Chicago demands justice for Sonya Massey

By Ash Stewack and Caeli Kean

Chicago, IL – 500 demonstrators rallied in Federal Plaza and marched through downtown Chicago, July 27, to protest the atrocious police murder of Sonya Massey. Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, was shot in the face in her own home after calling the police to report a potential intruder.

The officer who murdered her, Sean Grayson, a sheriff’s deputy in Sangamon County, Illinois, was discharged for murdering Sonya. Grayson was previously discharged from the army for serious misconduct, had a pattern of DUIs, and was shuffled around to at least six different police departments over the span of four years.

The demands of the day were clear: Justice for Sonya Massey, Samuel (Jay) Sharpe Jr., D’Vontaye Mitchell, and all those murdered by the police. Protesters called for Sean Grayson and all killer cops to be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.

In support of Sonya Massey’s family’s wishes, demonstrators also called for the passing of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Executive Director Frank Chapman of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said, “We saw them murder Sonya Massey. We saw this cop say, ‘I’m gonna shoot you in your fucking face,’ and then we saw him do it. I heard him say, ‘it was a head shot.’ He intended to kill her. What does this mean to us? We ain’t got no rights that law enforcement will respect, because these people are murdering us and killing us at will, under the cover of a badge, with legal authority. So we gotta take that legal authority away.”

On July 18, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council filed a grievance against the Sangamon Sheriff’s Office, saying that Grayson was terminated “without a just cause.” They did so even though Grayson shot Sonya Massey three times in the face, unarmed, with her hands raised, after posing no threat whatsoever to the officers. The union is asking that the former deputy be reinstated and reimbursed for lost wages, further illustrating that the police are not capable of holding themselves accountable for the egregious crimes they commit and only seek to uphold the ways in which they murder with impunity.

The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression initiated the call for the protest. Chapman pointed to the need for community control of the police, “Where we determine who polices in our communities and how they are policed.”

Speakers condemn police crimes, U.S. support for Israel

There were a number of campaigns spearheaded by the Black liberation movement that were addressed throughout the program, including ending solitary confinement, and freedom and justice for all those who have been tortured and wrongfully incarcerated at the hands of law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

Nesreen Hasan from the U.S. Palestinian Community Network said, “For over ten years, I’ve been speaking with the Chicago Alliance. I spoke at a rally for Rekia Boyd, RonnieMan Johnson, Philando Castille, Breonna Taylor, Laquan McDonald, Freddy Gray, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and the list goes on.” She drew endless parallels between the struggles for Black and a Palestinian liberation. She pointed out that “the U.S. has sent over 650 police departments to be trained by the IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces], and they bring back those tactics to kill and surveil Black and brown communities here.”

While the crowd gathered to protest the brutal murder of Sonya and all those killed by police, just an hour earlier 30 Palestinians were murdered by those same Israeli forces in the span of ten minutes at a school being used as a refugee shelter.

Hasan continued, “If I am granted the right to return to my homeland to go back to west Jerusalem where my family was killed and exiled from – if I get the right of return and Black people here and all over the world are still suffering, that means I’m not liberated.” She emphasized that liberation for anyone is not possible without Black liberation. “Sonya Massey is a women’s rights issue. Sonya Massey is a Black liberation issue. Sonya Massey is a Palestinian rights issue. Sonya Massey is a disability rights issue.”

Protest at the Democratic National Convention: Stop police crimes at home, genocide in Gaza

After the march, the closing program ended with several speakers calling for broad unity in the fight for Black liberation, particularly in the lead up to the March on the DNC, August 19.

The main slogan of the Coalition to March on the DNC is “Stand with Palestine! End U.S. aid to Israel!” With the involvement of numerous organizations from Black and Latino communities that suffer police occupation in cities across the U.S., the march on the DNC is also raising the slogans “Stop police crimes! Community control of the police now!”

Chapman explained why the Alliance had to protest for justice for Sonya Massey, and march on the DNC. “We are not responsible for our oppression. We are not responsible for what happened to Sonya Massey or Dexter Reed, or any of the others who have been unjustly murdered by the police. We are responsible for stopping it.”

“We can’t expect Kamala Harris to do that. We can’t expect [Chicago Mayor] Brandon Johnson to do that, we gotta do that.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #PoliceBrutality #DNC