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.”
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
He should get life with no parole. It’s not like she can come back after 20 years.
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.
20 years is a long fucking time. It’s enough. His life is still over
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!”
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
It’s going to take time to overcome the “before body cam” era, but this ending brings some hope. And proof they are needed.
I remember watching the video after it happened. Damn it takes a long time for this shit to go through the courts.
Yeah courts are slow, better to have a fair trial though. I remember this video too, I’m sure all she was doing was boiling some water in a pan before he shot her.
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.
they are also recieving training on killing methods from the IDF.
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…
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’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.
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.
Weak headline. Should read:
Cop gets 20 years for murdering woman who called 911 for help.
He’ll be out in no time. One quick X post calling on the racist POS in the Oval Office and he will be pardoned. I guarantee it.
It’s a state conviction.
No, sir, I think the problem was the part where you shouldn’t have acted, but did.
Good. Sean deserves it.
What’s worse is that type of behavior is explicitly trained into these goons. This means there were people above Grayson that are probably looking at this as an assault on their way of life. They are not looking into the training they provide to see what could be done different.
At the same time, this was clearly a mental health issue. Cops just shouldn’t be sent alone to deal with those. They aren’t trained for it, and many aren’t trainable because it wasn’t part of the hiring criteria and they just don’t have the skills. We need an addition group trained for this that can better handle these things. That way no one has to die, and we don’t have to spend tons of taxpayer money because a cop was put in a position he was clearly unqualified for. Probably shouldn’t even have been a cop. But with high demand and low supply, they end up taking lots of people who should never be cops. Maybe this guy could have lead a happy and productive life as a plumber or something.
I’ve worked for several small cities that had specialist officers for mental health issues, and they really were excellent. If more cities spent 10% of that Swat money on mental health officers, they would significantly improve public safety.
This exactly. Sending cops alone to these calls is like using a hammer on a screw.
Agreed. Maybe if we had adequate affordable healthcare… Naww, more money for ICE and the military. Even under Democrat rule, all they do is stall and choke.
Old news, but yeah that was not okay!
