Shot in cold blood: Sonya Massey

[Farm Boy]

It was "rebuke" that did it.

Rebuke equaled something that wasn't groveling, so die.

He's a big murderous chicken****. Don't overthink it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It is a gas stove. You don't need to remove the pot to cool it, like you need with electric ones.

I'd say she wasn't aiming to cool water, but was pouring it out in the sink after boiling something in it.

That makes me think it wasn't the danger of being washed in boiling water that triggered the cops.

It's the words that mattered, in some twisted way.



Why do you find the phrase trigger-worthy? Genuinely trying to understand. Looks to me like a little joke sensing the need to defuse the situation. Can the phrase be offensive to a religious person?

You understand what "rebuke" means, I assume. Some people don't take kindly to being rebuked for any reason. If someone is a believer, hearing such a phrase might as well mean "I'm invoking Jesus to scold/punish you."

Consider how cops don't like to be criticized in any capacity. An especially thin-skinned one like in this clip? That was triggering for him.

 

[Gorbles]

Consider how cops don't like to be criticized in any capacity. An especially thin-skinned one like in this clip? That was triggering for him.

Just to clarify for the thread: the possibility that the verbal rebuke may have been triggering for the officer is in no way remotely considered justification for shooting the woman. I think we're all on the same page?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

At what point did I suggest there was any justification for shooting her?

I think everyone here who's ever been in a religion-themed argument with me here knows there are some words and phrases that trigger me to get angry. I respond in words, not physical violence, and that'd how it would be in RL as well.

However, cops have lethal weapons - plural - with them, and there are so many who should never have been trusted with them. That's true in Canada, as well.

 

[Kyriakos]

My own suspicion (which can be wrong, obviously) was that in a tragic twist of fate, she was using the phrase to try to feel less tense, by breaking the ice with a joke. And due to the policeman being a murderous psycho, it cost her her life. Rip :/

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't understand how that phrase could ever be considered a joke.

 

[Core Imposter]

The woman was dying of kidney disease, I really don't think she was joking. At some point we will probably hear about her faith if she had one. The people who knew her would understand her use of the phrase.

 

[Core Imposter]

After fatally shooting an unarmed Black woman who called 911 to report what she thought was a prowler outside her Illinois home, police claimed her death was in fact self-inflicted, according to the victim’s family and dispatch audio from the incident.

Police at first told hospital staff that Sonya Massey, 36, had died by suicide, Jimmie Crawford Jr., the father of Massey’s daughter, said Tuesday at a press conference organized by civil rights attorney Ben Crump. At the same time, officers told Crawford that a neighbor had been responsible for Massey’s killing, he said. Massey’s son said police told him that his mother “had been shot in the eye and it came out her neck.”

Cop described Sonya Massey shooting as ‘self-inflicted’ in initial dispatch

‘Just to confirm: self-inflicted?’ a police dispatcher asks, to which a voice replies, ‘Self-inflicted’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Core Imposter]

From the same article:

In bodycam footage captured by Grayson’s partner, which was released on Monday by the Illinois State Police, Grayson can be heard asking dispatch, post-shooting, if Massey has “any call history for being 10-96,” the department’s code for a mentally ill subject. In contemporaneous radio traffic reviewed by The Independent, a police dispatcher can be heard saying, “Just to confirm: self-inflicted?” Following a few seconds of confused back-and-forth, an unidentified voice from the scene replies, “Self-inflicted.”

 

[Core Imposter]

I also read somewhere that she had asked Grayson to hand her a bible, which makes the idea of a "joke" less likely. I need to find the whole bodycam video. Does anyone have a link for the longer version?

 

[Core Imposter]

Ok, so Sangamon is claiming that Grayson was an immaculate hire, certified and psychologically tested and everything was handled by the book. And the union has filed a claim on Grayson's behalf. Standard CYA and bull crap. Before this is over Grayson'll get a medal and a settlement.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What a pile of BS. She clearly did not shoot herself.

 

[Core Imposter]

Grayson worked as a landscaper and three years at a fitness center. Not proof of steroid use but ...

 

[Lexicus]

After giving it some thought, I have no ideas on fixing this.

It rhymes with refund the police

 

[Core Imposter]

Grayson was in the Army for two years, discharged for misconduct. While with a previous agency law enforcement agency he was accused of excessive force/misconduct twice, but...wait for it...cleared and left in good standing.

Poor guy just has terrible luck.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

I mean, I don't think this was a planned murder. There should be some other kind of aggravation for a murder charge when a cop does it under color of law though.

Not sure what the Illinois definition of first degree is. Maybe there's an attorney on here who can explain in detail.

I do know the standard to evaluate his actions is "what would a reasonable police officer do in the same situation?" I remember that from the Quan McDonald case - what got the officer in trouble is he pulled up to the scene, jumped out, and unloaded his clip. We know what a reasonable officer would do because there were several officers already on the scene who didn't draw their weapons.

 

[Farm Boy]

It rhymes with refund the police

You joke, but. At what point in any other area do you argue that decreasing funding creates better results?

That's just partisan horse**** the same it's always been.

 

[Core Imposter]

Okay so I found the full video and you should watch both because the short one has been edited. A couple of things I noted. He approached her to shoot, stepping to the side to get a clear shot because she had ducked down. After shooting and, one or both of them, had shouted shots fired, Grayson, for some reason, again told her to drop the f'ing pot even as he continued to advance. Still shouting though she had already taken three shots. No question, she was trying to evade when she was shot. Right after the shooting the cop who did not shoot told Grayson, "I was on, I was on". This prompts Grayson to make his statement about not taking boiling water to the face...and a lot of cursing. You can just feel the gears in his head turning realizing the spot he was in. On video.

Am I being unfair? Could he have seen a threat not visible on the video? I do not think anyone who was actually in fear of being doused with boiling water would stand and draw a gun and threaten to shoot the bucket holder in the face. You would step back and away from the threat. He did not back away. He took two steps, forward and to the right to clear his line of sight and then he shot her. If she doesn't duck, he doesn't have to move.

He performs, again stating that he wasn't taking hot boiling water to the face (second time), "What else can we do?".

The second cop renders aid. The next responder comes on scene and asks, "Where is the gun?". Grayson waxes eloquent about the boiling water, and how she came after him. "She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came after me with a pot of boiling water".

In the instant before he heard the name of Jesus, Grayson was laughing. Then... "You f'ing better not or I'll shoot you in the f'ing face". A man of his word, he did just that.

"What else can we do?".

 

[Farm Boy]

Kill the animal. A poor choice. But maybe the best. Cage him and let justice take its course in there.

 

[Gorbles]

You joke, but. At what point in any other area do you argue that decreasing funding creates better results?

Given how vastly inflated police budgets in the US are compared to literally any other part of the municipal (if that's the right word) budget, I think this is kinda funny.

Anyhow the phrase as-used means a lot more than just the funding bit. You need the right tools for the right problem, instead of throwing the militarised hammer that is whatever local PD with military cast-off gear at every problem.