Imagine for a moment: You are a proud immigrant to the United States. In the vein of the American tradition stretching back to the nation's founding, you've come to New York City to create a better life for you and your family. You've worked as a nurse's assistant, providing crucial health care services to New Yorkers and providing for your family on a single income, including your U.S. citizen-born son who has grown into an energetic and radiant young man, your pride and joy. Then one day you are taken to a police precinct without being given a reason, and you overhear officers say that your son has been killed.
This is the story of Constance Malcolm, a Jamaican immigrant and the mother of Ramarley Graham, an 18-year old who was shot and killed by police in his own home. When Ramarley was twelve years old, he volunteered at a Petland in the Bronx after being told he was too young to get a job there. He loved animals and had aspirations to be a veterinarian.
In February of 2012, officers from the NYPD's Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit unduly entered Constance and Ramarley's home and shot Ramarley, who later died from his wounds. The scene was chaotic and fast, the details of what the police said they saw are disputed -- but in no way did it warrant this tragic, excessive use of force. Ramarley, as his mother says, "never even got the opportunity to pursue his dreams." Yet the police officer responsible for Constance's son's death still works for the NYPD. In March of 2016, federal prosecutors announced that they would not pursue criminal charges against Richard Haste, the police officer who killed Ramarley Graham -- this decision is consistent with a long list of non-indictments and acquittals of police officers in the shootings of members of the black community, including the case of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and just last week, Freddie Gray. Constance continues to call for the firing of Officer Haste, and advocates nationally for police accountability.
This is an all too common example of how an unjust system destroys and disenfranchises Black communities -- including Black immigrant families. "I came to this country for a better life," Constance says, "but we have no rights." Her neighborhood in the Bronx consists mostly of Caribbean immigrants, who routinely face the discrimination afforded to both Black Americans and immigrants in the United States. Police searches are so common that she once saw a black teenage boy immediately face a wall and put his arms up when he saw an officer approaching him, knowing he would be frisked. Since 2002, New Yorkers have been stopped and frisked more than five million times.
For Black immigrants, these issues are particularly fraught. There are undocumented immigrants of Caribbean and African descent in her neighborhood that are afraid to report crimes or march in protest, for fear of deportation. Under President Obama, more than 2.5 million people have been deported, the highest number under any administration in history. Because of these injustices, it is easy to understand why members of her community hold a deep sense of fear and distrust of the law enforcement officials meant to protect them.
It has become clear that the system has failed us at every level. From the abuse of power of local law enforcement, to the Supreme Court's failure in the United States v. Texas case to let President Obama's administrative relief to go forward, to the reckless fear mongering rhetoric around immigrants from some of our elected officials - time and time again our public servants have shown a complete disregard for the needs of their communities. For far too long, police have used excessive and deadly force without being held accountable, and politicians have ignored the needs of their country without consequence.
Out of respect for people like Constance Malcolm and Ramarley Graham, and the dozens of other families left mourning the deaths of their loved ones killed unjustly by police, the time is now for our communities to unite and demand accountability from our government. In this time of ongoing tragedies and escalating violence, all victims of injustice must stand with one another.
This year, as our communities get out the vote in the 2016 presidential elections, we keep in mind all these injustices that continue to plague black and immigrant communities. The fruit of the "land of opportunity" should not be an immigrant mother burying her son, and we stand shoulder to shoulder in the continued struggle for a fairer and more just America.