Aiyana Jones case, attorney says Video shows police fired into Detroit home

Washington Post ^ | 05/18/10 | COREY WILLIAMS and ED WHITE

[OldDeckHand]

DETROIT -- Police who carried out a raid on a family home that left a 7-year-old girl dead over the weekend were accompanied by a camera crew for a reality television show, and an attorney says video of the siege contradicts the police account of what happened.

Geoffrey Fieger, an attorney for the family of young Aiyana Jones, said he has seen three or four minutes of video of the raid, although he declined to say whether it was shot by the crew for the A&E series "The First 48," which has been shadowing Detroit homicide detectives for months.

Police have said officers threw a flash grenade through the first-floor window of the two-family home, and that an officer's gun discharged, killing the girl, during a struggle or after colliding with the girl's grandmother inside the home.

[JDW11235]

True, but any position of authority exacerbates that. The unbridled and unconstitutional legal authority that police are wielding this day greatly amplifies that. There is a thread about an interaction with a Border Patrol agent, that was posted just after I wrote to you. The agent got in a tuff when the man couldn’t answer which specific store in a mall he would go to upon entry to the U.S. and long story short, they questioned him again.

The man’s wife was getting upset, and they grabbed her, and the man pulled away from the officers holding him. They threatened to charge him with “Assaulting an officer,” not for harming them, but pulling away. That is stupid, and corrupt to the core. It’s because assaulting an officer is generally a 2nd degree felony, while resisting arrest (if he were indeed to be arrested) is a lesser crime. This is pure corruption, and not the intent of the law. Pushing people around like this cannot lead to positive results.

I think people need to understand that. Thanks for your time, I won’t pester ya :)

[dznutz]

Pulling away from an officer would not be an assault. It should be some type of resisting or obstructing charge, if that. But where I’m from, assault is to put someone in fear of receiving a battery, and from the way you explained it, that didn’t happen. I would be pissed too if I saw my wife getting upset.
I suppose Border Patrol’s duties are different than police in general, and maybe asking which specific store someone is going to upon crossing the border, does seem odd on face value. But we weren’t there and don’t know the demeanor of the person being questioned. Was he nervous, evasive, did he do something to warrant further questioning? Need more information to make a judgment.

[dznutz]

My apologies. Not for the faint of heart I see.

[JDW11235]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2517082/posts

The above is the thread. The guy (Canadian) was being stupid, as I said on the other thread, but both were wrong. The part where he’s told that he’s going to jail for pulling away is near the end. I hope to hear/see more of the story, but from what we do know, I know this situation could have and should have been averted by both parties.

The average joe, citizen or not can be a jerk too, I suppose. But when one can exert force and authority over the other, it becomes a different ballgame, at least to me.