Lessons from the Death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones

[Timshel]

How aggressive SWAT tactics contributed to the death of a 7-year-old Detroit girl.

Radley Balko * May 24, 2010

On the morning of May 16, a Detroit police officer fatally shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in the throat during a police raid on her home. The police were looking for a homicide suspect. They found him in the apartment above the one where Stanley-Jones was shot, where he surrendered without violence. In response, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing cautioned last week not to put the blame squarely on police.

Bing is right. We should also put a good deal of the blame on him. Or, to be fair, on his predecessor, since Bing only recently took office. We should also blame the Detroit city council and the city's police chief. It is the politicians who set the policies that guide the actions of police officers, and it is they who are responsible for overseeing those officers. Even allowing for the fact that the police and the Stanley-Jones family disagree about what happened that morning, there were a number of bad policies that may have directly contributed to the little girl's death.


http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/24/lessons-from-the-death-of-aiya

 

[SmarterthanYou]

we should also place blame on the judges that rubber stamp these requests based on confidential informants. Blame also lies on the feds, all branches, especially the supreme court, who time and again have shielded 95% of all conduct on these raids under the blanket of 'qualified immunity'.

America, a land once free, now reduced to nearly absolute despotism, where all decisions by a once free people must now be considered with the possibility of lethal violence directed at them by their once servant government.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

http://www.freep.com/article/201303...ll-face-trial-in-fatal-shooting-of-7-year-old

A motion to dismiss charges against the Detroit police officer accused in the 2010 fatal shooting of a child was denied this morning by Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway.

Officer Joseph Weekley, who is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death in the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, is in court this morning for a pretrial hearing.

Weekley's attorney had filed the motion to dismiss the charges.

Aiyana was killed during a police raid targeting a suspect in the murder of a teenager.

Weekley's trial is scheduled to begin in May.

He was indicted in 2011 by a one-person grand jury. Also indicted was Allison Howard, the principal photographer for "The First 48" TV crew that was following police during the raid. She is accused of lying under oath and was indicted on charges of perjury during an investigative subpoena and obstruction of justice.

Howard will go on trial in June.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/18/detroit-girl-killed-police-trial/2435219/

The trial of aDetroit police officer accused of involuntary manslaughterin the death of a 7-year-old girl during a raid has ended in a hung jury.

The jury reported back shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday that it couldn't reach a verdict even though the judge earlier in the day had asked jurors to continue deliberating the case of Officer Joseph Weekley, who was charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death.

Ron Scott, spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, said prosecutors have a difficult time convicting police officers because people don't want to believe an officer would shoot a 7-year-old.

At the time of the night raid, a cable television crew accompanying police were outside the home and shot video. It shows a flash-bang device exploded and about 3 seconds later a gunshot can be heard on the video played for jurors during the trial.