Years before sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson gunned down Sonya Massey in her own home, he had been discharged from the Army for serious misconduct and had a history of driving under the influence, records show.

He also failed to obey a command while working for another sheriff’s office in Illinois and was told he needed “high stress decision making classes,” the agency’s documents reveal.

Grayson, who was a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy before he was fired and charged with murder, responded to a report of a prowler at Massey’s home July 6. Bodycam footage from another deputy showed Massey saying she rebuked Grayson, and Grayson responded by threatening the 36-year-old. The exchange ended with Grayson shooting Massey and failing to render aid.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If we ever get a progressive president maybe we’ll actually fix it.

    Until “bad apples” fuck up the rest of the cops money, they won’t care.

    Start taking the settlements out of their union/pension accounts. And all of a sudden I think cops will start electing different kinds of unions reps, ones that won’t fight hardest to keep the worst cops on duty

    • timbuck2themoon
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      5 months ago

      Not really under the purview of a president though (nor are they really a king, even with the insane Scotus decision.)

      People need to vote in local elections for people to fix this as most departments are locally run and overseen. At most you might get your state to pass something but even then that would be only blue states.

      It would be nice to have Congress do something but i don’t ever see that happening as Republicans wouldn’t go near it and even some Democrats wouldn’t.

      Problem is a lot of people don’t really care as much about this as other things.

      • kungen@feddit.nu
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        5 months ago

        taxes get high enough that localities are motivated to put actual pressure on their police

        Yes, but then you see politicians cutting funding to schools and such first, no? Taking settlements from “their own” money (such as pensions) is one of the better solutions I’ve heard.

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      If we ever get a progressive president maybe we’ll actually fix it.

      I’m not sure a president could make the necessary changes on their own. I think you’d also need a progressive congress.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        FDR got a lot of shit done.

        Even tho he wanted more and the two parties unified against him.

        An actually progressive president can guilt their party into progress, because he’ll go to their voters and flat out say the Dems they voted for is holding the whole country back, so next primary he’s supporting a challenger.

        Strangely enough, just the threat of that is often enough.

        Hell, Bernie is just a senator but that didn’t stop him from going to WV and telling voters that about Manchin.

        And Manchin started supporting the party more.

        Worked a hell of a lot better than Bidens strategy of publicly admitting he would even try to change someone’s mind.

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      If we ever get a progressive president maybe we’ll actually fix it.

      What do you think a progressive president can/will do to fix this? Biden used every available power of the office to try to push for police reform: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/07/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administrations-work-to-make-our-communities-safer-and-advance-effective-accountable-policing/

      Real change has to come from congress or state governments. The president has very limited powers here. Mostly they can only impose rules on federal officers, not local police.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Maybe you blocked the other person that asked me, but here’s what I told them:

        FDR got a lot of shit done.

        Even tho he wanted more and the two parties unified against him.

        An actually progressive president can guilt their party into progress, because he’ll go to their voters and flat out say the Dems they voted for is holding the whole country back, so next primary he’s supporting a challenger.

        Strangely enough, just the threat of that is often enough.

        Hell, Bernie is just a senator but that didn’t stop him from going to WV and telling voters that about Manchin.

        And Manchin started supporting the party more.

        Worked a hell of a lot better than Bidens strategy of publicly admitting he would even try to change someone’s mind.