Lawmakers ‘must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act now’, Biden says, amid shock over Sonya Massey death

Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, moments after shocking police video was released showing an Illinois officer fatally shooting Sonya Massey after she called police fearing a home intruder.

In his first public statement since dropping his bid for re-election, Biden said the shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by white Sangamon county sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, in her home in Springfield, after a dispute over a pot of boiling water, “reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not”.

Biden, who is recovering from Covid at his home in Delaware, said Massey, “a beloved mother, friend, daughter and young Black woman … should be alive today”.

  • prole
    26·
    2 months ago

    if she had said “OK thanks guys, I feel a lot better now. See you later.” it probably all wouldn’t have ended in murder.

    Why even say this victim blaming bullshit? Yes, I read the rest of your comment, I just don’t know why you felt the need to preface it by blaming an innocent dead woman for getting shot by the cop she called for help.

    I shouldn’t even need to say any of this, but she could have been cursing them off the moment they arrived for all I care. That’s literally her constitutional right. And if it were a white woman, and she was cursing them from the moment they arrived, she’d still be alive right now 100%. Perhaps detained or arrested, and/or maybe a few bruises. But alive.

    This country is going to need to have a reckoning. We failed Reconstruction, and in retrospect we probably should have let Sherman burn the South to the ground after the war, and now the chickens are coming to roost.

    (Yes I know this was in Illinois. The legacy of slavery is everywhere).

    • khannie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I think you misconstrued my intent which was just that I didn’t agree with this take from the person I was replying to:

      Like they’re challenging her to contradict them.

      I was merely trying to point out that I felt the cops (and murder cop in particular) were ready, keen even, to get away when they were standing on the porch. Murder cop seemed pissed off the entire time he was going to the call (his partner is constantly checking if he’s OK), when searching the back yard and also while dealing with that lady so I was surprised he didn’t take the opportunity to just fuck off back to his car. I felt like he really wanted to.

      And if it were a white woman, and she was cursing them from the moment they arrived, she’d still be alive right now 100%. Perhaps detained or arrested, and/or maybe a few bruises. But alive.

      Yeah, tbh I’m not American but that does ring true with me as a frequent external viewer of horror stories like this.