Aiyana Stanley-Jones was only 7-years-old when a Detroit police officer shot and killed her, with a single bullet to the head.
Officer Joseph Weekley is now free and all charges against him have been dropped. Now, Aiyana’s parents, Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones are asking for answers about the ever-increasingly-militarized police forces across America.
The final charges against Officer Weekley were completely dismissed on Friday. Detroit area juries twice failed to reach a verdict in the case. The first time was in June of 2013, and then again in October of 2014.
In the first instance, judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway dismissed the charge of involuntary manslaughter, saying that there was a lack of evidence.
Then, Hathaway dismissed the lesser second charge, regarding the reckless use of a firearm. The Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy had requested the dismissal.
“Weekley doesn’t have to pay but the family that lost a child has to pay,” Ron Scott, a spokesperson for the family said.
“I think it’s abominable. I think it’s evil. I think it’s one of the lowest things I have ever seen.”
Scott explained that the family is making an appeal made to US attorney general Eric Holder, requesting a federal investigation into Aiyana’s case. They say that her civil rights were violated.
In all of the melee resulting from the shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, the media has overlooked a number of other very important shootings of unarmed civilians by police officers. One of the most egregious offenses is that of Officer Joseph Weekley’s fatal shooting of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
The shooting happened just after midnight, back on May 16, 2010.
A SWAT team had conducted a raid to search for a murder suspect. Weekly ended up being first through the door.There was even a film crew on hand to film for a reality show about murder investigations. Weekley says that another SWAT member had thrown a flash-bang grenade, which temporarily blinded him. That’s when he fired the shot that killed Aiyana who was asleep on the couch in the front room of the house.
Doubling down on this claim, in court he actually testified that Aiyana’s grandmother had somehow “touched” his gun, which made him fire the shot. But he failed to explain how he could tell she had done this when he claimed he couldn’t see anything at the time.
The prosecution noted that even having his finger on the trigger of his submachine gun was improper. “He could have avoided injury if he had followed his training,” Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran explained.
“He didn’t, and as a result of him not following his training and not following the mandates of ordinary care, someone was killed.”
But ultimately, the arguments and reason didn’t win out.
Roland Lawrence, the chairman of the Justice for Aiyana Committee, issued a statement after the court’s decision was announced.
“Surely, the death of a baby by a well-trained police force must be deemed unacceptable in a civilized society,” Lawrence said.
Steve Fishman, Weekley’s attorney, claimed that even though he did not dispute that his client pulled the trigger and killed the girl, “there is absolutely no evidence, none, that’s in the least bit credible, that Officer Weekley knowingly created a danger or, more importantly, intended to cause injury.”
After the dismissal, the only charge Weekley faced, was a relatively minor misdemeanor charge of “careless discharge of a firearm causing death.” Now, as noted, that too has been dismissed and Weekley is free to continue on with his life as if nothing had happened at all.
Dante Barry, a 26-year-old protest organizer said that the outcome of the case involving the officer was “disappointing but not surprising”.
“When we look at accountability and an institution that was not designed for black people and that was not designed in the interest of black people,” he explained, “how do you find justice in an already unjust system?”
“This is not about policing,” he continued. “It’s about state-sanctioned violence.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment