Peoples' Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability

Statement on the NYPD Killing of Iman Morales

Peoples' Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability condemns the killing of Iman Morales by the NYPD last Wednesday afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Like the shooting deaths of Sean Bell and Jayson Tirado by NYPD officers, Mr. Morales death sends yet another message that the lives of people of color in New York City are expendable. Furthermore, it is another example of the NYPD's disregard and disrespect of people with disabilities.

Incidents such as the killings of Eleanor Bumpers, Gideon Busch, Khiel Coppin, and now Iman Morales are evidence of the NYPD's blatant dehumanization of people with mental disabilities. Peoples' Justice supports the call of Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities' (RIPPD) for the NYPD to make use of crisis intervention teams. Such teams, which exist in other parts of the country and have been used with great success, are well trained in non-lethal de-escalation techniques and are prepared to deal with similar situations without the use of TASERs or any other weapons. These teams also always have mental health clinicians on-site, who are prepared to offer treatment, not abuse, to emotionally disturbed individuals.

Peoples' Justice thanks the New York residents that videotaped and publicized Mr. Morales' killing. The ability to document and publicize police misconduct increases accountability and prevents the police from misrepresenting or covering up their actions as they have done many times in the past. We call on all New Yorkers to arm themselves with cameras, observe all law enforcement activity and document any incidents of misconduct. All documentation of questionable law enforcement behavior should be made available to the public.

Sean Bell's killing – in which the cops were acquitted of all charges – and that of Jayson Tirado – a killing that never even went to trial – show that the District Attorney's Office is not capable of overcoming its marriage with the police department in pursuit of justice. Therefore, we can only expect the same in this case and once again reiterate the call for the assignment of an independent prosecutor to investigate the killing of Mr. Morales and all cases of police violence, past and future.

Amnesty International's website states, "Since June 2001, more than 290 individuals in the United States have died after being struck by police TASERs.Amnesty International is concerned that TASERs are being used as tools of routine force, rather than as weapons of last resort." (Click here to see that report on Amnesty's website ). This quote speaks not only to the deadly potential of TASERs, but to the fact that the police, no matter their weapon of choice, routinely act with unnecessary violence. The killing of Mr. Morales was not an isolated incident of poor judgment on the part of individual officers. The killings of all those mentioned in this statement, on top of many others, reveal the pattern – and policy – of the NYPD to kill in communities of color as an initial response, regardless of whether the circumstances call for the use of deadly force.