Cop in Aiyana shooting helped needy kids, sued for earlier raid From The Detroit News:

[notadmblnd]

Detroit -- The man who allegedly fired the shot that killed a 7-year-old girl during a raid Sunday spent his free time helping kids in need.

The man who appeared regularly on "The First 48," a cable television true-crime show, also is accused in a federal lawsuit of being part of a team that broke into a home, shot two dogs and pointed a pistol at children, including an infant.

The revelations paint two different pictures of Officer Joseph Weekley, a member of the Detroit Police Special Response Team who was placed on a desk job after his gun discharged during a raid Sunday, resulting in the death of young Aiyana Jones.

The lawsuit, which was moved from the Wayne Circuit Court to the U.S. District Court in April 2009, accuses Weekley and other members of the Special Response Team of entering a Detroit house on Feb. 8, 2007, shooting two dogs, and then pointing a gun at an unspecified number of children, including an infant




From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100519/METRO01/5190352/1409/rss36#ixzz0oLr9Owlk

[sabrina 1]

1. 'Special Response Team' ~

They have turned the civilian police into military troops.

These 'accidents' are increasing at an alarming rate. Raiding of private homes by SWAT teams has drastically increased over the past decade.

I'd like to know when a decision was made, and by whom, that it was okay to wage war on private American citizens.

[Skip Intro]

4. It might be viewed that they are responding to a war waged on private American citizens by murderous

thugs and criminals.

Certainly, procedures need to be in place and consistently followed to ensure the safety of the innocent, and if those procedures aren't followed, proper action should be taken. But I, for one, am thankful that countless men and women put their lives on the line each day to run down violent criminals and get them off the streets, hopefully bringing justice for their victims in the end. I don't envy them their jobs.

[sabrina 1]

5. Apparently they are not very successful at running down

violent thugs and criminals. Ordinary police practices did a better job without running down and killing children and pets.

They were looking for a suspected murderer. It seems they are getting bad information, over and over again as these incidents are increasing where innocent citizens are ending up dead.

What other civilized country sends in military forces to raid private homes in order to find a suspect, not knowing who is in the home most of the time, and making mistakes like this over and over again?

This is outrageous. Just last week there was the video of the SWAT team barging into a home and killing the family pet in front of a seven year old. Another failure, and after that only because the public was so outraged, as they should be, it was decided that that particular police dept. would not go into homes again at night, or without knowing for sure that the person they wanted was there.

In another recent incident they barged into a private home, stepped on a baby's head, killed the mother who had been holding the child, and once again they were in the wrong house.

I could go on, incident after incident. How many more dead children and pets and mothers and fathers before people like you have had enough?

Because right now, there is a growing outrage as people are learning what their police have been up to.

This is a civilized society. We have a civilian police force to deal with criminals. If they are not capable of doing that job, as every other civilian police force in every other modern democracy appears to be able to do without sending in their military, then something is very wrong with our police departments.

It is unconstitutional to send out military forces to do the work of civilian police. If you don't know that, there's not much more to say to you.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. So since he helped kids in need, it's not so bad that he killed a kid?

Good grief. Next they'll be telling us how he dressed like Santa and walked 20 miles in the snow to deliver presents to a sick child on Christmas Eve.

[notadmblnd]

3. No, I don;t think that's what it saying.

I think it's pointing out his two sides and the irony of someone who claims to have helped kids, killing one.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Its also building the case for accidental vice intentional

Short of mechanical weapon failure, he should no longer be on the SWAT team regardless.