In response to the Wall Street Journal article describing NYPD plans to hold a departmental trial for the officer who killed Ramarley Graham, the Justice Committee issued the following statement from Co-Director Loyda Colon:
Without a start date, timeline or list of charges the announcement of a departmental trial for Officer Richard Haste appears to be a political move by Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD. It’s no coincidence that this announcement was made against the backdrop of heavy criticism of the administration for the NYPD’s lack of transparency and practice of rewarding officers who kill and brutalize New Yorkers with significant pay increases.
The killing of Ramarley Graham was not just violence perpetrated by one officer, acting alone. There were 12+ officers involved in illegally entering Ramarley’s home without a warrant, killing him in cold blood, assault his family members, interrogating his grandmother for seven hours without access to her attorney who was present at the precinct, and engaging in other misconduct surrounding the incident. Today’s announcement came with no mention of any attempts to hold the rest of the officers involved accountable, including Sergeant Scott Morris, who was the commanding officer on the scene.
The Mayor and NYPD need to stop the political maneuvering and down right disrespect of families who have lost loved ones to the police. We continue to demand that Haste and all of the other officers involved be fired immediately.
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