How A Police Officer Shot A Sleeping 7-Year-Old Girl To Death

[Cali_Democrat]

A Detroit police officer accused of manslaughter in the death of a 7-year-old girl will go on trial this week, as national attention remains focused on the militarization of U.S. law enforcement and police violence perpetrated against people of color.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones was sleeping in her home on the east side of Detroit on the night of May 16, 2010, when officers barged into the house. They were conducting a police raid in search of a murder suspect who lived at that address -- and being filmed for a reality TV show in the process -- when Officer Joseph Weekley accidentally fired his gun. What exactly caused him to fire is still a matter of dispute. But the shot killed Aiyana.

The death of Aiyana, who was black, has since been a rallying point for Detroit activists, who say the girl has not received justice. Officer Weekley, who is white, is still free. Recent protests and conversations among activists have linked Aiyana's death to the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teen who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last month.

"This was essentially a military assault on a private dwelling," Ron Scott, spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, told the Associated Press last year about the raid on the Stanley-Jones home.

Read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/aiyana-stanley-jones-joseph-weekley-trial_n_5824684.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices

[lpbk2713]

1. Just going to trial four years after the fact?

WTFs going on here?

[etherealtruth]

3. This is is his second trial

... first jury couldn't reach a decision.

It's been a fairly big story here since it happened (the first trial is mentioned in the story at the link)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

5. first jury couldn't reach a decision?

jesus.......there's a deep sickness.

Honestly, I really think it's an important mission, (if I may use a word as fraught as "mission&quot , to be liberal/progressive at this time in history.

[etherealtruth]

6. Oh god yes (important mission)!

when they "couldn't reach a decision" ... I was just happy he was not found "not guilty"

The prosecutor kept true to their word and retried this cop!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. well, thank Rational Thinking and Good Moral Fibre for that!

Ain't no deity involved. Just enough people doing the right thing.

[etherealtruth]

8. Very true!

[rpannier]

10. Sad really

When the jury doesn't reach a verdict is a victory for the prosecution
Prosecutors have filed hundreds of cases against the police in the last decade and, even when there is video evidence of their criminality, the juries still almost always acquit

[Louisiana1976]

2. That police officer should be locked up and the key thrown away. Are children's lives worth less

because they're black?

[cantbeserious]

4. American Law Enforcement - Is Out Of Control

eom

[7962]

9. Probably another F'in "no knock" warrant.