How Sonya Massey’s Death Could Have Been Prevented | EUROtoday

The police capturing dying of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black lady in Springfield, Illinois, renewed a name from elected officers for police reform laws and ignited ongoing demonstrations demanding police accountability nationwide.

Former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, who fatally shot Massey, has been charged with three counts of first-degree homicide. But to forestall circumstances like this from occurring sooner or later, consultants argue extra strain must be placed on legislation enforcement to alter police tradition.

“This woman needed help. She was scared. And rather than de-escalate the situation, [Grayson] escalated the situation by pulling out his gun and barking orders,” Chuck Wexler, govt director of the Police Executive Research Forum, instructed HuffPost.

“But unfortunately, in some police departments, those tactics are still used,” Wexler continued. “And if we are going to change, if we are going to learn from tragedies like this, we have to not just select different officers but change the tactics they use.”

In 2021, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed a legal justice laws package deal that included reforms and accountability for officers. That invoice included necessary coaching for officers, together with use-of-force and de-escalation ways to forestall or scale back using power.

“The unfortunate thing about legislation is that just because it exists does not mean that anyone will abide by it,” stated Miltonette Craig, a legal justice professor at Sam Houston State University.

The 2021 laws additionally established an obligation to intervene for legislation enforcement officers in circumstances the place extreme power is exhibited by their companion.

Jillian Snider, a coverage director on legal justice and civil liberties with the R Street Institute and a retired officer with the New York City Police Department, stated that within the Massey case, each deputies — Grayson and his still-unnamed companion — made errors in the course of the deadly encounter.

“There are many agencies like the NYPD where we have this duty to intervene in training, and that was a post-George Floyd training. So if you see another officer doing something that you know is absolutely wrong, you are responsible both legally and departmentally to intervene in that situation, to try and diffuse it,” Snider instructed HuffPost. “We did not see that in this case at all, we just kind of saw this officer go with whatever Grayson was doing.”

HuffPost reached out to Pritzker’s workplace for remark as as to whether the opposite deputy did not intervene, however his workplace didn’t present remark. The sheriff’s workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark.

When the 2 deputies walked into Massey’s residence, Grayson instructed her to show off a range that had a pot of boiling water on it. As she went into the kitchen to deal with the pot, the opposite deputy stepped again, saying he was transferring “away from your hot and steaming water.”

Massey replied, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Moments later, Grayson pointed his gun towards Massey and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t put the pot down. “I’m sorry,” Massey stated, and he or she crouched all the way down to the ground. Grayson shot her thrice and stated there was no must get a medical equipment as a result of she was shot within the head.

In Grayson’s area report, he wrote that he was in worry for his and the opposite deputy’s lives and that “I fired my duty weapon.”

“Firearms are not proportional to boiling water, under any circumstance. And it would have been great had the other officer realized a firearm was not necessary and having two drawn is even more over the top,” Craig stated.

Hans Menos, vice chairman of public security improvements on the Center for Policing Equity, stated whereas officers might have coaching to de-escalate interactions with civilians, particularly these with psychological well being, some officers are inclined to escalate the encounters anyhow.

Menos stated neither Grayson nor the opposite deputy wanted to go inside Massey’s residence and described the choice as escalation, which led to Massey’s deadly capturing. Menos stated the officers have been “looking for more” than the precise purpose they have been referred to as to Massey’s residence.

“This is escalation. They don’t need to be there,” he stated. “What we fail to realize is that police officers are not only failing to de-escalate, but they are often escalating. They are bringing things to a point that they do not need to be at. Ultimately, if they would do less and do what they were called for, Sonya Massey may be alive today.”

Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell condemned Grayson’s actions in the course of the capturing and described him as a “rogue individual” who didn’t use correct policing ways. Records from Grayson’s personnel recordsdata present he obtained coaching in areas reminiscent of disaster intervention, civil rights and de-escalation. Grayson’s checkered historical past of being discharged from the Army for violations, shuffling by six departments in 4 years and a number of legislation enforcement businesses citing in his office positioned him as a doable crimson flag in hiring.

In a current interview with CBS, Campbell doubled down on Grayson’s coaching, saying he obtained much more on when and when to not use deadly power.

“He had all the training he needed,” Campbell stated. “He just didn’t use it.”

Pritzker referred to as for Campbell’s resignation on Wednesday for hiring Grayson, not assembly with Massey’s household and failing to herald reforms to his police division.

“He failed to put forward reforms that clearly need to be made — training and other reforms,” Pritzker stated throughout a press convention.

Bree Spencer, a justice senior program director for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, stated her group welcomes the reintroduction of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a federal invoice designed to enhance police coaching, practices and transparency following the 2020 homicide of Floyd by ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. But she nonetheless believes there are policing points that laws can overlook.

In order to discover a resolution, Spencer argued Congress wants to handle policing reform in a step-by-step course of.

“There are problems in policing that are not being addressed by any of the current legislation, or by any current policy. And what it really comes down to is the culture of policing, the culture of sheriff’s departments,” Spencer stated.