Statement on Aiyana Jones Murder by Detroit Police

My name is Carl Dix and I’m with the Revolutionary Communist Party and I have something to say about the police murder of 7 year old Aiyana Jones in Detroit this week.

The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.

Aiyana Jones was sleeping in her own home when she was burned with a stun grenade thrown through her window by Detroit police and then shot in the head and killed by police.

Don’t tell me this was an accident that couldn’t have been avoided—they threw a stun grenade into a home, burning Aiyana while she slept. Then they fired the bullet that killed Aiyana while they were still on the porch outside. All this happened despite the fact that Aiyana’s cousin, Mark Jones, was outside pleading with them that there were children inside.

Don’t tell me the cops were remorseful over Aiyana’s death— they made her father, Charles Jones, lay face down in broken glass and in his little girl’s blood, all the while lying to him, telling him Aiyana was OK. Then they arrested the grandmother, and when they took her for a drug test, they PUT HER IN CHAINS.

Don’t tell me this is just “one bad apple” – because after this murder, the police department started lying to cover it up. They cooked up a lie that the murdering cop’s gun went off by accident and blamed this on the alleged resistance of Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones.

Don’t tell us to be patient until all the facts come out -- it turns out the cops who killed Aiyana had pointed his gun at a 2 year old girl several years earlier and he hasn’t been punished for that outrage.

Don’t tell us to wait patiently while the cops investigate and find out what happened—the cops are spreading lies about how this happened and trying to cover up the truth. A TV crew was filming the police while all this happened, and the cops confiscated the film and haven’t let anyone see it.

Don’t tell us to wait for the federal government to come in and investigate this—cops have killed innocent people again and again, in Detroit and all across the country. Whether the feds come into the cases or not, these murdering pigs almost always get away without any punishment.

People in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced the same thing that was perpetrated on Aiyana's family. Night time raids, stun grenades, family members killed. This is standard procedure for the US military too--shock and awe. What kind of system is this that perfects this kind of procedure and carries it out against people all over the world, again and again.

There's been rivers of tears and oceans of blood. Why do we have to live in a society where cops can brutalize and murder people and get away with it? Why do we have to live in a society where people can work hard all their lives and do everything they're supposed to, and then see their homes taken away from them because of the workings of capitalism's financial system? Why do we have to live in a world where billions of people live on the edge of starvation, dealing with misery and disease while a handful live in obscene wealth?

We don't. Things don't have to keep going down like this. Things don't have to be this way.

It is this capitalist system that has got us in the situation we are in today, and keeps us there. And it is through revolution to get rid of this system that we ourselves can bring a much better system into being. The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: a world where people work and struggle together for the common good… Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings… where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.

And look, if you’ve heard bad things before about communist revolution – that’s just more of this system’s lies. The fact is, when we have state power, we can crfeate a totally different and far better society for people to live in. When we are leading a new revolutionary society, our public safety officers would sooner take a bullet themselves then kill or injure an innocent person and that is just the beginning.

This revolution is real. We have the leadership we need in Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party. And right now we are building a movement for revolution. Fighting the power and transforming the people for revolution.

Get with the revolution!

What future does this system have to offer our youth? Being blown away by some trigger happy cop? Being trapped in ghettos and barrios that have been stripped of jobs and opportunity? Having little in the way of legitimate ways to survive and raise families? This system has no future for our youth, but the revolution certainly does.

Don't tell us about crime and gangs--It's your system that's really criminal.

Don't tell us about being patient and not to get angry--this has gone down again and again. We're right to be angry and we should express that anger.

Little Aiyana is dead, and the cops are lying about it to cover up their foul murder. We don't want to or need to hear their phony apologies or watch them shed crocodile tears. Come out to her funeral, show her, her family and oppressed youth all over the world some love. Protest her outrageous murder. And join the movement for revolution!

The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.

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