Two years ago, plainclothes NYPD Officer Richard Haste stalked and gunned down Ramarley Graham, a frightened, unarmed, and nonviolent 18-year old who was attempting to flush marijuana down the toilet in his Bronx home.1
Bronx County District Attorney Robert Johnson's office convened a Grand Jury which voted to indict Officer Haste, but a judge threw out the indictment, citing prosecutorial error. A second Grand Jury refused to re-indict Haste.2
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has a duty to protect our community against racial profiling and deadly police violence, especially when local or state prosecutors fail to do so.3 But the DOJ will only pursue this case if enough of us raise our voices and demonstrate a groundswell of national outrage.
