The family of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, killed by Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley and a police raid team May 16, 2010. (L to r) Aunt Krystal Sanders, grandmother Mertilla Jones, mother Dominika Stanley and the rest of Aiyana’s family including her father Charles Jones have received no justice yet, only constant attacks by police and prosecutor’s office.
FROM: The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Now that Barack Obama has been reelected President of the United States of America, it is imperative that the racial justice movement hold him and his administration accountable for the extrajudicial killing of Black and oppressed people throughout the country.
- Pres. Barack Obama and family. Aiyana Jones had the same right to grow up in the loving embrace of her family as Obama’s daughters.
The Obama administration must assert its authority over the various law enforcement entities throughout the country and stop the discriminatory policies and programs that demean and endanger Black life like racial profiling, stop and frisk, the war on drugs, and mandatory minimum sentencing that facilitates mass incarceration.
In the first six months of 2012, one Black person every 36 hours was executed in the United States. Since January 1, 2012, police and a much smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes have murdered at least 140 Black women, men and children.
- Aiyana Jones with baby brother before her murder by Detroit police.
This epidemic constitutes an egregious human rights crisis that the Federal Government has a fundamental obligation to address. As party to the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) the United States government has an obligation to protect the lives of racial minorities. The government is also obligated under various civil rights laws and executive orders to protect the lives of African Americans.
Our movements must step up our organizing and action over the course of the next several days, weeks, months and years to ensure that the Obama administration complies with our demands. We call on you to once again join us in raising the basic demands listed below by continuing to call, fax, and email the White House and the Department of Justice and tell them to act now!
- Tommie Staples Jr., second from left, killed by Detroit cops Barron Townsend and Steven Kopp in 2007 for monitoring police stops of neighborhood youth. Townsend also killed Dennis Crawford in 2004. Although the families won substantial court settlements, none of the cops were charged and are still in the street. /Family photo
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement urges you to demand that the White House and the Department of Justice take the following corrective measures to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of African Americans:
1. A Federal investigation into the civil and human rights violations taking place with the impunity of local police forces throughout the country.
2. A Federal review of the rules of engagement authorizing the use of deadly force being employed by police forces throughout the country.
3. The creation of a Federal database, in line with the 2008 CERD Committee recommendations, that documents cases of extrajudicial killings and acts of police brutality against racial minorities throughout the United States.
Jevon Royall, 30, Brandon Martell Moore, 16, and Artrell Dickerson, 18, killed by Detroit police in last five years, among many others. Dickerson was killed by cop Kata-Ante Taylor, who was part of the police team that raided Aiyana Jones’ home. Taylor ran her out of the house before her family could hold her in the last seconds of her life. See Artrell’s friend Kiana’s comments at end of story.
4. The issuing of Federal injunctions against those police departments where two or more extrajudicial killings of Black people have occurred over the past nine months.
5. The issuing of Federal consent decrees authorizing the creation of locally elected Police Control Boards in cities and/or counties that demonstrate patterns of systemic racial profiling, brutality, and extrajudicial killing.
- Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, who killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones in 2010.
6. The creation of a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to eliminate institutional racism and its expressions in racial profiling, police brutality, extrajudicial killing, mass incarceration and discrimination in housing, educational access, health care, employment, banking and credit markets.
Please call or email the White House and the Department of Justice at the addresses provided below and make your voice heard.
White House
202.456.1111 Comment Line
202.456.2461 Fax Number
To email the White House use the following link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Department of Justice (DOJ)
202.353.1555
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Please send this information to your friends, family, and associates and ask them to support this action and to spread this information and action request to their friends, families and associates.
To demonstrate your support for this action tweet us at @MXGMNational to let us know that you have called the White House and the Department of Justice. You can also let us know by sending us a message on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MXGMnational?fref=ts.
For more information please visit us at www.mxgm.org. Forward!
- Detroit cop Kata-Ante Taylor killed Artrell Dickerson, 18 and was part of the assault team that murdered Aiyana Jones.
Comment below is from Kiana, Artrell Dickerson’s friend, who saw cop Kata-Ante Taylor execute him next to the Cantrell Funeral Home after Artrell’s friend’s funeral:
I WAS THERE . I WAS NO MORE THAN 10 FEET AWAY. I SPENT ARTRELL’S LAST DAY, LAST HOUR, LAST MOMENT WITH HIM. I KNEW ARTRELL ALMOST HIS WHOLE LIFE. HE WAS SWEET, LOVING AND CARING. HE DID WHAT EVER HE COULD DO FOR ANYONE. I WATCHED MR. TAYLOR SHOOT HIM IN HIS BACK AND BECAUSE HE IS A COP HE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER. MY FRIEND NEVER GOT A CHANCE TO EVEN HAVE A CHILD. HIS LIFE WAS CUT DOWN BY A TRIGGER HAPPY COP. I JUST FOUND OUT HE WAS INVOLVED IN THE AIYANA JONES THING AND MR. TAYLOR IS STILL A COP WHILE AN 18 AND 7 YEAR OLD ARE GONE. I STILL CRY EVERY DAY FOR MY FRIEND I STILL HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT MY FRIEND AND ITS BEEN ALMOST 6 YEARS. IN SEPTEMBER HE WOULD HAVE BEEN 23. I WONDER IF MR. TAYLOR KNOWS HOW HIS ACTIONS HAVE AFFECTED OTHER PEOPLE.
Related stories:
http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/10/25/ella-bully-cummings-killer-cop-chief/
This note is not a comment on the article, however, it is a note to the Editor or Ms Bukowski the author. There is an excellent article in the “New Yorker”, Oct 15, 2012 magazine titled “The Hit Man’s Tale” about Vincent Smothers who was a hit man for hire in Detroit. One of his many crimes, that he confessed to, was a specific violent, multi-victim episode. Another young Black male named Davonte Sanford, who may have been mentally confused, had already confessed to this crime. Even though Vincent Smothers informed the detectives that he was responsible for these murders, Davonte Sanford is still confined for this crime. Your articles regarding minors, and their treatment by law enforcement policies, is certainly reinforced by this story. Your staff might wish to interview both of the men in this story, and let the rest of the Detroit citizens become more acutely aware of this specific incident.