Feds won't charge NYC officer who killed unarmed teen
Source: Associated Press
Feds won't charge NYC officer who killed unarmed teen
Jennifer Peltz and Michael Balsamo, Associated Press
Updated 2:44 pm, Tuesday, March 8, 2016
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors will not bring criminal charges in the case of an unarmed black teenager who was shot to death in his home by a white New York City police officer, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said prosecutors found insufficient evidence to pursue federal charges in the 2012 death of Ramarley Graham and have officially concluded their investigation. The 18-year-old was shot in the bathroom of his Bronx home by an officer who had barged inside during a drug investigation. He was killed in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said his office conducted a thorough and independent investigation, but determined "there is insufficient evidence to meet the high burden of proof required for a federal criminal civil rights prosecution."
Prosecutors have said police first encountered Graham when they spotted him and two other people walking into a Bronx bodega in the afternoon of Feb. 2, 2012 and then immediately walking out. The officers, who were conducting a street narcotics investigation, said they saw Graham adjusting his waistband and told fellow officers they believed he had a gun. Police followed him to his Bronx home. An officer made his way into the home and forced his way into a bathroom and shot Graham once.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/No-federal-charges-for-NYPD-officer-who-killed-6877513.php
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The cops’ killing spree in 2015: by the numbers
By Richard Becker
Liberation, Jan 12, 2016
In 2015, police in the United States continued to kill at a rate far higher than every other country in the world for which statistics are currently available. That year, U.S. cops killed at least 1,200 people, more than three per day on average, according to the research of the website www.killedbypolice.net.
The exact number is not known. There is no federal agency that keeps track. The FBI compiles annual statistics for “justified homicides” by police—but participation in the program by the approximately 18,000 police agencies in the country is completely voluntary, and only about 800 actually provide reports. Most departments, including the notoriously racist and murderous New York Police Department, do not participate at all.
The FBI reported 444 killings by police in 2014, the latest report available. The FBI’s amazingly broad definition of “justifiable homicide” by police is: “The killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.” The FBI classified every one of the 444 killings as “justified.”
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No ‘war on police’ in 2015
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Police officers killed by hostile actions—gunfire or assault—declined from 64 to 49. Given that there are more than 1.5 million police in the country, those numbers reveal that the claim of a “war on cops” is truly bogus.
U.S. cops kill at 100 times or more the rate of other countries
U.S. political leaders frequently promote the chauvinistic idea of “American exceptionalism,” the notion that the United States is the “one indispensable country,” superior to all others. It is dangerous propaganda employed to justify wars and interventions around the world.
But in the area of state violence, the United States is indeed “exceptional,” particularly as compared to other developed capitalist states.
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http://www.liberationnews.org/cops-killing-spree-2015-numbers/