When Hannah Drake watched the video of an Illinois state police officer killing Sonia Massey earlier this week, she felt an emotional surge.
Drake, 48, described the moment as “the dichotomy of being a black woman in America.”
Body camera footage was released Monday showing the 36-year-old Black mother of two being shot in the kitchen of her home by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Grayson.
Massey called 911 on July 6 to report a possible break-in at her Springfield home. Thirty minutes later, she was dead.
The shooting happened while another deputy was clearing the house. Grayson “Scream aggressively” Grayson orders Massey to put down a pot of boiling water he had removed from the stove, although he had permission. In the body camera footage, Grayson can be heard saying, “I swear to God, I’m gonna shoot you in the face,” before firing a bullet into Massey’s head.
The video’s release came just as Democrats were rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris as a possible candidate to succeed President Joe Biden, a move that was met with jubilation from many Black women, some of whom felt slighted by the Democratic Party.
“It’s like America’s relationship with domestic violence,” Drake said. “It’s like they go through a honeymoon phase, but then they go right back into violence.”
It’s an eerily familiar feeling for the activist and poet who played a key role in passing police reform after the shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Four years ago, the killings of Taylor and George Floyd prompted people across the country to call for racial justice, with major companies pledging funds to reduce racial disparities and lawmakers promising to heed demands for policy changes.
But progress toward these goals has been slow, especially at the federal level, where few substantive policies have been enacted to curb police violence. Police killed more Americans last year than any other year on record.
Harris called Massie’s family to offer her condolences and released a statement Tuesday saying “there is much work to be done to ensure our justice system lives up to its name.”
“Sonia Massey should have been safe,” Harris said, adding that she and lineman Doug Emhoff were “mourned by her senseless death.”
For activists like Drake, Massey’s murder is a new flashpoint in the fight to end the scourge, and they say her death has given added urgency to their work.
‘Russian Roulette’
Timothy Findlay Jr., a pastor in Louisville, Kentucky, organized protests calling for justice after Taylor’s death in 2020. Now Findlay wonders whether his work, and his contributions to bringing attention to police brutality, have made any difference.
Findlay said the Massey shooting left many black and brown people with little to no safe interaction with police. The officer who shot Massey had responded to her call for help about a possible intruder. She was holding a pot of water when the officer shot her in the head.
“For me, and for a lot of other people, it just reinforced the idea that police aren’t always the kind of helpful, friendly presence we need them to be,” Findlay said. “When you call 911, it’s 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 a leader of the organization Campaign Zero, McKesson works to pass local and state policies to reduce police violence. McKesson became a civil rights activist about 10 years ago after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
“The last 10 years is the first time we’ve seen sustained activism around policing,” McKesson said of the improvements he’s seen since then.
Seven states have now adopted Campaign Zero recommendations that limit the use of no-knock searches, which allowed police to enter Taylor’s home.
A new call to action
But McKesson doesn’t deny that more change is needed: When he heard about Massey’s death earlier this month, the first thing he looked at was the police department’s local use-of-force policies, because in many cases, “police are terrible.”
“We’re allowing police to kill people,” McKesson said. “Imagine having a job where you can do anything and not be held accountable.”
The officer who shot Massey was fired after the incident, but the Illinois State Labor Council, which represents police officers, later filed a grievance alleging he was fired “without cause.” CBS News reported that before Massey was killed, the officer had a disciplinary record that included bullying and abuse of power.
That’s part of why Lonita Baker, the attorney representing Taylor’s family, believes a cultural change in how law enforcement operates is just as important as policy reform.
“You can have all the laws in the world, and if there are bad people left, they’re still going to do bad things,” Baker said.
She said efforts to reduce police violence should be focused at the local level, where most police departments operate. She has advocated for more thoughtful hiring practices and the instituted better systems for addressing misconduct within police departments.
At the federal level, Baker has placed the onus for policy action squarely on Congress, which has yet to pass the comprehensive George Floyd Police Justice Act.
“As someone who works and pushes for lasting change, I believe that every little change we get is a step in the right direction and I will continue to work hard,” Baker said. “Are we moving fast enough? Absolutely not.”
Trahern Cruz, the activist who founded Black Lives Matter Minnesota, called on Democrats to make racial equality a policy priority ahead of the 2024 general election. Though Cruz has said he won’t vote for former President Donald Trump, he believes Democrats need to push harder for policy changes in the coming months to win the votes of Black Americans.
“Massey’s death is just a wake-up call for all of us across the country that we still have work to do, we still have a lot of work to do, and we still have to get to work,” Cruz said.
“The only way we’re not going to backslide is if we stay on the streets, keep organizing, keep pressuring not only the police department but our elected officials to do the right thing and get the policy signed into law.”
Contributor: Stephen Speary, Springfield State Journal Register
