cavalry on hooves (otherwise known as “ten-foot cops”).
Among after-event activities and the law enforcement agencies overseeing safety of cacophonous crowds, I came across a then-live piece of footage exhibiting riotous proportions despite law enforcers all around, whereby a young male apparently pushed the envelope and wound up fighting with a group of Tampa police officers.
As we have seen much over the past few years, big events resulting in rebels requiring police contact gain not only cops’ attention but also those among the spectating crowd…some who unwisely go the social-justice-warrior route and foolishly decide to obstruct justice by taunting and otherwise distracting arresting officers from safely doing their duty.
This is exactly what happened Sunday, and a herd of horse-mounted police officers took note (thanks to that elevated position and police radio communications beckoning back-up).
As the scenario evolved and the situation got hairy, a few police horses encircled the group of Tampa cops on the ground, dealing with an arrestee resisting and flailing, while tons of pedestrians milled about in the middle of the street. Seeing the constriction, horse-mounted cops employed their equine training.
Like all police back-up is expected to provide, scene safety was instituted as per the primary responsibility of cops not quite directly involved in the fray (or, otherwise, whatever the call for service entails). Scene safety equates to officer safety and surety against innocent bystanders becoming harmed by bad actors being taken into custody by our LEOs. Naturally, some malcontents have no intention of going willfully and employ all manner of sinister deeds, including hostage-taking and lashing out at whoever is nearby.
Thus, back-up is a deliberate defense designed to preempt one viable (or actual) tense scene from spreading to secondary standoffs.
In Tampa, the “ten-foot cops” formed a circle with police service horses and kept a steady trot around the grounded cops, in effect repelling police obstructionists from interfering and/or escalating things to increased levels of peril, for all. Boy, was it beautiful!
With just a few rotations of police horses fending off a nearby frenzied crowd by carouseling around their brothers/sisters on the ground, the primary suspect was successfully handcuffed, uprighted, and marched off to an awaiting police cruiser. (From what I read in follow-up, no one was injured and the arrest was for a misdemeanor charge.)
My department never had a mounted police unit, so I often wondered about their specific training with regard to police work, pedestrians, vehicular encroachment, noises, cohesion, din, visual acuity, etc.
The following brief video explains not only these LEOs assigned to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office (county just north of Hillsborough County and Tampa) Mounted Unit, but how they specifically train their horses with/for each other, especially leading up to the Super Bowl in which they played a handy role:
Much of what was just portrayed/explained relates to the efficiency of crowd control at events with massive attendance and orderliness regarding both citizens as well as the police horses and their partner riders.
Complimenting the boon to Tampa Bay businesses thanks to the Super Bowl patrons, the event was largely heralded as successful and safe, thanks to a year’s worth of public safety planning and comprehensive efforts to ensure a secure environment, despite an on-field streaker (deputy with outstanding tackle) and scant few arrests (no felonies).
Both the largely behaved crowd of spectators and the law enforcement officers overseeing safety and a fun-filled experience for all can be largely attributed to the 70-plus police agencies who either flew or drove in to assist the hosting agencies involving the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (both of which had their respective police mounted units among the mix of local, county, state and federal police badges).
Incidentally, what would happen when a human decides to assault a police horse? As it is in other jurisdictions around the country, in Florida it is akin to assaulting a full-fledged law enforcement officer.
(Photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.)
Per the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office site: “[Police] canines and horses are considered deputies. Not only do they get a badge, but they are legally protected the same way as [human counterpart] deputies! So, if someone were to harm, maliciously touch or harass our canines or horses, they would be arrested!”
That’s the legal ramifications. Physically? Welp, it looks like this:
That incident is from a few years ago, when a reported “protestor” ran up to either pinch or punch a Toronto police horse and (as a cohort of mine said) got the “karma kick” of her life.
Seems police horses mete out justice pretty swiftly and with significant impact while also holding the line.