DETROIT, MI, June 6 — “They killed my baby and I want someone to tell the truth.” That’s what Charles Jones, the father of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones said after she was murdered by Detroit police when they raided the wrong apartment on May 16. Aiyana was shot in the head as she slept in her East Side home.

The trigger-happy cowards of the Special Response Team threw a flash grenade through the window and shot Aiyana from outside the house around 12:45 am before charging in with guns drawn. The racist murderers were executing a “no-knock” search warrant for a homicide suspect and claim the gun went off after “some level of physical contact” with Aiyana’s grandmother.

Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones, was arrested and released. She said, “They blew my granddaughter’s brains out. They killed her right before my eyes… the Detroit police killed my granddaughter.”

While anger about the racist murder runs deep, reaction has been mild. People have left flowers and balloons at Aiyana’s home, and there have been a few rallies against the cops. Big-name attorney, and possible candidate for Governor, Jeffrey Feiger has taken on the case, moving the focus from the streets to the bosses’ courts, from justice to getting paid. It is dangerous for workers to rely on this — big checks from the city won’t stop racist police terror.

If auto workers and youth walked out of the factories and schools and surrounded city hall and police headquarters, shutting the city down and taking on the racist killers, we would be better positioned to build a mass revolutionary movement that can end racist police terror forever.

After decades of plant closings and mass layoffs, Detroit is suffering more than New Orleans after Katrina. Workers are the victims of the decline of the U.S. auto industry and the inter-imperialist rivalries shaping world events. Racist unemployment is at 50 percent for black males. Schools are closing by the dozens. Workers and youth face a daily struggle for survival, including utility shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures. The Democratic Party and United Auto Workers (UAW) have bailed out the auto bosses with untold billions in tax breaks and concessions for the past 50 years but have nothing for the 90% black population of workers and youth.

The bosses want the cops to terrorize us into accepting a future of poverty and war. The 1967 Detroit Rebellion against racism and the 1973 PLP-led Mack Avenue Sit-Down Strike continue to haunt the racist bosses and their flunkies. Our task is to build a mass, anti-racist PLP and make their worst fears come true. J