Eight years after police fatally shot a Black teenager, renewed calls for an investigation
by Shelley Murphy Globe Staff, July 18, 2020
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Eight years later, his death is drawing renewed attention as protesters outraged by the killings of George Floyd and other Black men and women call for sweeping police reforms and racial justice. In New Bedford, a city that has long struggled with gang violence, community activists and the NAACP are calling for a fresh look at Gracia’s shooting and the police practices that led to the deadly encounter.
LaSella Hall, president of the NAACP’s New Bedford branch, said Gracia’s death should be viewed in the broader context of how police have historically treated people of color.
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“If Malcolm Gracia was a white kid, would he be alive today?” Hall asked. “If that was the suburbs of Dartmouth, would that kid be alive today? We have to look larger than just these one-off incidents because we’ll miss it.”
The NAACP is seeking an independent investigation of Gracia’s case as part of a nationwide call for justice “for all of the Black or brown individuals who have been murdered or killed at the hands of the state,” Hall said. The officer that Gracia was accused of stabbing is Black. The other four officers involved in the incident are white and all remain on the force.
The NAACP is also pressing for broad police reforms, including the establishment of community boards with subpoena power to review killings by police, mandatory body cameras, and an end to “disproportionate use of surveillance in target areas of communities of color.” The group is urging the New Bedford police to rescind its High Energy Patrol Initiative, which has officers routinely question people to gather intelligence on gangs.
Gracia was standing near the bleachers at this basketball court when his image was captured by a surveillance camera.
“Handshakes are not a reason to criminalize people,” said Erik Andrade, a local activist and cofounder of a group that has held protests demanding a review of Gracia’s case. “There was nothing in that video that you can’t go to a baseball field in Mattapoisett, Westport, Lexington, or Concord and see: young people sitting down and playing sports. There’s nothing criminal about that.”
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