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.”

  • Nailbar@sopuli.xyz
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    7 hours ago

    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.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      12 minutes ago

      So that means everyone with a certain skin tone MUST be in the same specific cultural group?

      It’s not malice but it is mistaken. “White” is used as a general term as well.

    • Hathaway@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      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

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      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.

      • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        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.

      • tackleberry@thelemmy.club
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        5 hours ago

        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