Nor is corruption a black or liberal thing. My daughter got love, honor, and respect. Look at the Trending Topics on Twitter. Police officers came from Canada and across Michigan. In Chief Evans defense, he seemed to understand one thing: After the collapse of the car industry and the implosion of the real estate bubble, there is little else Detroit has to export except its misery. Inexplicably, its carcass still stands and burns incessantly. Not to worry: The city had its own welfare system, decades before Lyndon Johnsons Great Society. Thats good news until you realize that in Detroit, some 500 fires are set every single month. 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. These girls are the lucky ones. Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. Thats five times as many as New York, in a city one-tenth the size. At its peak popularity, 810 fires were set in a three-day span. The accident has led to outrage in Detroit, directed at police. A bunch of lazy, uneducated blue-collar incompetents. Owens got there first and shot JeRean clear through the chest with Lil James gun. In October 2011, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. You should go, he said to me, shattering the silence with a wave of his hand. AP Photo/The Detroit News, John T. Greilick, How Alaska became one of fentanyl's deadliest frontiers, Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect, Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. Dante Barry, a 26-year-old organizer and executive director of the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, said the outcome of the case was disappointing but not surprising. I stared through the windshield at the little boy in the diaper playing amid the ruins, reached over, and switched it off. Impoverished communities such as Detroit, which is almost 83% black and has a poverty rate of 39%, have been on the receiving end of a decades-long war on drugs, which has made the US the country with the largest number of people behind bars, ahead of China and Russia. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Jones had just gone to bed after covering his 7-year-old daughter Aiyana with her favorite blanket. [12] Charles Jones, Aiyana's father, wore a black suit, pink tie and pink handkerchief in remembrance of his daughter as pink was her favorite color. His brother stood over the dead man, a pistol in his hand, keeping an eye on the door in case someone walked in wanting to settle things. I need help. Ive seen him in the faces of soldiers when I was covering the Iraq War. So bad is the rivalry that when the schools face off to play football or basketball, spectators from the visiting team are banned. The case garnered national headlines for all of the obvious reasons: an innocent child caught in police crosshairs, another black life taken in a city filled with heartache. She looked at her barefoot grandson playing in the wreckage of the dwelling next door and wondered if he would make it to manhood. He has three boys with Aiyanas mother, Dominika Stanley, and three boys with another woman, whom he had left long ago. In fact, there are no chain grocery stores in all of Detroit. She later explained that she reached for her granddaughter when the grenade came through the window and that is what caused her to hit the officers gun. Weekley claimed after he got through the front door that Joness paternal grandmother, Mertilla Jones, attempted to slap away the MP 5 submachine gun that he was holding. Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones, 7, died May 16, 2010 after being shot by an officer during a police raid in Detroit. Why you do this to me? Editors note: On October 4, 2011, following a yearlong investigation by the Michigan state police, Officer Weekley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm. Thats one less knucklehead driving around looking to do a drive-by., His approach was successful, with murder dropping more than 20 percent in his first year. The Detroit chapter of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) and Black Lives Matter Detroit organized the rally on what would have been her 14th birthday. Weekley claimed his gun accidentally went off as he struggled with the girls grandmother, Mertilla Jones. The Detroit Police Department was in search of a murderer, and mistakenly raided Aiyana's home. Inexpensive, too! Paramedics say it is routinely much longer. The sad and confusing circumstances of the murders of JeRean Blake and Officer Huff, both black, robbed Sharpton of some of his customary indignation. At the time Owens was the boyfriend of Joness aunt LaKrystal Sanders, who was also living at the house. Then they said he jumped out a back window. A half-dozen masked officers of. One man, who wanted to turn himself in for a murder, gave up trying to call the Detroit police; he drove to Ohio and turned himself in there. / AP. The grenade landed so close to Aiyana that it burned her blanket. His work has appeared in Time, Life, and Newsweek. "(Jones is) the one who gave (Owens) the gun to kill their brother. Sometimes they come in a Crown Victoria with only a defibrillator and a blanket, because there are no other units available. The programs six-minute sizzle reel begins with Evans dressed in full battle gear in front of the shattered Michigan Central Rail Depot, cradling a semiautomatic rifle and declaring that he would do whatever it takes to take back the streets of Detroit. The dismissal was at the request of Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy, who called the decision, which by law cannot be appealed, unfortunate. The Rust Belt. [5] Neighbor Paul Jameson, a former soldier whose wife had called in the break-in to 911, said the rookies ran toward the house and opened fire after Huff was shot. What killed Aiyana is what killed the people in New Orleans and the rider on the transit in Oakland, and thats police bullets and police arrogance and police cover-up, Geoffrey Fieger said. Furthermore, the police department and unnamed supervisors of the Special Response Team in the city of Detroit were being sued for violating the civil rights of Aiyana Jones through their training and policy procedure. I got something for you.. He won't be in the field. For instance, in 2008 a man was shot in the head. It feels like there aint no love no more.. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. . [41] It's us but for your ears. Suddenly, Detroit was historic, symbolichip, even. Weekley, a member of an elite police unit, was the first officer through the door during a chaotic . Outside, Television was watching them. The slap caused the gun to fire with the bullets striking young Aiyana in the head and killing her instantly. Im alive. Outside court, a spokesman for Aiyana's family criticized the judge for her comments. His murder led to the police raid that killed Aiyana.With large swaths of the city rewildingempty lots are returning to prairie and woodland as the city depopulatesSoutheastern was slated to absorb students from nearby Kettering High this year as part of a massive school-consolidation effort. 20072023 Blackpast.org. He caught a lunch lady stealing the childrens milk money. As a reporter, Ive worked from New York to St. Louis to Los Angeles, and Detroit is the only big city I know of that doesnt put out a crime blotter tracking the days mayhem. While other American metropolises have gotten control of their murder rate, Detroits remains where it was during the crack epidemic. Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley is accused of fatally shooting Aiyana during the raid that targeted a murder suspect. JeRean might have thought it was funny to see a grown man driving a moped. I lingered a moment, backing out while taking it in: the bracelet, the liquor, the blood, the gun, the Ho-Hos, the cheapness of it all. "My sugar is going up from stress. DETROITS EAST SIDE is now the poorest, most violent quarter of Americas poorest, most violent big city. Huff entered with his gun still holstered. It regards itself as the temple of a new gospel of progress, to which I shall venture to give the name of Detroitism.. A fresh trial was scheduled for December 2013,[29] but actually began in September 2014. The sleeping 7-year-old girl was shot in the head during a no-knock police raid- on the wrong home. Not even you.. Not all of us are blessed.. In August 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison on four counts, including false imprisonment and felony cruelty to children. An Arab family owned the store, and one of the menthe one with the pocked face and loud voicewas talking on the telephone, but I remember no sounds. As for the tape that Geoffrey Fieger claimed would show the cops firing on Aiyanas house from outside, A&E turned it over to the police. [12] Weekley had been featured on another A&E police reality show, Detroit SWAT. We believe today's settlement is fair because it balances the needs of Aiyana's family and our responsibility for the city's finances. Owens, a habitual criminal, was arrested upstairs minutes after Aiyanas shooting and charged for the slaying of JeRean. If that isnt a record for any major metropolis, it is certainly a record for Detroit. Take for instance the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, who was shot and killed during a police raid at their Detroit home. The house on the other side is in much the same state. Once at Aiyanas graveside, Charles Jones released a dove. Aiyana Jones, Up Closed, https://upclosed.com/people/aiyana-monay-stanley-jones/; Aiyana Jones, Mother Jones, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/aiyana-stanley-jones-detroit/; Aiyana Jones, Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/aiyana-stanley-jones-joseph-weekley-trial_n_5824684.html; CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aiyana-stanley-jones-case-final-charge-dropped-against-detroit-cop-in-fatal-raid/. Police arrested Mertilla, administered tests for drugs and gunpowder, and released her Sunday morning. He failed to report. The family of a 7-year-old who was fatally shot during a botched raid in 2010 is suing Detroit police, alleging officers lied about how she was killed as part of a cover-up. Owens switched his moped for a Chevy Blazer. The city filled with people from all over the world: Arabs, Appalachians, Poles, African Americans, all in their separate neighborhoods surrounding the factories. "[21][22], Mertilla Jones said she reached for her granddaughter when the grenade came through the window, not for the officer's gun, because the flash grenade had set the child on fire. Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley, and paternal grandmother Mertilla testified, and both had "emotional outbursts." AP Photo Charles Jones, the father of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, who was killed early Sunday in Detroit, holds a photo of Aiyana in attorney Geoffrey Fieger's office in Southfield, Mich., Tuesday . Much of the firefighters equipment was substandard: Their boots had holes; they were alerted to fires by fax from the central office. You might point to the trade agreements of the Clinton years, which allowed American manufacturers to leave the country by the back door. [12], According to press reports, police were on the scene by 12:40a.m. on Sunday, May 16, 2010. The prisoner has not incurred any serious misconducts while in prison. A member of JROTC, he was on his way to the military recruitment office after senior prom and commencement. Her body was transferred to the Wayne County morgue. Even if you check the TT's of each city Aiyana is nowhere to . Other auto plants sprang up on the East Side: Packard, Studebaker, Chryslers Dodge Main. Aiyana Jones settlement On April 4, Attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced that the City of Detroit had agreed to an $8.2 million settlement in the 2010 slaughter of Aiyana Jones, 7, by another joint task force incuding Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley during a military-style assault on her grandmother Mertilla Jones' home. Oh, stay your ass right here, Owens growled. . The city of Detroit has settled a lawsuit with the family of a girl shot and killed by a Detroit police officer nine years ago. First published on January 30, 2015 / 4:13 PM. ], My baby, my baby, my baby. Completed in 1917, the school, attended by white students at the time, was considered so far out in the wilds that its athletic teams took the nickname Jungaleers.. Weekley said it was an accident and accused Jones of wrestling with his gun immediately as he entered the abode, causing the fatal shot. Coco Jones has lived many lives. It was Jameson who finally dragged Huff out of the house and gave him CPR in the driveway, across the street from the Boys & Girls Club. The mortician charged $700 for the most basic viewing casket, even though the body was to be cremated. From all indications it appears that police operation were flawed and heavily influenced by camera crews who were filming the raid for A&E's crime show "The First 48," according to a published report. The camera crew was not inside the house when the girl was hit. Its too late.. WHat actually happened to this little girl? People are drinking. 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