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Cop Who Shot Unarmed Teen In Bathroom Didn't Have Proper Training
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2012
Modified Feb 10, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 10, 2012
Modified Feb 10, 2012
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Police sources say Officer Richard Haste, who fatally shot an unarmed teen named Ramarley Graham in the bathroom of his Bronx home earlier this month, had no training in street level narcotics enforcement or plainclothes cop work. Officers assigned to the NYPD’s 36 Street Narcotics Enforcement Units are required to undergo several days of training, but even that is seen as insufficient by some NYPD members. "It's nonsense," one cop who completed the training tells the Post. "They want people arrested. They want numbers."
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has ordered an internal review of how officers conduct low-level narcotics operations. One police source tells the Times that the Street Narcotics Enforcement Units are known as "narcotics lite" and that they're strictly focused on small-time dealers. The units do not participate in dangerous undercover narcotics operations targeting kingpins. "But the street narcotics units have traditionally been considered steppingstones for ambitious officers who want to become detectives," the Times reports.
Officer Graham has been placed on modified duty pending the outcome of an investigation into the shooting, which has sparked widespread outrage. "They think the badge they carry on their chest is a license to kill people," Delmar Scott, Graham's brother, told ABC. Graham was shot and killed after police, believing he had a gun, spotted him engaging in a drug deal and followed him home. The NYPD says officers announced their presence after entering the home, and that Haste, yelled "Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!" before firing. Graham was allegedly dumping a small amount of marijuana in the toilet when he was killed.
“The police [officer] is still working,” Constance Malcolm, the teen’s mother, tells the Daily News. "They only put him on desk duty; he should have been charged. They just want to see all these black kids off the streets. Justice is going to be done for this one."
Tagged
nypd
Officer Richard Haste
ramarley graham
Ray Kelly
shooting
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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