Almost two weeks in the past after surviving an try on his life, it appeared as if Donald Trump had sewn up November’s election.
Then, on Sunday evening, Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed the cackling biracial knob-gobbler Kamala Harris as his alternative.
On Monday, Illinois State Police launched bodycam footage of a white male officer taking pictures a mentally in poor health black girl lifeless in her house. The taking pictures had occurred again on July 6, however in politics, timing is every little thing.
The black girl, 36-year-old Sonya Massey, was a mom of two, however she apparently lived alone in a dingy, cluttered home in Woodside Township close to Springfield, Illinois. Shortly after midnight on July 6, Massey dialed 911, saying she feared there was a prowler exterior her home.
To the sonic backdrop of buzzing summertime bugs and what’s both fireworks or gunshots within the distance, two white male deputies from the Sangamon Sheriff’s Workplace arrived and searched the premises surrounding Massey’s home. The one suspicious factor they discovered was a black automotive parked within the driveway with two smashed home windows.
Deputy Sean Grayson knocked on Massey’s door for 3 minutes. At one level earlier than opening the door, Massey screamed one thing unintelligible at them, however I might make out the phrase “fuck.” After Grayson defined that he was from the Sheriff’s Division and that she’d known as them, Massey, sporting a nightgown, opened the door, mumbled one thing about God, and defined that she had wanted to dress. Proper from the beginning, Massey gave the impression to be so out of it that Grayson requested her, “Doing all proper mentally?”
As soon as inside the home — which revealed Massey to be a slovenly hoarder — Grayson calmly requested Massey easy questions corresponding to whether or not she owned the automotive within the driveway. She stated she didn’t. When quizzed about whether or not she’d been conscious of any harm to the automotive, she muttered one thing a couple of dent. When requested concerning the smashed home windows, she stated that had occurred “earlier.”
Massey, who has her face buried in her smartphone for a lot of the interview, is evasive all through. She even paused to replicate when Grayson requested for her final identify, which leads an clearly pissed off Grayson to say, “Shouldn’t have to consider your final identify.”
When Grayson notices there’s a pot of boiling water on Massey’s range, he factors at it and says, “We don’t want a hearth whereas we’re right here.” Massey will get up from the sofa, walks towards the range, grabs two potholders, and lifts the pot of boiling water. When she notices the cops flinching on the sight of her holding the pot, the next dialogue ensues:
SONYA MASSEY: The place are you going?SEAN GRAYSON: Away out of your sizzling, steaming water.
SONYA MASSEY: Away from my sizzling, steaming water?
SEAN GRAYSON: Yeah.
SONYA MASSEY: Ah, I rebuke you within the identify of Jesus. I rebuke you within the identify of Jesus.
SEAN GRAYSON: You higher fuckin’ not. I swear to God, I’ll fuckin’ shoot you proper in your fuckin’ face. [draws his gun and points it at Massey]
SONYA MASSEY: Okay, I’m sorry.
SEAN GRAYSON: Drop the fuckin’ pot! Drop the fuckin’ pot! Drop — [fires three shots at Massey]
Grayson’s unidentified associate says he’s going to get his First Support package, however Grayson says, “She’s accomplished. You’ll be able to go get it, however that’s a head shot.”
Seconds later, Grayson tells his associate, “Dude, I’m not taking fucking boiling water to the fuckin’ head — and look, it fucking got here proper to our ft, too. Goddamn it.”
The 36-minute bodycam video the Illinois State police launched on Monday options footage from each officers on the scene. Sean Grayson’s video doesn’t begin till 28:07. The taking pictures doesn’t occur till about 28:21, however slowed-down video clearly exhibits Massey flinging no matter was within the pot towards the officers.
Historic precedent may justify fearing the sight of a black girl holding a pot of sizzling water. Think about the next headlines:
Typically, it’s greater than sizzling water. In 1974, soul singer Al Inexperienced’s former lover Mary Woodson tossed “a pot of sizzling grits” on his bare again, fled the lavatory, and shot herself lifeless in one other room. VICE journal did an entire daffy article about how black girls tossing sizzling grits on their dishonest males is “typically a device of girls’s rage and home warfare.”
The wealthy lore black of girls tossing sizzling, boiling substances at others has led to the colloquialism “Nigger Napalm.”
However identical to George Floyd resisting arrest after utilizing a counterfeit invoice whereas excessive on fentanyl was excised from all the main accounts that led to rioting in the summertime of 2020, the identical factor is already taking place with official accounts about what occurred to Sonya Massey.
Solely a day after asserting he was withdrawing from the presidential race — and the identical day that the Grayson/Massey bodycam footage was launched — alleged Chief Govt Joe Biden emerged from his crypt to difficulty an official assertion concerning the taking pictures:
Sonya Massey, a beloved mom, buddy, daughter, and younger Black [sic] girl, needs to be alive right this moment. Sonya known as the police as a result of she was involved a couple of potential intruder. . . . Sonya’s loss of life by the hands of a responding officer reminds us that each one too typically Black [sic] Individuals face fears for his or her security in methods lots of the remainder of us don’t. . . . Whereas we look forward to the case to be prosecuted, allow us to pray to consolation the grieving. Congress should go the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act now. Our elementary dedication to justice is at stake.
On Tuesday, Kamala Harris launched her personal assertion:
Sonya Massey deserved to be protected. After she known as the police for assist, she was tragically killed in her own residence by the hands of a responding officer sworn to guard and serve. . . . The disturbing footage launched yesterday confirms what we all know from the lived experiences of so many — we’ve a lot work to do to make sure that our justice system totally lives as much as its identify. . . . I be part of President Biden in commending the swift motion of the State’s Lawyer’s Workplace and in calling on Congress to go the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a invoice that I coauthored within the Senate. . . .
Black lawyer Ben Crump — who has made a reputation for himself driving black coffins as in the event that they had been bikes and may now add Massey’s household to his consumer checklist together with the households of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Tyre Nichols, and George Floyd — burped out the next:
That is the worst police taking pictures video ever. . . . She wanted a serving to hand. She didn’t want a bullet to her face. . . . I do know it’s laborious for some folks to even fathom it, but it surely’s a actuality for most individuals of colour, particularly black folks in America. We take into consideration this each day that however by the grace of God, it might be your mama subsequent or your daughter or your son.
Sean Grayson, who has a checkered historical past as a police officer and a report of driving below the affect convictions, has been arrested and charged with first-degree homicide. Count on him to get the total Derek Chauvin remedy from each the legislation and different inmates.
Grayson shot and killed Sonya Massey about 200 miles south of Chicago, the place the Democratic Nationwide Conference might be held subsequent month. Count on her corpse for use as a prop all through the conference. She may even be the star of the present.
