Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
A NYPD narcotics officer shot and killed a Bronx 18-year-old Thursday as the teen was allegedly trying to flush drugs down a toilet in his own home. Ramarley Graham becomes the eighth person to die in US drug law enforcement operations so far this year, and it appears to have been over a small amount of marijuana.
When an unidentified officer confronted him in the bathroom, Graham spun around, and, according to police, there was a struggle, and the officer then shot him in the chest. It wasn't clear what caused the officer to fire. Graham was pronounced dead at a local hospital. A small amount of pot was floating in the toilet bowl.
An earlier report from PIX-11 TV, however, had police telling local media Graham "made a motion near his waist leading them to believe he was armed" when he was still on the street. He wasn't, police have conceded.
Police were quick to tell local media about Graham's arrest record, which included busts for burglary, robbery, dealing marijuana, and other offenses. But they didn't say how those cases had been resolved or whether they were even aware of his identity when they shot him.
After the shooting, PIX-11 TV reported that "Graham's parents were at the White Plains Road intersection visibly agitated and a crowd of approximately 80 people were openly hostile towards police, berating officers lined up along the crime scene tape."
Graham's mother, Constance Malcolm, 39, told the Wall Street Journal, a neighbor had called her at work to tell her her son had been killed. Malcolm said her mother and her six-year-old son were also in the apartment during the shooting.
"The cops told me they were chasing him. He had weed, and that's it," Ms. Malcolm said. "Nobody deserves to be shot like that in their own house."
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
prohibition has got to stop
prohibition has got to stop NOW. Not in ten years, not in five years, NOW. This HAS GOT TO STOP this HAS TO END NOW.
In reply to prohibition has got to stop by LegalizeHeroin (not verified)
legalize FREEDOM
Right on, brothers and sisters ... Enough is TOO MUCH. Chasing down people and shooting them for F'ING WEED?!?!?!?!? Beyond insane -- and may I remind my lefty and righty friends (I'm a libertarian, have been forever) that BOTH MAJOR PARTIES STAND CONDEMNED in this drug war murder. I get a special kick informing doctrinaire liberals that Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH ON POT, DRONES, CIA MURDER, and DEPORTING BROWN PEOPLE. And the Obama DEA is WAY worse than it's ever been, now that it's armed with that irritating paternalistic "we know best for you" on top of the GOP's standard "we're in charge" crap. Oh, joy. Best thing you can do is vote for Ron Paul. Whatever you do, don't let SANTORUM or ROMNEY anywhere near the White House, and let's get the current resident OUT.
In reply to prohibition has got to stop by LegalizeHeroin (not verified)
legalize FREEDOM
Right on, brothers and sisters ... Enough is TOO MUCH. Chasing down people and shooting them for F'ING WEED?!?!?!?!? Beyond insane -- and may I remind my lefty and righty friends (I'm a libertarian, have been forever) that BOTH MAJOR PARTIES STAND CONDEMNED in this drug war murder. I get a special kick informing doctrinaire liberals that Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH ON POT, DRONES, CIA MURDER, and DEPORTING BROWN PEOPLE. And the Obama DEA is WAY worse than it's ever been, now that it's armed with that irritating paternalistic "we know best for you" on top of the GOP's standard "we're in charge" crap. Oh, joy. Best thing you can do is vote for Ron Paul. Whatever you do, don't let SANTORUM or ROMNEY anywhere near the White House, and let's get the current resident OUT.
In reply to prohibition has got to stop by LegalizeHeroin (not verified)
legalize FREEDOM
Right on, brothers and sisters ... Enough is TOO MUCH. Chasing down people and shooting them for F'ING WEED?!?!?!?!? Beyond insane -- and may I remind my lefty and righty friends (I'm a libertarian, have been forever) that BOTH MAJOR PARTIES STAND CONDEMNED in this drug war murder. I get a special kick informing doctrinaire liberals that Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH ON POT, DRONES, CIA MURDER, and DEPORTING BROWN PEOPLE. And the Obama DEA is WAY worse than it's ever been, now that it's armed with that irritating paternalistic "we know best for you" on top of the GOP's standard "we're in charge" crap. Oh, joy. Best thing you can do is vote for Ron Paul. Whatever you do, don't let SANTORUM or ROMNEY anywhere near the White House, and let's get the current resident OUT.
In reply to prohibition has got to stop by LegalizeHeroin (not verified)
legalize FREEDOM
Right on, brothers and sisters ... Enough is TOO MUCH. Chasing down people and shooting them for F'ING WEED?!?!?!?!? Beyond insane -- and may I remind my lefty and righty friends (I'm a libertarian, have been forever) that BOTH MAJOR PARTIES STAND CONDEMNED in this drug war murder. I get a special kick informing doctrinaire liberals that Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH ON POT, DRONES, CIA MURDER, and DEPORTING BROWN PEOPLE. And the Obama DEA is WAY worse than it's ever been, now that it's armed with that irritating paternalistic "we know best for you" on top of the GOP's standard "we're in charge" crap. Oh, joy. Best thing you can do is vote for Ron Paul. Whatever you do, don't let SANTORUM or ROMNEY anywhere near the White House, and let's get the current resident OUT.
<b>Warning:</b> Your local
<b>Warning:</b> Your local police are armed and dangerous.
In reply to <b>Warning:</b> Your local by kelemi (not verified)
and they hate cannabis users as much as they love alcohol
One way or another, cops and pols are gonna make sure that cannabis kills. They can't get it to kill on it's own though, when it comes to alcohol vs. cannabis, only their drug of choice has the power to make people under its influence kill. Say no to the killing machine, hypocrisy fest and money pit of alcohol supremacist bigotry. Jesus hated hypocrisy, Christians! Or as you all would put it, Jesus Christ hates hypocrisy!
If the cops didn't hate us, they would complain about being forced to enforce stupid, bigoted laws. Or explain why alcohol supremacism over cannabis is proper. But I don't hear a peep from them. Quiet as a mouse on the subject of why alcohol users deserve to be the lords and masters of cannabis users.
In reply to and they hate cannabis users as much as they love alcohol by saynotohypocrisy (not verified)
Cops
Unfortunately we have let our police become liars and thief's. I thought there were minimum intelligence requirements and maximum weight limits plus physiological tests a cop had to pass! Not any more. Now any psychotic can become a cop.
As for not hearing anything from them on the failure of the drug war go to LEAP.ORG
Jesus said to do unto others
My heart goes out to this young man and his family.
Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child or grandchild thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains.
If the people who want to use marijuana could grow a few plants in their own back yards, it would be about as valuable as home-grown tomatoes; it would put the drug gangs out of business and get them out of our neighborhoods.
In reply to Jesus said to do unto others by ConservativeCh… (not verified)
NY teen shot by cops
Okay let's change the names and dates. If this person were you when you were younger and maybe you had just scored a small bag.You know you are not a criminal you're a good person. You certainly DO NOT deserve to be murdered (especially by the police) because of a little cannabis. This is wrong in so many ways!
Lunacy
Imagine living in a society where the Police actively murder citizens in the community over possession of a Plant . Where did this happen ? What was his skin color ? What was it over ? What we have here , is a case of blatant lunacy on behalf of guess who ? Bloomberg has dreams of being a plantation owner back in the day . How many Jews owned Plantations in the south during slavery times ? How many non-whites get arrested in NY city each year for cannabis ? The facts don`t lie .
Wow this is pretty
Wow this is pretty ridiculous.
In reply to Wow this is pretty by DreT312 (not verified)
ridiculous
Well beyond ridiculous. This shit has been going on for more that twenty years. Way back when they could not get enough applications, they lowered the intelligence test, dropped the weight maximum and browbeat the psychologists' into letting psychotics in.
BURN IN HELL WITH ALL YOUR
BURN IN HELL WITH ALL YOUR MURDERING PIG BUDDIES!! Legal abortions for any pigs children at any stage or age, only way to stop their murdering apparently is to abort them ALL before they are old enough to kill, they are apparently never going to become human beings on their own.
WOD = Tyranny. That is all.
WOD = Tyranny.
That is all.
And where is the OCCUPY floks when you need them?
This level of lunacy is, unfortunately all to common. The loss of a child is life altering. By a m urder-it's even worse.
BUT WHEN YOUR CHILD IS SHOT POINT-BLANK BY A LAW "ENFORCEMENT" OFFICER-
One must question" Isn't this PROHIBITION more dangerous than a plant that has never killed a single human or animal in all recorded history?
In our new and improved police state-The Feds are merely the pollice force of the Pharmaceutical industry.
US Paten# 6,630,507-Issued to US Government-"Cannabinoids as antioxidants and Neuroprotectants". means
THE GOVERNMENT HAS PATENTED CANNABIS..
Think these 2 things, and the attempted shuttering of the medical cannabis industry, are related?
My heartfelt prayers got to his family-and my eternal scorn to the police.
we let this happen!
By not paying enough attention to police hiring practices some twenty or thirty years back. It's not their fault. We let police management lower the standards. Police have hired stupid, and psychotic trigger happy liars. They now let security guards become police. Security guards are just hired snitches, the weasel of people.
If you read, do "The postman". Yes, the book that the movie was taken from. Kevin Costner stared in it, and it has multiple story lines in it. One of which said that it is moms fault that bully's exist. A she character said when mother realizes that she has a bully (or a snitch) and can not train that behavior out of the kid she should take that kid to the river and dround them. I concur, cruel as it seems that would stop those types from growing up and becoming a problem for society.
Police and hardline crimnals
Theres a very fine line between them,,I have first had knowledge of this when younger I butted heads w/ those goons as an Viet Vet,anti war activist,,followed by other rediculousness perpetrated by our so called leaders....and I've been fighting this prohibition for many years...
What will become of this?
Criminal Section Civil Rights Division U.S. Department of Justice P.O. Box 66018 Washington, D.C. 20035-6018 January 31, 2012 Andrew Scheroeder Badge #6969 of the Illinois State Police, August 15, 2007 led a drug raid on my home with a dirty search warrant. During this raid my then 9 year old daughter was permitted to use the bathroom. As a child (in passing) she looked into her bedroom and observed this individual standing over her laundry basket with a pair of her soiled panties up to his face. Since this issue has come to light. My child has been hospitalized on four different occasions totaling roughly 100 days at Lakeland Children’s Psychiatric ward at Springfield, Missouri. This has become a legal nightmare to which I have not been able to get one any help. The underlying cause (a glass pipe, some rolling papers, a few seeds and a tiny amount of pot) a case which Stephenson County Illinois has to this date (January 31, 2012) failed to prosecute or disposed of. Keeping seized personal property items, and over $1,000 in bail money, as well as the pending charges.. For protection of the child and myself. My daughter and I were both forced (by March 2008) to flee the State of Illinois (Moving to Missouri) from both Law Enforcement Officials and the Judicial System. Even selling our home. This entire affair has prevented us from visiting family or returning to Illinois for any reason. We are both in fear of entering this State. Further, Stephenson County Illinois, Court Clerks Offices and Sheriff’s Department, continues to intentionally provided false and misleading information to out of state law enforcement agencies in an effort to cause us additional hardship, fear and stress. Both the Illinois Governors Office and the Office of the Attorney General completely refuses to respond to the matter. Wanting nothing to do with it. We need help! Norman W. Smeathers 30066 398th Ave. Bellevue, Iowa 52031 1-563-543-9335
What will become of this?
Criminal Section Civil Rights Division U.S. Department of Justice P.O. Box 66018 Washington, D.C. 20035-6018 January 31, 2012 Andrew Scheroeder Badge #6969 of the Illinois State Police, August 15, 2007 led a drug raid on my home with a dirty search warrant. During this raid my then 9 year old daughter was permitted to use the bathroom. As a child (in passing) she looked into her bedroom and observed this individual standing over her laundry basket with a pair of her soiled panties up to his face. Since this issue has come to light. My child has been hospitalized on four different occasions totaling roughly 100 days at Lakeland Children’s Psychiatric ward at Springfield, Missouri. This has become a legal nightmare to which I have not been able to get one any help. The underlying cause (a glass pipe, some rolling papers, a few seeds and a tiny amount of pot) a case which Stephenson County Illinois has to this date (January 31, 2012) failed to prosecute or disposed of. Keeping seized personal property items, and over $1,000 in bail money, as well as the pending charges.. For protection of the child and myself. My daughter and I were both forced (by March 2008) to flee the State of Illinois (Moving to Missouri) from both Law Enforcement Officials and the Judicial System. Even selling our home. This entire affair has prevented us from visiting family or returning to Illinois for any reason. We are both in fear of entering this State. Further, Stephenson County Illinois, Court Clerks Offices and Sheriff’s Department, continues to intentionally provided false and misleading information to out of state law enforcement agencies in an effort to cause us additional hardship, fear and stress. Both the Illinois Governors Office and the Office of the Attorney General completely refuses to respond to the matter. Wanting nothing to do with it. We need help! Norman W. Smeathers 30066 398th Ave. Bellevue, Iowa 52031 1-563-543-9335
Updates to the Bronx Story
Taken from Police Misconduct Newsfeed at http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/ for February 4th and 5th:
"A new video is contradicting New York NY cops version of the fatal shooting of a teen in the Bronx. The video shows the teen calmly walking into his home despite the police saying he ran from them and had an altercation with them. While this itself isn’t a new case against the officers since we’ve already tracked the fatal shooting incident, it appears as though they also burst into the family’s landlord’s place without a warrant looking for a gun and held her at gunpoint, which is a separate incident now. bit.ly/y3HQUK "
"Furthermore, the New York NY police are being accused of detaining the grandmother of the teen who was fatally shot by police for 7 hours and forcing her to give a statement against her will… again, this is yet another separate incident. nyti.ms/yywKoZ "
Giordano
Ramarley Graham Memorial Fund
Contributions to the Ramarley Graham Memorial Fund can be made c/o Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson, 3215 Third Avenue, Bronx, NY 10451.
WOW, TOUCHY SITE!
I didn't enter it four times, really... sorry, folks...! I like what all of you said here, too ...
killer d. cop
that killer city employee must experience the death penalty , that way he can never never shoot again ..
a ROTTEN COP KILL therefore KILL THE DIRTY COPPER AND QUICK TOO
Add new comment