JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) and other local organizations gathered at Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing Park in LaVilla Monday evening for a call to action in wake of Sonya Massey's death.
Massey was a 36-year-old Black woman who was killed inside her home near Springfield, Ill. July 6. She was killed by Sean Grayson of the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office who was fired following the incident and is now indicted for first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in her death.
The JCAC joined a national call to action from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). The organization explains that the brutal murder of Massey echoes "genocide perpetrated against Black people in this so-called land of the free."
"When a white Deputy Sheriff (Sean Grayson) says to a defenseless Black woman "I will shoot you in your f---ing face" and then proceeds to carry out this execution then we are brutally reminded that racist lynchings still haunt us as a nation because the powers that be continue to resist eradication of institutionalized racism," a news release from JCAC states. "We must protest, we must take to the streets and demand justice, freedom and equality until we get it. And we must not forget that what they do to us they do to Palestinians and oppressed people around the world."
The JCAC is demanding the following, according to the release:
- Community control of the police: civilian oversight now!
- Indict & convict killer cops
- Public Safety Committee now
- People's Budget Now!
- Congress pass the George Floyd bill now
