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Jewel Allison and daughter Honesti, 11 at her right lead June 26 march against police murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones Photo by Herb Boyd

 By Diane Bukowski  

 They carried dozens of signs displaying Aiyana’s photo, which declared in bright red, “Redeem Aiyana’s Dream,” and “We Say No to No-Knock Raids. They chanted, “Don’t kill our kids, don’t shoot our kids,” and “The system is wrong, we’ve got to be strong, Aiyana Jones, she has a name, her family is not to blame.” 

 Jewel Allison, the founder of the International Aiyana Alliance, said, “People all over New York City, and from London, Africa, Germany and Peru have contacted me in outrage over this child’s death.” She and her daughter Honesti, 11, held hands during the march. 

“New York is Detroit and Detroit is New York. Out of the love I have for my daughter, I say, oh no, you cannot shoot our children in the head and get away with it,” Allison declared. “I began grieving myself when I heard of Aiyana’s killing, this totally upset our household. For the last four weeks, we have organized non-stop to bring our message to the world on the streets of this city where Aiyana was killed.” 

Cop Joseph Weekley shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones to death

Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley shot Aiyana to death during a military-style assault on her home in a poverty-stricken east-side neighborhood May 16. He fired as other officers lobbed an incendiary stun grenade through a front window of the Jones family’s home, according to the family’s attorney Geoffrey Fieger. Aiyana and her grandmother Vertilla Jones were sleeping on a couch directly below that window. 

“The First 48,” an Arts and Entertainment (A&E) reality show which features Weekley on its website as a regular star, was filming the episode. 

 The International Aiyana Alliance has also called for a march on the U.S. Department of Justice  to demand a stop to no-knock raids in the near future.  Continue reading →