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Sonya Massey death brings fresh heartache to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd activists

Published

2 years ago

July 28, 2024

Sonya Massey death brings fresh heartache to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd activists

Many Black women were elated over Kamala Harris’ rise only to experience new horror over the video of Massey’s killing. One activist likened the whiplash to a ‘domestic violence relationship.’

Hannah Drake felt something akin to emotional whiplash when she saw the video of an Illinois police officer killing Sonya Massey earlier this week.

Drake, 48, described the moment as the “dichotomy of being a Black woman in America.”

The bodycam footage showing the 36-year-old Black mother of two being shot in her own kitchen by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson was published Monday.

Massey had called 911 to report a possible intruder in her Springfield home on July 6. Thirty minutes later she was shot dead.

The shooting occurred as another deputy was clearing the house. Grayson began “aggressively yelling” at Massey to put down a pot of boiling water she had removed from her stove, although he had given her permission to do so. Grayson can be heard in the body cam footage saying “I swear to God. I’ll f— shoot you right in your f— face,” before firing a bullet at Massey’s head.

The footage was released just as the Democratic Party began to rally around Vice President Kamala Harris, making her the presumptive nominee to replace President Joe Biden – much to the elation of many Black women, some of whom have felt taken for granted by the Democratic Party.

Bodycam footage shows fatal shooting of Sonya Massey

Police body camera footage captured the moments in the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey in the Springfield, Illinois area.

“It’s like we’re in a domestic violence relationship with America,” Drake said. “It’s like a honeymoon phase, and then it’s right back to violence.”

It’s an eerily familiar feeling for the activist and poet, who was integral in passing police reform in Louisville, Kentucky, after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

Four years ago, people across the U.S. called for a racial reckoning in the wake of the killings of Taylor and George Floyd. Major companies made financial pledges to reduce racial disparities and lawmakers promised to meet the demands for policy change.

But progress toward those goals has been slow – particularly at the federal level, where few substantive policies have been passed to curb police-incited violence. Last year, the police killed more Americans than any other year on record.

Harris called the Massey family to offer condolences, and issued a statement Tuesday saying “we have much work to do to ensure that our justice system fully lives up to its name.”

“Sonya Massey deserved to be safe,” Harris said, adding that she and second gentlemen Doug Emhoff were “grieving her senseless death.”

For activists like Drake, Massey’s killing marks yet another flashpoint in the struggle to end the scourge. Her death, they say, brings even more urgency to their cause.

‘Russian roulette’

Timothy Findley Jr. a Louisville, K.y. pastor, organized countless protests demanding justice after Breonna Taylor’s death in 2020. Today, Findley finds himself questioning whether the work he did and the attention he helped draw to police brutality made a difference.

In light of Massey’s case, Findley said he believes there are few ways Black and brown people can interact safely with law enforcement. The officer who shot Massey was responding to a call for help she had initiated about a possible intruder. When he shot her in the head, she was holding a pot of water.

“For me, like with so many others, it continues to reinforce the belief that law enforcement is not always the helpful, friendly entity that we need,” Findley said. “You call 911, and it’s almost like Russian roulette. Depending on who you get, it could be the end of your life.”

DeRay McKesson views the path of progress slightly differently. As leader of the organization Campaign Zero, McKesson works day in and day out to pass local and state policies to reduce police violence. McKesson became a civil rights activist after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, nearly ten years ago.

“This last decade is the first sustained period of activism ever around the police,” McKesson said of the improvements he’s seen since.

Seven states now have adopted Campaign Zero’s recommended restrictions on the use of no-knock raids, the practice that allowed police to enter Breonna Taylor’s home.

Renewed calls for action

McKesson, however, doesn’t deny that more change is needed. When he heard of Massey’s death earlier this month, the first thing he researched was the police department’s local use of force policy because often “they’re awful.”

“They allow the police to kill people,” McKesson said. “Imagine if you had a job where no matter what you did, it was impossible to be held accountable.”

The officer who shot Massey was fired after the incident. But an Illinois labor council representing the officer has since filed a complaint, arguing that he was terminated “without just cause.” Prior to Massey’s killing, the officer had a disciplinary record that included claims of bullying and abuse of power, according to reporting by CBS News.

Those circumstances are part of the reason Lonita Baker, an attorney who represented Breonna Taylor’s family, believes a cultural change in the way law enforcement organizations operate is equally as important as policy reform efforts.

“We can have all the legislation in the world, but if we still have the bad people they’re still going to do bad things,” Baker said.

Efforts to decrease police brutality, she said, should be focused at the local level – where most departments are run. She has advocated for more thoughtful hiring practices, and enacting better systems of addressing misconduct within police departments.

At the federal level, Baker puts the blame for policy action squarely in the hands of Congress, who has yet to pass the comprehensive George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

“As someone that works, and pushes for continued change, I’m going to continue like every little bit that we get is a step in the right direction,” Baker affirmed. “Is it fast enough? Absolutely not.”

Trahern Crews, an activist who founded Black Lives Matter Minnesota, urged Democrats to make racial justice a policy priority ahead of the 2024 general election. While he said he won’t vote for Trump, Crews believes Democrats need to earn the votes of Black Americans by more ardently pushing for policy change in the next few months.

“It’s just a wake up call for all of us across the country that we still have a lot of work, work to do, and that we have to get to it,” Crews said of Massey’s death.

“The only way we won’t go backwards is if we continue to stay in the streets and continue to organize and continue to put, not just pressure on police departments, but also on elected officials to do the right thing and enact policies into a law.”

Contributing: Steven Spearie, The Springfield State Journal- Register

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Video: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

Published

2 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Video: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

new video loaded: Judge Orders Removal of Trump’s Name From Kennedy Center

A federal judge in Washington on Friday ordered that President Trump’s name be removed from the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

By Jackeline Luna

May 29, 2026

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Trump’s doctor recommends he lose weight and exercise more but says he is in ‘excellent health’ | CNN Politics

Published

4 hours ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Trump’s doctor recommends he lose weight and exercise more but says he is in ‘excellent health’ | CNN Politics

The White House released the results of President Donald Trump’s May physical late Friday evening, sharing a memo from his physician recommending he lose weight and exercise more while noting he is in excellent health.

“President Trump remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function,” White House physician Dr. Sean Barbabella wrote in a letter. “Cognitive and physical performance are excellent. He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”

Barbabella wrote, “Preventive counseling was provided,” during the exam, “including guidance on diet, recommendation to take a low-dose aspirin, increased physical activity, and continued weight loss.”

The doctor noted the president stands 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 238 pounds.

At his physical exam last April, Trump weighed 224 pounds.

His visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Tuesday marked the third time he’s visited the facility for a medical exam since becoming the oldest president ever inaugurated last year.

Prior to the visit, the White House said the check-up would include “routine annual dental and medical assessments,” despite him having already visited a dentist in Florida twice this year.

Immediately following the visit, Trump offered scant details on Truth Social, writing “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”

Since returning to the White House in 2025, visible ailments and speculation over his health have prompted the White House to divulge new details of the president’s physical condition.

The White House said swelling in his legs and ankles that was revealed last summer was a result of chronic venous insufficiency, a condition in which valves inside certain veins don’t work the way they should, which can allow blood to pool or collect in the veins. Trump attempted wearing compression socks, but found them uncomfortable.

In Friday’s letter, the president’s doctor wrote that, during Tuesday’s physical, “Slight lower leg swelling was noted, with improvement from last year.”

The president has also developed noticeable bruising on his hands during his second term, which the White House has chalked up to frequent handshakes and attempted to cover up with concealer in photographs.

According to the doctor’s readout, Trump also submitted to a “comprehensive neurological exam,” which showed “normal mental status, intact cranial nerves, normal motor strength, sensation, reflexes, gait, and balance.”

As for Trump’s heart health, the doctor said, “Al-enhanced electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis estimated his cardiac age…to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.”

Barbabella’s letter noted that Trump currently takes aspirin but didn’t give a dosage. When it’s used for preventive purposes, doctors generally advise taking 81 milligrams of aspirin per day, but Trump told the Wall Street Journal in January that he takes 325 milligrams, a dose that can raise the risk of bleeding.

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump told the WSJ. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. … They’d rather have me take the smaller one. I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is, it causes bruising.”

Trump again took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a 10-minute screening test used to detect mild cognitive impairment and early dementia. The doctor said the president scored 30 out of 30.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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Judge Tosses Citizenship Law Aimed at New Voters in New Hampshire

Published

13 hours ago

May 29, 2026

Press Room

Judge Tosses Citizenship Law Aimed at New Voters in New Hampshire

A federal judge has struck down a New Hampshire law that blocked new voters from using a sworn affidavit to prove their citizenship in the absence of official documents such as a birth certificate or passport.

The decision, filed late Thursday by Judge Samantha D. Elliott of the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, found that “eliminating the affidavits” as a means of proving citizenship “constitutes an unjustifiable burden on the right to vote in violation of the First and 14th Amendments.” The ruling immediately overturned the law, which was passed in 2024 and signed by the Republican governor at the time, Chris Sununu.

A spokesman for New Hampshire’s Justice Department said the state intended to appeal the decision.

The law “represents a common-sense approach to voter registration and election administration designed to protect the integrity of our elections,” the spokesman, Michael Garrity, said in a statement on Friday.

The law, which created some of the strictest voter registration requirements in the country, was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire on behalf of several groups, including the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire.

“New Hampshire’s elections have always been safe, secure and accurate,” Henry Klementowicz, the state A.C.L.U.’s deputy legal director, said in a statement. “This law could have unconstitutionally and needlessly prevented thousands of eligible voters from casting a ballot.”

Reports of wrongful voting in the state did not decline after the law’s passage, Judge Elliott noted, with a similar number of reports filed with the state attorney general in the year before the law was passed, and the year after.

The push for proof of citizenship has been at the core of Republican-backed efforts to change voting rules, ever since President Trump and his allies began promoting baseless conspiracy theories over the past decade that there has been widespread voter fraud by noncitizens.

Mr. Trump put documentary proof of citizenship at the center of his effort to change the country’s voting laws last year. He first signed an executive order in March 2025 that partly sought to establish such a requirement for federal elections, but that provision of the order was rejected by federal courts.

Republicans in Congress then took up the charge, making documentary proof of citizenship central to their federal voting legislation, known as the SAVE America Act. But the measure has stalled in Congress, where Republicans do not have enough votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster of the bill.

With the bill in limbo, Mr. Trump has threatened not to sign any other legislation until Republicans reform the filibuster to pass it, a procedural move known as the “nuclear option.” But his threats have not moved many Republicans to make the move.

There is no evidence of widespread voting by noncitizens, and the Trump administration’s efforts to prove these conspiracies are not succeeding: Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked by the beginning of 2026, the Department of Homeland Security referred around 0.02 percent of the names for further investigation. Any actual proven cases are likely to be a fraction of that fraction.

Even before the new law was passed, New Hampshire’s voting access had been more limited than most states’. It did not offer early in-person voting, or registration by mail for most voters. And it removed inactive voters after four years. More than 195,000 voters were removed in 2021 alone, according to a summary of evidence in the 100-page court decision.

New Hampshire does offer same-day registration on Election Day, an option that was used by voters some 350,000 times from 2016 to 2024, witnesses testified.

Under the law that was struck down, voters who showed up to register could present a birth certificate, a passport, naturalization papers “or any other reasonable documentation.” But they could no longer, as an alternative, sign an affidavit stating they were 18, a resident of the municipality they were voting in and a citizen of the United States.

“It may be tempting for some to describe the Qualified Voter Affidavit as an exception to the proof-of-citizenship requirement, but it is not,” Judge Elliott wrote in her decision. “A sworn affidavit capable of exposing an affiant to criminal prosecution is a method of proving citizenship.”

“Moreover,” she added, “the evidence shows that it is the only method of proof available to a significant number of New Hampshire voters.”

Experts testified in a trial this year that 5,000 to 30,000 residents in the state did not have documentary proof of citizenship. They said that 14,700 voters had used the affidavit option to register to vote from April to November of 2024.