New Yorkers fed up with police brutality and still mourning the deaths of their loved ones at the hands of cops met with the NYPD Inspector General Wednesday to say “enough!”
“There’s no accountability for an officer who breaks the law, and they keep breaking the law over and over every day,” said Constance Malcolm of the Bronx.
Malcolm’s unarmed 18-year-old son, Ramarley Graham, was shot to death inside her Bronx home in 2012 by NYPD Officer Richard Haste. The cop was indicted for killing Graham, but the case was tossed by a Bronx Supreme Court judge on a technicality.
“We have to fight for justice. That’s why we’re here today,” Malcolm said.
The 2 1/2-hour meeting with Eure was organized by the Justice Committee, a police watchdog organization. The group told Eure there is a pattern of primarily black and Latinos New Yorkers being “unjustly” killed by NYPD cops and called for an investigation into the department’s use of deadly force.
“The city consistently pays out settlements to resolve civil suits around these cases and the toll these deaths take on families and communities is incredibly high,” the group said in a statement.
Eric Garner died when a cop used a chokehold while trying to arrest him July 17.
“In spite of this, neither the NYPD nor any mayoral administration has taken meaningful steps to address the root causes of the repeated killings. The officers responsible are almost never held accountable by the criminal justice system or the NYPD.”
NYPD brass declined to comment about the meeting.
Margarita Rosario — whose son, Anthony, 18, and nephew, Hilton Vega, 21, were killed in 1995 when two NYPD detectives fired a barrage of 28 bullets inside a Bronx apartment — said the meeting “went really well.”
“We were able to speak individually about our stories,” said Rosario, who shared a $1.1 million settlement in 2009 with Vega’s family.
“We made a lot of recommendations, so hopefully those recommendations will be taken seriously,” Rosario said.
The family members who met with Eure represented 10 loved ones who died because of alleged police brutality or in questionable cop shootings dating back 20 years.
Iris Baez of the Bronx — whose 29-year-old son, Anthony, was killed in 1994 when a cop put him in a chokehold — said Eure promised to examine all of their cases.
“Everyone told him what they wanted and how they didn’t get justice,” Baez said. “We’ll have to see what (Commissioner Bill) Bratton does with his (Eure’s) recommendations and how the police department is going to change.”
By Chelsia Rose Marcius & Bill Hutchinson
New York Daily News