Since Malcom Gracia’s killing in 2012 there is now a new New Bedford police chief, a new Bristol County District Attorney, and a new Massachusetts Attorney General. Almost everyone who could have investigated or pursued Malcolm Gracia’s wrongful death has been replaced with interchangeable functionaries equally disinterested in righting the wrong done to him– except for Mayor Jon Mitchell, a former Federal prosecutor who was mayor at the time and should have shown more interest in justice for all of his citizens.
Instead, Mitchell convened a group of citizens to work on a Department of Justice “Action Plan” to address hate crimes. No real change ever came of it, but it successfully cooled off an angry city.
Fast forward to 2020. We now find ourselves in an unprecedented moment of change. Following the murder of George Floyd, with a nation focused on police violence and impunity, the Gracia case is once again in the news. Mitchell’s 2012 tactics worked so well for him that he convened a Use of Force commission. From what we’ve seen so far, we can expect little to come of this exercise in blunting public anger, as well.
With compelling evidence of mishandled forensics, overly friendly interrogation of the police officers who murdered Gracia, an assistant DA who couldn’t be bothered to gather critical evidence, mishandled forensics, the DA’s final report riddled with factual errors and implausible assumptions – and now a gag order on medical records of the police officer who claimed to be stabbed – the Gracia case screams out for a second look. But Mayor Mitchell won’t look at the information, won’t talk to the family’s lawyer, won’t be questioned by the public, and won’t lift the gag order in question.
Despite the City’s half-million dollar settlement with the Gracia family, citizens are still calling for the prosecution of officers Trevor Sylvia and Paul Fonseca, and discipline for filing false police reports by officers Tyson Barnes, David Brown, Paul Fonseca, Brian Safioleas, and Trevor Sylvia. The Gracia family’s lawyer, Don Brisson, just finished a five-part series on how these officers managed to elude prosecution for their crimes – and his evidence, some of it newly released, casts a disturbing light on the New Bedford Police, the District Attorney’s office, and even the Mayor himself in the wake of Malcolm Gracia’s shooting.
We think there’s enough substance in Brisson’s presentations to at least take another look. We join with others in our community calling for re-opening the case. Despite the many years that no one has been held accountable for the 15-year-old’s death, we remind everyone that there is no statute of limitation on murder.
Throughout the United States, justice is routinely denied to Black and Brown victims of police killings. Despite taxpayer-funded payouts to their families for unlawful death, both Malcolm Gracia’s and Breonna Taylor’s lives were cheap enough that no one felt the need to hold their killers to account. And that has got to change.
The NAACP New Bedford Branch demands that the Gracia murder case be reopened and that charges be filed against officers for lying to investigators. Local and state police and the Bristol County DA’s office couldn’t manage a credible investigation in 2012, and we doubt they can in 2020. We call for new investigations by the Massachusetts Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice. For those who committed murder, prison not pensions must be the consequence. For those who falsified reports, lied to investigators or colluded with others to coordinate their tales, they must feel the sting of justice. Any of these officers still on the job should be fired. The pensions of officers and others who knowingly derailed a murder investigation must be returned to taxpayers who are always expected to fund civil settlements.
If America is truly a nation of laws, then laws have to mean something. And they must apply equally to all. The Gracia case is far from over.
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