Prejudging the Case

Seven year old Aiyana Stanley-Jones died in a horrible tragedy a few days ago, and her funeral was yesterday. Yet rather than lament the fact, we see only that the opportunists have arrived in Detroit to make hay for themselves at the young girl's expense.

Notables such as attorney Geoffrey Fieger and preacher Al Sharpton have come out of the woodwork supposedly out of concern for Aiyana's life and tragic death, and to raise awareness of the plight of such young innocents. But it is fair to ask how truly concerned they are for her and how much of their invective is driven by the personal incentive of staying in the limelight themselves.

This is not to say that there should not be a thorough investigation of the matter. If the Detroit Police officers involved acted rashly then such has to be addressed. Yet why is it so many involved have already presumed bad judgment on the part of the cops? The AOL News report on the funeral ends with Aiyana's young friend Roshell Johnson asking, "Why did the police do this to her?"

We don't know yet that the police did anything wrong. Even at that, we don't know how much the grandmother's actions helped or hurt the matter, and we ignore that the police were present in the first place to arrest a murder suspect living in the house. How much of the fault therein might lie with the household?

True, we don't know that either just yet. But everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Why don't the men and women in blue receive even that little amount of due consideration?

What we have here is a circus with Al Sharpton and Geoffrey Fieger in the center ring for reasons of their own vainglory. That does not serve the cause of justice. And it in truth mocks Aiyana Stanley-Jones' sad death.