There is no justice for Ramarley Graham.
First his tragic ending in the bathroom of his Bronx home, where he was shot and killed by a police officer, came before the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island by officer Daniel Pantaleo and before Michael Brown was felled by a policeman’s bullet in Ferguson, Mo.
These incidents gained national attention, obscuring Graham’s tragedy, despite a series of local demonstrations and outrage.
Tuesday, the legal system dealt Graham another blow of injustice, when federal prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges against officer Richard Haste.
What happened to Graham, 18, four years ago may not have received the media coverage of the succeeding incidents in which police killed unarmed Black men, but it’s not forgotten here in the metropolitan area. Nor has the crime been erased from the memory of Graham’s family in their quest to bring justice for their beloved.
The city awarded the family nearly $4 million in a settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit, but that does not expunge the crime or bring closure when the state court threw out the manslaughter charges, citing a prosecutorial error. A second grand jury’s failure to indict the officer was another disappointment. And now we learn that Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said there was “insufficient evidence to meet the high burden of proof required for a federal criminal civil rights prosecution.”
Although there was no video of the incident in which officer Haste, now assigned to desk duty, said he shot Graham, thinking he was reaching for a gun. He had pursued Graham from the street and into his home believing he possessed a weapon. There was no weapon and only a small bag of marijuana floating in the toilet.
Even if Graham was spotted in a drug transaction, that doesn’t seem to justify breaking into his home and shooting him dead.
As we join the family in our complaint, there appears to be nothing more that can be done, although we have been informed that Haste faces possible departmental disciplinary action.
Most disturbing from all of this is the terrible failure of the U.S. Attorney to see that Graham’s civil rights were violated. In effect, the state dropped the ball, the grand jury refused to indict and the feds walked away from the case.
At least there has been a renewed interest in the case from the media, and let’s hope this fresh arousal about Graham’s tragic death helps to offset the arrival of another miscarriage of justice.