The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Ramarley Graham, 18, shot dead in the Bronx, at the hands of an occupying army.

    By jollyroger on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 5:09am |

    The rules of engagement for the  New York City Police Department have changed.

    I'm not quite sure when, but it was, I think, shortly after David Dinkins was replaced as Mayor by Rudy G.

    It used to be that every cop carried what was called a "throwdown".  An untraceable gun, the purpose of which was to be thrown down (hence, the name) if the cop discovered that he or she had shot and killed an unarmed civilian.

    When the practice of carrying a throwdown lapsed, it was not a sign that the police had discontinued the excessive use of deadly force.

    It was a sign that internal affairs would now accept any old story about a "furtive gesture" or "glint of light" or "reaching for a pocket" which the shooting cop would reference as giving rise to fear of immanent mortal peril in the cop, justifying, post facto  the use of otherwise unlawful deadly force.

    Operating under those militarized rules of engagement, and conceiving of themselves as soldiers in the front line of a militarized war on people of color drugs two cops on a street narcotics detail chased home from a bodega a young New Yorker, Ramerley Graham.

    He was in the bathroom of his grandmother's apartment when the cops demanded, and were granted, entry by the grandmother.

    Rushing into the bathroom, they shot him dead while he tried to flush a small bag of weed down the toilet.  Not even enough to draw more than a ticket under New York law, but reason to snuff out his life.

    The cops have concocted their usual story, (all they need these days) about how they "thought he was carrying a gun".

    We have turned the army into a bunch of death squad enabled special forces international police, and we have turned the police into a death squad enabled, occupying army.

    The militarization reaches far beyond Manhattan, where post 9/11 fantasies once had traffic cops wearing full tactical armor while writing parking tickets, in case Bin Laden and his hordes came rushing down Broadway. That anyone could seriously propose that Keene, New Hampshire, is a magnet for Islamo-Terroristo-Hashishin attack signals that we have, as a nation, gone as mad as the Son of Sam, and we will be getting marching orders from our bulldog any minute now. Alas, to the increasingly militarized, drone-equipped, tached out armies of the homeland brigade, the declaration of a free-fire zone in large swaths of America is a feature, not a bug, of the war on drugs.

    Comments

    I noticed that in your choice of blogging, you are hot and heavy on the theme of NYC cops = police state, and therefore just another example of the whole country going down the tubes civil rights wise

    This current story is a egregious example with no excuse, and I want to make it clear I am not commenting on it

    But on your past post on stop-and-frisk, I was tempted to suggest you read a New Yorker piece that was extremely popular on the internets around the same time

    The Caging of America
    Why do we lock up so many people?
    by Adam Gopnik January 30, 2012

    Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atla...

    Since you seem devoted to following the NYC cops theme, I would just suggest you read it and all the way through, past the parts where he discusses the jailing of America and onto the parts about Franklin E. Zimring's research and new book on what NYC might be doing right to really greatly reduce the number and percentage of people in prison while greatly reducing crime--surprise, one of the main things Zimring found to be helping those trends is "stop and frisk." Whether or not you end up agreeing, I guarantee the article will challenge your preconceptions, always a good thing, mho. Zimring's book is now high on my "to read" list precisely because what Gopnik said about his research in this article challenged my own presumptions. I did not know that besides reducing crime, NYC had also greatly reduced their prison population; that's because I had been fallling for rants about it being a police state on the internets......

    PS Puhleez no one assign me with tender feelings for the NYPD because of this comment; I am in the 50th Precinct, where many of them are a lovely bunch of corrupt parking ticket fixers under indictment....


    by artappraiser on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 1:52pm

    Police states are efficient at crime prevention.

    I will concede the point.

    But even if we desire to vindicate the interest of the police in having everyone (and their prints, dna, etc, "in the system"), we might argue that a better way to accomplish this dubious result would be simply take all the information from everyone at birth.

    That said, and not wishing to belabor the collateral damage (deaths thru police misunderstanding) that results from the present devotion to stop and frisk as the portal to universal biometric collection, it is a long way from street (community?) policing to armored personnel carriers,.

    Indeed, the militarization of attitude that accompanies the weapons acquisition and attendant indoctrination makes more likely the prospect of tragedies like Graham's killing.

    I will examine in greater detail the interaction of stop and frisk with drug prohibition later. 


    by jollyroger on Fri, 02/24/2012 - 9:21pm

    And your take on this?

    http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2012/02/photos-columbia-street-after-l...

    Like, for instance, why did the non-cop have a gun? Or, perhaps: I've not followed your blog closely, but have you given equal time to ranting about the traffic of black-market guns up 95 from the south? ISTM that if that traffic were stopped then it's likely that the police would feel a lot safer in the course of their jobs.

    The link above is, BTW, in my neighborhood in NYC. A possible answer to the question I pose is that different housing projects are, for lack of a better descriptor, duplicating (literally) a Hatfield-McCoy blood-feud.

    Don't get me wrong: when I see the NYPD heading toward, or gathered near, a specific spot I go in the direction of away ASAP; because I don't want a beat-down or an arrest.

    But it's just not the case that the NYPD is at such a complete fault, as you seem to say.


    by nothere on Mon, 02/27/2012 - 10:56am

    my secret shame: cops like me. which I offer to rebut the accusation that I always find NYPD to be a fault. That said, I don't quite see the relevance of your anecdote to the cited case.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 02/29/2012 - 11:43pm

    Cop indicted. Bet he opts for bench trial. (no jury) and walks.

    by jollyroger on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 3:58pm

    It's big news in the Bronx--

    BTW

    The Daily News has updated, he was in court to face charges, plea and bail (which he got), and Rev Al and protesting friends were there, as well as major Graham family support

    As far as him walking there's this at the end of the article

    London said the officer was looking forward to his day in court.

    “In some ways it's a relief because now we'll get to have our say and litigate this case, and we're confident that we'll be successful at the conclusion of it," he said.

    London said the defense would focus on Haste’s “state of mind at the time that this incident occurred."

    But Dr. Robert Gonzalez, a police training expert from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, predicted the defense will have a tough time winning an acquittal.

    Haste did not have the “close and continuous” pursuit that would have allowed him to enter Graham's home without a warrant before the shooting, Gonzalez said.

     

    by artappraiser on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 6:23pm

    differing from Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo's cases, who were shot out on the street. It'll depend which trial dept gets the case. Maybe they'll give it to the judge who got his throat crushed last week.

    by jollyroger on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:01pm

    They'll ask for a change of venue, claiming the judge is biased.

    (As though they weren't already?) A cop always tells the truth; didnt you know? 


    by Resistance on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:34pm

    re:change of venue, Diallo, acquitted by Albany jury. Bell, acquitted in bench trial in Queens. so it looks like a local judge is OK, but not local jury.

    by jollyroger on Thu, 06/14/2012 - 3:38am