Ramarley Graham, 18 years old, was shot and killed by an NYPD plainclothes officer on February 3rd. Surveillance video shows the shooting victim walking into his apartment building, with the police soon runing after him and breaking in. In this diary, which has the video, there were questions posed about the adequacy of their training exhibited by their actions, ultimately leading to the young man's death. The plainclothes officers had staked out a Bronx bodega and suspected him of dealing drugs and having a gun, and chased him to his apartment.
Officer Richard Haste, who shot Ramarley Graham in his bathroom last Thursday, had been part of a street-level narcotics enforcement (SNEU) team, but had not yet received SNEU training or plainclothes training before the assignment, according to police spokesman Paul Browne.
So, the Mayor's 'seventh largest army'can equip itself with weaponry that can shoot down a plane, can create a secret force that spies on Muslims, and broadcast anti-Muslim movies as anti-terrorism training, but it can't provide officers with a week and half of training before sending them out into the streets.
SNEU training is offered regularly within the department, and officers said they see their supervisors assign colleagues to SNEU units, with the understanding that the officer will eventually complete the required training.
So it takes the death of a young man in his own home for this issue to draw some attention and for the NYPD to get their house in order.
Supervising officers and patrol cops said the department is cracking down on training requirements now because of Graham's death, but they added it has been common practice for years to assign officers to plain clothes teams and street-level narcotics units before the officers receive proper training.
But members of the department also said sometimes an officer will be in a SNEU unit or plainclothes team for months before he ever receives that training.
The entire training takes less than two weeks, but it is so important to get those officers out on the streets conducting
ticky-tack marijuana arrests in record numbers (though they have been told by the Commissioner to
cool it) that they must send untrained police officers out on the street, risking, and indeed, taking lives.
Police officers said plainclothes training takes about three to four days and involves instruction about street confrontations, such as tactics to use during hand-to-hand combat. SNEU training takes about a week and teaches officers how to recognize various drugs, what a hand-to-hand drug transaction can look like and relevant search and seizure law.
When Ramarley Graham was killed, Commissioner Ray Kelly offered words of comfort to his mother by saying
'it's always hard to lose a child', as if his department was not culpable, and it wasn't completely avoidable.
Both Haste, who has been on the force for three years, and his supervisor, Sgt. Morris, have been stripped of their guns and badges and placed on administrative duty.
What a relief to New Yorkers that these two are not a threat to them any more, at least for a while. What about the other hundreds (thousands?) who are out there without the proper training? Internal Affairs is looking into it.