A former Illinois deputy has been sentenced to 20 years for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 for help.
Sean Grayson, 31, was convicted in October of second-degree murder. Grayson, who is white, received the maximum possible sentence and has been in police custody since being charged in the killing.
Massey’s family members, who were sitting in the court, celebrated his sentence with a loud cheer: “Yes!” The judge admonished them.
Grayson apologized during the sentencing, saying he wished he could bring Massey back and spare her family the pain he caused.
“I made a lot of mistakes that night. There were points when I should’ve acted, and I didn’t. I froze,” he said. “I made terrible decisions that night. I’m sorry.”
20 years doesn’t feel like it should be the maximum sentence.
Gosh this is just depressing to read, no wonder people hate cops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sonya_Massey
They arrogantly call themselves highly trained, highly paid professionals but when faced with reality they often panick and just start shooting.
Ok, probably an unpopular opinion, but at the VERY least he felt remorse. Like he didn’t double down.
These people are all liars, manipulators, rapists, abusers, and murderers. Part of the point of the trial is to find out if it was on purpose or not. And time and time again, magas always express sadness ONLY when punished, and then after, double down on it.
He expressed remorse before being sentenced. Who knows what he felt?
He was already convicted when he apologized. Probably hoping to not get the maximum sentence.
It shouldn’t be a lot to ask for, but unfortunately these days, it seems so. I agree.
RIP Sonya Massey. 20 years isn’t really enough. But when it comes to police the bar is so low for them to get held accountable it is better than nothing.
I’m actually surprised, I read this story a while back and expected it like so many US injustices, particularly right now, and that the cop would get a paid vacation. I was deeply depressed.
I mean I still am, but I was back then too.
Either way, I hope he experiences in prison what cops who go to prison experience. 20 years isn’t enough to make someone feel the pain they’ve inflicted on others by taking a life for no reason, and he will likely get out early if he lives, but at least I know however long he’s in there will be either in sheer, constant terror, or utter isolation as he’s kept separate from the general population.
It’s really weird that they capitalize “black” in these stories. I get that it’s relevant to mention because these things happen to black people a lot more often, but that doesn’t make it a proper noun. They didn’t capitalize “white”. It seems like pandering and it’s kind of gross and racist in its own way.
I tend to avoid stories like that because its obvious the author is trying to push in a racial divide amongst its readers.
I feel its relevant to mention the race of the victim because racism in law enforcement seems like a potential cause in a lot of these incidents. Statistically black people are much more likely to be the victim, we can’t fix that unless we acknowledge it. Mentioning the race of the cop, not so much. It’s more of systemic issue. Black cops seem to carry a lot of the same biases.
It’s almost a proper noun thing. It’s not a race thing. It’s a language thing.
Except that’s not a proper noun.
In the same exact quote they don’t capitalize “white”. It sure looks like a pandering thing.
Hm! I didn’t notice that
Someone said in a separate post, where the same question was brought up, that it’s because Black refers to a specific cultural group while white doesn’t (that’d be Irish-American or whatever)
You don’t have to always assume it’s malice.
Ah yes, the historic culture of “black” stretching from New Zealand to Africa and South Asia and South America. You know, all very monocultured.
The largest /s imaginable
Black people aren’t a monolith either though. They come from all over the world, just like white people. That explanation is offensive in a totally different way.
Actually all monorities are a monolith, which is why you can refer to them using using the singular noun (‘The Jew’) and everybody will know you’re talking about all of them. Hitler wrote a entire book about this.
There’s even an entire Key and Peele skit about it.
Honestly I prefer people are identified by their tribes or families. It is more specific than using vague colours. I have never seen a white human being yet we have been programmed to all ourselves white. You mean white like salt? That’s what I mean when I say white. Use tribes or families to identify people. Much better than vague colours
20 years isn’t enough for his lack of empathy for a woman who did nothing wrong and was simply trying to get help and make dinner.
He had a license to kill and used it and didn’t think he would be held accountable.
You hear that ICE? Sometimes the piper got to be paid.
I was JUST thinking about this. What a good time to hop on lemmy. Happy ending.
Well, I wouldn’t say it’s happy to be honest, a life has lost anyway. Not the worst one though, for sure
True. I guess I’m just jaded enough that I hope for anything other than “zero consequences for the officer; plus he’s still working as LEA somewhere” That shit’s actually terrifying
I’m sure his new home will be a bastion of good will and humanity.
Cops have a stressful, often life-threatening job, no doubt. But so do a lot of people. My family has a history of working in psychiatric lock-ups with extremely violent mentally ill and developmentally abnormal patients, most of whom are being held because of murders and rapes they’ve committed (usually of their own families), and who would murder you if they had the chance/inclination to do so, because they simply don’t know any better. The nurses don’t carry firearms, they’re trained with a few restraining grappling technique and a lot of deescalation tactics. They don’t even have tasers. Put an armed cop in that situation and you’d have a ward full of corpses within a few days. Hell, put a regular prison guard in that situation and you’d have a similar outcome. But my family members aren’t MMA experts, and have never been [seriously] injured in their job. They’ve been properly trained, that’s all. Cops are trained like they’re being shipped off to 'Nam in 1969 to fight an unseen, non-uniformed enemy.
“Often life threatening” is not likely to be true. Sometimes, yes. Often? No chance.
This was interesting. Most of these jobs are dangerous because they increase your exposure to car accidents it looks like.
I had heard that most police officers deaths are from car accidents, but this says “violence by other people or animals”. Must be just their category name, not because animals are a significant danger. That category is shared with one other profession in the top 25 most dangerous, supervisor of mechanics at number 19. I guess bossing around people with a lot of potentially dangerous tools at hand goes bad fairly often.
Reddit comments mention that something like a third of policemen deaths in the USes are from car accidents.
Dutch cops often walk around without guns.
Definitely a boys club and training issue in America.
The Netherlands doesn’t have more guns than people though. The US does.
Edit- this is not excusing cops shooting people, I am just saying that gunless cops makes more sense in a country where everyone isn’t armed to the teeth
Switzerland has almost as many guns as people. But they are treated as a tool, no one really wants, not like a dick extension
Delivery drives have a more dangerous job than cops
I’d probably carry a gun as a delivery driver in some neighborhoods too
Ironically every corporation bars you from doing that because they would be liable. There are probably some small mom-and-pop places that advise drivers to carry. And of course plenty do despite the rules against it.
And why is everyone so obsessed with guns in this same US of A? I wonder if one begets the other. People have been fearing the police in America for a looooooooonnnnnnng time. Also, see the post you replied to. Just because you’re in the shit, doesn’t mean you need all the guns and ammo on the planet to do your job. If it’s a serious violence threat, then send in the swat. Patrol should be using guns as an absolute last resort, not a first inclination. The mentality is skewed, but no surprise there given the rest of things going on down there.
That makes it more dangerous for the us cops but doesn’t excuse shooting people without guns.
Fuck cops. No sympathy for traitors
He should get life with no parole. It’s not like she can come back after 20 years.
20 years is a long fucking time. It’s enough. His life is still over
Couldn’t agree more. To serve and protect would have been to take the scalding, not their life. If you’re an officer the standard of conduct and consequence must be higher than for the citizen.
It says it’s the maximum. It’s better than failing to secure conviction on a higher charge.
I’m actually ok with this given what I’ve seen our penal system shit out afterwards.
He is going to lose all social skills, he will have no friends, he will not be hired by anyone and will be destitute in a matter of months living on the streets. Let him suffer more, “wHy ShOuLd wE pAy fOr HiS mEalS?!?11!”
That’s just going to make it more likely that he commits further crimes when he is released.
This, imo, is exactly what a penalty system shouldn’t do
No disagreement from me. But we got what we got(which again, isn’t great) might as well let the bastards upholding it get a taste of their own medicine.
Not only a law enforcement failure, but the US healthcare system proves once again it sucks complete shit. Sonya was suffering from a mental disorder and let me guess, her shitty health insurance, if she had any, did not allow her to be in an institute.
What institutes? Reagan did away with them so now they just go to prisons. If you’re lucky you get 1 to 2 weeks in a psych ward of a hospital, then therapy appointments (which you somehow have to arrange transport). If you’re really lucky, you can get a group home. If you are really wealthy, you can get a service to help you in your own home. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Imagine youre in an emergency, call the hotline that specifically exists to HELP people in emergencies as quickly as possible, 24/7, and they fucking kill you.
Thank fuck. It feels like everytime I read a story like this, the officer in question is just “reprimanded”, “placed under administrative leave” or “Not charged under due to immunity” or some shit.
I hope fuckers like these get what’s coming to them.
I’ve lived in IL my whole life. For half of that, the state was so corrupt that multiple governors were indicted for various crimes and ended up in jail. After Blagoyavich or whatever his name was, the pendulum swung hard back the other way. Today, after being a state employee for the last 15-years in addition to living here, I am glad we have accountability. I feel safe knowing my state and local cops can be held to account when things like this happen. It makes me, and them I’d like to think, feel safer in the community.
Nothing and no one is perfect, but Pritzker will probably go down as one of the better governors this state has had. And that’s saying something from a closeted anarchist who has despised this system for decades!
I feel like that’s 99% of cases and it’s really disheartening. Good to see them actually get what should have happened to all the others a long time ago.
Chips are often put into adseg with the pædos and murderers of women. Funny how they still seem to find each other, even under completely foreseen consequences.
It’s going to take time to overcome the “before body cam” era, but this ending brings some hope. And proof they are needed.
Cops will go fucking nuts on someone merely because they don’t comply; their pea-brains simply cannot tolerate anyone who dares to question their authority.
Dude shouldn’t have even gone into the house, he refused to leave and deescalate, then murdered a woman instead of just walking out of the door of a place he didn’t even belong.
or they think its a waste of time.
The problem is fear. In general, we don’t teach cops how to deal with complex situations. We don’t teach them how to deescalate potentially dangerous situations. We don’t teach them how to peacefully resolve conflicts. All they are taught now is Killology (AKA Warrior Training).
Grossman’s America is a terrifying place where police are both the primary targets of and defenders against superpredation. “Increasingly the police must face organized opponents armed with assault rifles and bombs,” Grossman says at the outset of the class, citing an “explosion in violent crime” and an “extraordinary rise in violence” in the streets of America.
…
Grossman maintains that America is now scarier than ever—and that cops may well be the ones with the most to fear. “We know that if it were not for all the body armor, bulletproof vests worn by officers, law enforcement fatalities in the United States would easily be double or even triple what they are today,” Grossman asserts. “If this is not war, then you tell me what is.”
Cops out there now are terrified that they are constantly in the sights of one bad guy or another. They are in a state of constant terror that anyone might pull out a gun and murder them. People in that mindset cannot be trusted to be “peace” officers.
Grossman maintains that America is now scarier than ever—and that cops may well be the ones with the most to fear. “We know that if it were not for all the body armor, bulletproof vests worn by officers, law enforcement fatalities in the United States would easily be double or even triple what they are today,” Grossman asserts. “If this is not war, then you tell me what is.”
This man has a financial interest in keeping officers as scared as possible so their Chief can book training courses with this guy.
I wouldn’t take whatever he says as having any basis in reality.
You and I know that, but the cops he’s training eat that shit up and then wet their pants in terror when an acorn falls on their squad car .
its the squirrels.
One of the fucking greatest things I’ve ever seen.
Dude apparently thinks he has been shot, so of course, what makes sense to do is:
‘Combat roll’
(Utterly tactically useless given the angle from where he thought he was being shot from)
‘Suppressive fire toward a restrained person in custody in a police cruiser…’
(“I need to shoot my partner’s car!”)
‘… narrowly missing his partner cop…’
‘… and with flimsy ass shit tier residential townhomes as the back stop beyond the car.’
That guy needs to be sentenced to only be allowed to appear in public in a full on clown suit for 5 years.
Its actually a miracle he didn’t kill anyone.
Jesus I had forgotten about that one…
they are also recieving training on killing methods from the IDF.
Is this the guy that teaches them when they murder someone it will be the best day of their lives?
The problem is cowardice.
It didn’t seem like at any point the woman was in a state of mind to calmly invite them in. It’s like they always make the choice that maximizes their chance of shooting someone.
I saw footage of a different encounter where a bunch of police were hanging out right at her backdoor even though she was clearly distressed and didn’t even think about giving her space. Pretty sure they also shot her through a screen door while she was still in her house.
The woman reported a prowler and they had already checked the outside of the house. I wonder if they actually needed to go inside the house in the first place.
I wouldn’t voluntarily allow cops into my house unless the situation required them to enter my house.
Agreed. I wouldn’t let one of them shitbags in my house if they were offering me a sack full of cash and a harem of consenting porn stars unless it was absolutely required by law. If I get burgled I’m just going down to give my statement so I can get a case for my insurance company because I know they ain’t gonna investigate it and by allowing them in the house my odds of dying increase greatly.
If I’m calling the police it’s gonna be because someone needs to die.
It’s not even about anyone daring to question the authority, it’s anyone who they decide in that very moment is a threat (based on no logic at all). There are so many videos of American cops demanding people to do things they clearly can’t do or just are impossible to do, like two different things that are exclusive to each other. And tons of other videos of people doing exactly what they’re told but no the cop(s) already decided that they’re a threat no matter what.
