Aiyanna Stanley-Jones | Hip-Hop and Politics

This is a powerful song and video called ‘Crooked Smile‘ from rapper J Cole that he dedicates to Aiyanna Stanley-Jones. She was the 7-year-old girl from Detroit who was killed when police showing off for a reality TV show ran into her home looking for a suspect and threw a flash grenade in her room and then shot her.. It was tragic on all levels…

The cop responsible Joseph Weekley was put on trial for the killing, the jury was deadlocked and the proceedings were deemed a mistrial, which means he will be retried.

In the video J Cole makes the case that the war on drugs needs to be reconsidered being that his depiction centers around the cops raiding the home of a drug dealer. In the Aiyanna Stanley-Jones case the police were looking for a man who lived upstairs in the duplex who was wanted for murder.

A scene from the J Cole video Crooked Smile

The take away from all this is two-fold. First police need to do their jobs without playing things up for a TV crew.. Weekly was a frequent guest on the 48 Hours show and who knows what his mindset was when they raided the house.. Was his focus on doing good police work or cheesing for the cameras, making sure they caught his ‘good side’.

On the other hand, folks who are involved in any sort of dirt can not and should not bring that home where innocent kids are residing. Over the past year we’ve heard of number of horrific tragedies involving young kids being shot and killed. In fact they are too many to count. From the most recent one in the Brooklyn where a 1 year old Antiq Hennis was slain to several in Oakland including the recent slaying of 8 year old Alaysha Carradineto and 1 year old Baby Drew to a high-profile cases in Chicago where 6 month old Jonylah Watkins to 6 year old Tiana Ricks who was slain in Southern Cali which moved a number of rappers including The Game and Snoop Dogg to help pay for her funearl

In some of the instances the kids were caught up because the parents were all up in the wrong mix.. There’s an old saying ‘Don’t shit where you sleep’, meaning keep your home safe.. Don’t allow trouble to come where innocent folks live especially kids.

Another scene from J Cole video

In other instances, kids who were killed were caught up in the crossfire which leads on to ask what is wrong with folks these days that they can’t wait until kids are out of sight to settle their violent disputes. Can folks establish some sort of code of ethics?

The take away for all of us is to protect our children.. If we don’t value our own lives, at least find it within ourselves to value theirs.. This goes for out of control police to dirt doers in the community.. Props to J Cole for sparking the discussion and reminding us..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzzMOMkjm8A&feature=youtu.be