Tuesday, May 18, 2010

After the Fact

By this point, I'm sure you've read the tragic story of Aiyana Jones. (That is, if you frequent black sites and follow the black blogosphere/Twitter. What's with the lack of coverage of this HUGE story, MSM?) I won't go into the blame game on this one, as details & stories aren't adding up like they should. And I won't be pulling the race card (though I find it highly unlikely that an incident like this would've occurred with a white family in a predominantly white neighborhood). Plus, there are plenty of people speculating and putting in their two cents; I'll refrain until something conclusive comes out.

My thoughts are, "Now what?" What happens to the family of this slain 7-year-old? The officer that fatally shot her? The community she belonged to? We've seen too many instances where the police have abused their power, acted negligently, or just plain made a remarkable mistake in judgement and nothing is done about it. No punishment for the officer. No change in policy. Barely an apology to the victims' families. And as more information comes out, we hear allegations that the police--the ones charged to protect and serve--tried to cover up the truth about what happened. We can't truly say this is an isolated incident because we see it happen regularly. And when it does, we're pissed and vigilant for a few days, then things go back to business as usual. Eventually, we have to let it be known that we are not happy with the way things are and that we demand change. Trust, waiting around for things to get better is absolutely futile without working to make it so.

Contact the Detroit Police Department to express your concern
CHIEF OF POLICE

Warren C. Evans ~ Chiefofpolice@dpdhq.ci.detroit.mi.us
DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT
1300 Beaubien Detroit, MI 48226

Related Link:
The Black Snob on the "No-Knock" method used that night

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmnnnn, if only there were more blogs about the positive things going on in Detroit.

While what happened was wrong, Detroiters are handling it. Try handling the ish that's going on in your own city. Google that!

It is easy to complain, writing to the Chief will do nothing.

Did you know that Frat from that same precinct was nearly killed a couple of weeks ago for trying to enter a house without force and was met with a spray of bullets that got his partner killed? Didn't think so. Where's the blog about that?

Could it also have something to do with the fact that the grandmother physically struggled with the police officer in an effort to get him out of the house so he could not search for the murderer of the 17 year old boy killed previously?

Would you struggle and fight with guns and the police with the child sleeping in the same room on the couch?

Come on now be serious. Stay in your lane and stump, there is plenty wrong in your neck of the woods. Stay there.

Tori D. said...

Whooooa sweetheart, you seem to be taking this way too personal, like someone is attacking you or Detroit or... something. Take a breather, then actually read what I said objectively. This isn't *just* about this incident, but about police misconduct on a much larger scale.

No I did not know about Frat (I'm assuming this is a Zeta or Sigma that responded?), therefore there was no blog. If you're inclined to share the info on that I will discuss that as well.

As far as the other things you've mentioned, I stated that I would refrain from making judgements about who was at fault, etc. I'm not in the business of placing blame on anyone, and fail to see where I did so. But I will say that if someone entered my home after midnight, unannounced, without indicating that they were the police, I would DEFINITELY be confronting them. No. Questions. Asked.

As far as what's wrong in "my neck of the woods," I work to improve life here for those who are less fortunate as well. It's sad that you feel that attempts to unify people for justice EVERYWHERE is not "staying in my lane." Fortunately, this is my lane.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully next time you will try to read it without the blinders and bias. I won't be responding any further.