Don’t cop out: ma
Ramarley’s mother wants shooter’s file public
NOW THAT HE’S a civilian, the NYPD should release ex-cop Richard Haste’s Civilian Complaint Review Board records, as well as departmental trial findings on the officer who fatally shot unarmed Bronx teen Ramarley Graham, his mother said Tuesday.
Graham’s mom, Constance Malcolm, said disclosing the cop’s past problems would “fulfill” an “obligation to my family, our community and the public.”
“Accountability and transparency shouldn’t be based on what’s convenient for Mayor de Blasio,” Malcolm (photo) said in a statement. “It should be based on truth and justice without delays.”
Malcolm’s demands come as the website Thinkprogress.org released a report saying six complaints against Haste were filed with the review board between September 2009 and October 2010 — two years before he killed 18-year-old Graham.
The report, a partial accounting of Haste’s history with the CCRB, notes 10 allegations were made in the six complaints, accusing him of using physical force, pepper spray and offensive language. He was also accused of abusing stop and frisk.
Haste, 35, resigned from the department Sunday after learning a department trials commissioner recommended he be fired for fatally shooting Graham on Feb. 2, 2012.
Police suspected Graham of participating in a drug deal and carrying a gun when Haste followed him into his Wakefield home. The cop fatally shot the teen, in front of his grandmother and little brother, in the bathroom, officials said.
Thinkprogress.org identified the person who leaked Haste’s records as an “anonymous former employee” of the review board.
The agency said the leaker is the same person who last week sent the website CCRB documents on Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who in July 2014 put Staten Island resident Eric Garner, 43, into a chokehold banned by the police department. Garner died after saying 11 times that he couldn’t breathe.
“A swift and thorough investigation resulted in the identification of the individual who leaked those confidential documents and their departure from the agency,” said Jerika Richardson, senior adviser and secretary to the review board.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch said the CCRB is leaking like a sieve and demanded a criminal investigation into the matter.