American Cannibal

American Cannibal is a documentary about two writers who can't get work doing sitcoms so they create a fake reality show. The American Cannibal idea is a joke but it's the one that gets funding when pitched. The reality show spoof is based around survivor type challenges and the contestants are led to believe they'll have to eat other contestants. The documentary stopped filming when one of the contestants was critically injured. When the two writers were joking about making a reality show they predicted that one day someone would die on a reality show, i think Aiyana Jones is reality television first victim.

It's not clear whether Aiyana suffered her fatal gunshot wound before or after Weekley entered the house. In either case, Officer Weekley has been identified as the shooter. He initially claimed that his gun accidentally went off during a "scuffle" with Aiyana's 47-year-old grandmother...Chauncey Owens, who has been charged with the murder of 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake, was arrested in the upstairs flat, a separate domicile from the one in which Aiyana was killed. Prior to the SRT raid, Owens had been seen on the streets near the duplex. There was no reason -- well, none not dictated by the demands of Homeland Security Theater -- to mount a midnight paramilitary operation to take Owens into custody. Why wasn't an effort made to arrest him on the streets -- after staking out the duplex, if necessary? That question, of course, fails to take into account the "reality TV" camera crew. Once that factor is considered, it's a matter of res ipsa loquitir. A&E's Detroit SWAT program made Joseph Weekley a television star. The May 16 raid, as some veteran police officers might put it, wasn't Weekley's first rodeo. Nor was this the first time his conduct put children at severe risk. Weekley took part in a February 2007 SRT raid on a Detroit residence occupied by several children. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the family claims that the SRT gunned down two dogs "without any justifiable reason whatsoever," and that during the operation the officers "had their guns pointed at ... [a] child and [an] infant." In that 2007 raid Weekley and his comrades were pursuing a suspect in an armed robbery. As was the case last Sunday, the SRT wasn't dealing with a hostage situation or a barricaded shooter, let alone a heavily armed serial killer on a rampage. None of the people terrorized by the raid and detained at gunpoint was charged in connection with the crime. At least in that earlier incident, the SRT -- in what appears to be an example of unwonted restraint -- declined to use a flash-bang grenade. Paramilitary units like the Detroit SRT are used to carry out what are described as "high-risk" operations. This description is generally true -- when applied to those targeted by the raids; the risks experienced by the heavily armed raiders in body armor are minuscule. On average, between 100-150 such raids take place every day in this supposedly free country, most of them are narcotics enforcement actions against people involved in non-violent, consensual behavior. Typically, the only "risk" confronted by law enforcement personnel in such circumstances is the possibility that if they knock on the door and present their warrant the evidence will disappear down the toilet. Under this order of priorities, the convenience of prosecutors enforcing asinine drug laws is served at the expense of those brutalized and often killed without reason in their own homes. The truly sickening thing about the death of Aiyana Jones is that the decision to carry out a SRT raid was almost certainly dictated by the media ambitions of Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans, who -- in the words of Detroit News columnist Charlie LeDuff -- is positioning himself as a "reality TV" star. "Television executives around the country have been shown what is known in television parlance as the `sizzle reel' of Chief Evans himself, a video compilation of Detroit's top cop trying to take back the streets," writes LeDuff, who saw that footage several weeks ago. "It is part of a pitch for a full-blown television series." As Detroit's civic and economic implosion accelerates, the city has become an irresistible setting for state-centric media outlets "peddling mayhem," continues LeDuff. "Spike TV featured the Detroit bureau of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008. A&E is taping a season of `Parking Wars' here; production on a series about the Fire Department wrapped late last year. Even Animal Planet is in on the deal with `Animal Cops Detroit.'" Chief Evans' "reality" show pitch begins with the uniformed bureaucrat "gripping a semi-automatic rifle, standing in front of crumbling Michigan Central Depot, staring down a camera and declaring that he'll do whatever it takes to take his city back from crime. The camera will tag along with Warren Evans as he goes on house raids, smokes cigars with his underlings and recalls words to live by told to him by his mother." LeDuff's disclosures do much to explain why the A&E camera crew went along on the SRT raid that killed Aiyana Jones, and why the Department chose to stage a midnight "Shock and Awe" operation rather than quietly bringing in the suspect. Aiyana Jones was killed because the Detroit PD wanted to boost Chief Evans's Q Score.

Will Griggs

Interview with antiwar.com

Doesn't surprise me that Warren Evans is a wannabe television star. Wouldn't be the first time a city employee tried to supplement their meager pay with income from a little "side project".

Chief Evans was on vacation, out of the country, from what I've heard via the media. If he wanted to increase his Q score, whatever that is, wouldn't he want to be available for the raid so A&E cameras could show him in action.
Sounds like you have an ax to grind as regards Chief Evans.

Don't know the man personally and don't have an ax to grind with him. On vacation or not, policies are set in place and carried out even if he's there or not. When Evans was Wayne County Sheriff he would stage media events like these. The First 48 had stopped taping in Detroit a while ago. They recently started taping here again. I don't know if Evans had anything to do with it but it coincides with him becoming chief.

Pontiac, I think you are cross polinating the film work that was done on the DEA/ATF with the Wayne County Sheriff. I could be wrong, but I'm sure you could readily supply the link to the Wayne County footage.

Truthfully, you sound like someone who is needlessly pouring gasoline on a raging fire with your implication that the death of the little girl was intended and planned by a publicity hound and his staff.

I look forward to seeing that Sheriff footage.