Sonya Massey’s death revives pain for Breonna Taylor and Floyd activists

Many black women were elated by Kamala Harris’s rise, but felt new horror over the video of Massey’s murder. One activist compared the whiplash to a “domestic violence relationship.”

Hannah Drake felt something akin to emotional whiplash when she saw video of an Illinois police officer shooting and killing Sonya Massey earlier this week.

Drake, 48, described the moment as the “divisiveness of being a black woman in America.”

The bodycam footage showing the 36-year-old Black mother of two being shot in her own kitchen by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson was released Monday.

Massey called 911 on July 6 to report a possible intruder in her Springfield home. Thirty minutes later, she was shot and killed.

The shooting occurred while another officer was clearing the house. Grayson began “aggressive shouting” to Massey to set down a pot of boiling water she had taken off the stove, even though he had given her permission to do so. Grayson can be heard on the bodycam footage saying, “I swear to God. I’m going to shoot you right in your f— face,” before firing a bullet into Massey’s head.

The footage was released just as the Democratic Party began to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris, making her the presumptive nominee to replace President Joe Biden — much to the delight of many Black women, some of whom felt taken for granted by the Democratic Party.

Bodycam footage shows fatal shooting of Sonya Massey

Police bodycam footage captured the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey near Springfield, Illinois.

“It’s like we’re in a domestic violence relationship with America,” Drake said. “It’s like a honeymoon phase, and then it’s back to violence again.”

It’s an eerily familiar sentiment for the activist and poet, who played a key role in pushing for police reforms in Louisville, Kentucky, after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

Four years ago, people in the US called for a racial reckoning after the killings of Taylor and George Floyd. Major corporations made financial commitments to reduce racial disparities, and lawmakers promised to meet demands for policy change.

But progress toward those goals has been slow — particularly at the federal level, where few substantive policies have been adopted to curb police-incited violence. Last year, police killed more Americans than in any other year on record.

Harris called the Massey family to offer his condolences and released a statement Tuesday saying, “We have much work to do to ensure our justice system lives up to his name.”

“Sonya Massey deserved to be safe,” Harris said, adding that she and second-in-command Doug Emhoff “mourned her senseless death.”

For activists like Drake, Massey’s murder marks a new flashpoint in the fight to end the plague. Her death, they say, adds urgency to their cause.

‘Russian roulette’

Timothy Findley Jr., a pastor from Louisville, Kentucky, organized numerous protests demanding justice following the death of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Today, Findley questions whether the work he did and the attention he brought to police brutality made a difference.

In light of Massey’s case, Findley said he believes there are few ways for black and brown people to safely interact with police. The officer who shot Massey was responding to a call for help she had made about a possible intruder. When he shot her in the head, she was holding a pot of water.

“For me, like so many others, it continues to reinforce the belief that law enforcement is not always the helpful, friendly entity that we need it to be,” Findley said. “You call 911 and it’s almost like Russian roulette. Depending on who you get, it could be the end of your life.”

DeRay McKesson sees the path to progress a little differently. As the leader of the organization Campaign Zero, McKesson works day in and day out to pass local and state policies to reduce police brutality. McKesson became a civil rights activist after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, nearly a decade ago.

“The last decade has been the first sustained period of activism around police ever,” McKesson said of the improvements he’s seen since then.

Seven states have now adopted Campaign Zero’s recommended restrictions on no-knock searches, a practice that allowed police to enter Breonna Taylor’s home.

Renewed calls to action

McKesson, however, doesn’t deny that more change is needed. When he learned of Massey’s death earlier this month, the first thing he did was investigate local police use-of-force policies, because they are often “appalling.”

“They let the police kill people,” McKesson said. “Imagine if you had a job where no matter what you did, you couldn’t be held accountable.”

The officer who shot Massey was fired after the incident. But an Illinois labor board representing the officer has since filed a complaint alleging he was fired “without cause.” According to CBS News, the officer had a disciplinary record prior to Massey’s killing that included allegations of bullying and abuse of power.

These circumstances are partly why Lonita Baker, an attorney who represented Breonna Taylor’s family, believes a cultural shift in the way law enforcement organizations operate is just as important as efforts to change policy.

“We can have all the laws in the world, but if we still have bad people, they will still do bad things,” Baker said.

Efforts to reduce police violence, she said, should focus on the local level — where most departments are run. She has advocated for more thoughtful hiring practices and better systems to address misconduct within police departments.

At the federal level, Baker places the blame for the policy squarely on Congress, which has yet to pass the comprehensive George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

“As someone who works and pushes for constant change, I’m going to continue as if every little bit we get is a step in the right direction,” Baker affirmed. “Is it fast enough? Absolutely not.”

Trahern Crews, an activist who founded Black Lives Matter Minnesota, urged Democrats to make racial justice a policy priority ahead of the 2024 general election. While he said he would not vote for Trump, Crews believes Democrats must earn the votes of Black Americans by pushing more fervently for policy changes in the coming months.

“It’s just a wake-up call to all of us in the country that we have a lot of work to do, work to be done, and we need to get started on it now,” Crews said of Massey’s death.

“The only way we can not go backwards is if we stay in the streets, keep organizing, and keep pressuring not just police departments but elected officials to do the right thing and turn policy into law.”

Contributors: Steven Spearie, The Springfield State Journal- Register