WEEKLEY HAD A DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF POINTING GUNS AT CHILDREN BEFORE HE SHOT AND KILLED 7 YEAR-OLD AIYANA JONES
By Christopher C. Cooper
National Black Police Association
(NBPA)
It was after midnight May 16, 2010. Aiyana Jones, 7 years old, a petite black girl, was asleep under a blanket in her Detroit home. What happened next is a testament to a disturbing trend of the militarization of many police agencies throughout the U.S.
A Detroit policeman dressed in military attire aimed at the little girl’s home and threw a grenade, it went crashing through the living room front window hitting little Aiyana and setting her fire.
As the little girl now ablaze screeched in pain and attempted to jump from the couch, she came eye-to-eye with Joseph Weekley, another Detroit policeman.
He pointed a gun at the girl and shot her in the neck/ head area. Now, the tiny girl gurgling and gushing blood, her grandmother sobbing loudly. Aiyana had blood coming out her mouth.
Had the Detroit PD been paying attention, Joseph Weekley would not have been at Aiyana Jones’ home on May 16, 2010-–BECAUSE--the Detroit PD was ALL READY on notice on February 8, 2007 that Officer Weekley menaced small children with his firearm in another botched Detroit police raid.
The children breathed a sigh of relief when Officer Weekley turned his weapon from them and instead shot and killed he two family dogs in the presence of the children. (See, 09cv11457, U.S. Dist. Ct., E. Michigan).
It is only a matter of time until another place in America has its Aiyana Jones type death unless the militarization of police agencies ceases immediately. Young men with military aspirations for military service who lack the courage to join the U.S. Military, rather choose to act out their military aspirations in residential communities near to you.
Congress can help by enacting legislation that holds that a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (the law prohibiting the use of the military as police) occurs and is PUNISHABLE BY LAW (e.g., charges against the police chief) where police administrators and mayors who are frustrated that they cannot use the military for police duties, resort to the back door approach of establishing their own military (through dressing officers like soldiers and giving them M16’s and grenades, etc.).
If little Aiyana Jones was not 7 but 17, I would not have written this article because I would not have learned of her death nor would you know about it. The police narrative would say: Just another person allegedly fighting with the police who had to be killed for officer safety reasons.
Dr. Christopher C. Cooper (PhD), an NBPA member & spokesperson, is a former United States Marine who served in Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with 2nd Recon Battalion. He was a police officer in Washington D.C. and now works as a Civil Rights attorney in Chicago & Northwest Indiana.
E-mail him HERE
NBPA 30 Kennedy Street-NW, # 101
Washington, DC 20011
nbpanatofc@blackpolice.org
Media Outlets must credit: The Black Urban Times www.theblackurbantimes.com
By Christopher C. Cooper
National Black Police Association
(NBPA)
It was after midnight May 16, 2010. Aiyana Jones, 7 years old, a petite black girl, was asleep under a blanket in her Detroit home. What happened next is a testament to a disturbing trend of the militarization of many police agencies throughout the U.S.
A Detroit policeman dressed in military attire aimed at the little girl’s home and threw a grenade, it went crashing through the living room front window hitting little Aiyana and setting her fire.
As the little girl now ablaze screeched in pain and attempted to jump from the couch, she came eye-to-eye with Joseph Weekley, another Detroit policeman.
He pointed a gun at the girl and shot her in the neck/ head area. Now, the tiny girl gurgling and gushing blood, her grandmother sobbing loudly. Aiyana had blood coming out her mouth.
Had the Detroit PD been paying attention, Joseph Weekley would not have been at Aiyana Jones’ home on May 16, 2010-–BECAUSE--the Detroit PD was ALL READY on notice on February 8, 2007 that Officer Weekley menaced small children with his firearm in another botched Detroit police raid.
The children breathed a sigh of relief when Officer Weekley turned his weapon from them and instead shot and killed he two family dogs in the presence of the children. (See, 09cv11457, U.S. Dist. Ct., E. Michigan).
It is only a matter of time until another place in America has its Aiyana Jones type death unless the militarization of police agencies ceases immediately. Young men with military aspirations for military service who lack the courage to join the U.S. Military, rather choose to act out their military aspirations in residential communities near to you.
Congress can help by enacting legislation that holds that a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (the law prohibiting the use of the military as police) occurs and is PUNISHABLE BY LAW (e.g., charges against the police chief) where police administrators and mayors who are frustrated that they cannot use the military for police duties, resort to the back door approach of establishing their own military (through dressing officers like soldiers and giving them M16’s and grenades, etc.).
If little Aiyana Jones was not 7 but 17, I would not have written this article because I would not have learned of her death nor would you know about it. The police narrative would say: Just another person allegedly fighting with the police who had to be killed for officer safety reasons.
Dr. Christopher C. Cooper (PhD), an NBPA member & spokesperson, is a former United States Marine who served in Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with 2nd Recon Battalion. He was a police officer in Washington D.C. and now works as a Civil Rights attorney in Chicago & Northwest Indiana.
E-mail him HERE
NBPA 30 Kennedy Street-NW, # 101
Washington, DC 20011
nbpanatofc@blackpolice.org
Media Outlets must credit: The Black Urban Times www.theblackurbantimes.com
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