Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, moments after shocking police video was released showing an Illinois officer fatally shooting Sonya Massey after she called police fearing a home intruder.

In his first public statement since dropping his bid for re-election, Biden said the shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by white Sangamon county sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, in her home in Springfield, after a dispute over a pot of boiling water, “reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not”.

Biden, who is recovering from Covid at his home in Delaware, said Massey, “a beloved mother, friend, daughter and young Black woman … should be alive today”.

      • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Fooling? Pal, when I lived in America briefly, that was the first time in my entire life I heard someone say ‘removed,’ with sincerity about a black person… with zero shame… Just fucking meant it.

        Americans treatment of race across the board is fucked. The fact that so many well-meaning people who want a world where race is as important as hair colour, won’t stop making race relevant in every conversation…

        It’s absolutely fucked.

        • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Middle aged white dude in 'merica here. The amount of legitimate racists who openly identify themselves when I drive my old beat up pickup truck is insane.

          We have a real problem that requires we focus on race until we remove racists from power. Well meaning people are just those fighting the issue of racism. You may see it different but we won’t fix it by ignoring it.

          • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Fair opinion… But if you actually listen to the racist for 5 seconds they directly use the kinds of rhetoric I’m referring to to legitimise their rhetoric and behaviours.

            One can battle racists and racism, without being racist. Unfortunately, there have been many many cases of Americans not understanding that in recent years.

            It’s probably a loud small group, but your comments suggest that it’s still a problem.

            • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              From my experience in semi rural America it’s 50/50. I drive the old shit truck and hear racist shit from about half the white people I interact with. It’s not a loud small group unfortunately. It’s a group that stays quiet around brown people or foreign people that only speaks when it feels comfortable thinking it’s around other racists. I used to think it was a loud small group. Now, I cannot overstate how unbelievably racist they are.

          • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yeah but her race is irrelevant to her behaviours on the night she died.

            If you watch the tape, and want to say that her race is relevant to her behaviours…m that’s pretty racist.

            And her behaviours are undoubtedly deserving of asking for id, and her threatening behaviour is absolutely worth self defense.

            Unless you think a black cop would have taken that water?

            Or that a cop of any race would have taken that from a white person… or a Hispanic person.

              • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                Huh? why would I argue a point that you brought up?

                Why try strawman me? to argue with someone else? Goargue with someone else if you want to argue their points.

                I watched the video. She brought it entirely upon herself Unfortunately. She literally called 911 and then behaved that way. Probably suicide by cop, but who knows. You can never know that kind of thing.

                  • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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                    4 months ago

                    She literally called 911… and then behaved like that… and threatened to throw boiling water at the cops she called for asking for i.d.

                    Makes sense to me

            • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              not if the cop views her as someone beneath him and thinks she deserves violence due to her skin. fuck that cop.

              lol her “threatening behavior”?!?!

              • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                She picked up a pot of boiling water and said ‘i will remake you in the name of jesus/christ.’

                Can’t remember the exact wording. And that was after all of what she said and did before that moment. Did you watch the footage? You can see her behaviour.

                Why do you think her race is more relevant than… Her gender?

                Or hair colour? Serious questions. What brings you to her conclusion?

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          So hang on, you’ve correctly identified there’s a lot of racism in the US, but your solution… Is that we shouldn’t bring up race in racially biased situations? We shouldn’t call out racism?

          ???

            • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Ignoring race, because you keep bringing it up to excuse shitty Police behavior.

              Police closing the distance on someone they see as violent is an escalation of violence. She would very likely be alive today if they didn’t choose to make the situation worse by escalating.

              Pulling a gun and retreating, then shooting if she advanced, yep shooting is fine. Putting her in a corner and shooting when she flinches thinking she’s about to die? That’s murder. I don’t know how you are too dumb to understand this.

                • pahlimur@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  I’ve re watched it dozens of times because I’m morbidly curious. That cop is a shit bag who was looking to kill someone.

                  Did you watch it without masturbating over authority figures?

                  • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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                    4 months ago

                    Jfc… Some big presumptions there.

                    It seems obvious to me that if you threaten to throw boiling water over a cop, and they pull their gun and state they will fence themselves if you try…

                    Well, you put yourself entirely into her position.

                    It’s either suicide by cop or she was truly dangerous enough to harm innocent people… Yaknow… Because of the whole teaching for boiling water with anger on her face in an attempt to throw it on innocent people.

            • bcgm3@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Holy shit. Did you watch the tape? … She puts it down, gets down to a squat… And then as the police take a step towards her she reaches up for the pot of boiling water with anger on her face.

              This is a strangely telling detail for you to have included. You cannot see Sonya Massey’s face or movements in the moments leading up to the shots being fired – Her entire body is obfuscated behind both the kitchen counter and Sean Grayson’s body as he steps between Massey and his partner.

                • PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee
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                  4 months ago

                  She looks angry to you because you’re racist.

                  You cannot see what expression she has in that picture.

                • bcgm3@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  I’ve looked very carefully at the screenshot you linked. Due to the resolution and compression of the video file, the dim lightning, and the very fast motion at the time of the screenshot, Sonya Massey’s eyebrows, eyes, and mouth are in no way discernible. How can you arrive at the conclusion that she looks angry?

                  • ImpressiveEssay@lemmy.world
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                    4 months ago

                    As I said straight away, You have to watch it in motion. Slo mo ideally.

                    A large part of that deduction is based on her behaviour, threatening to throw boiling water on innocent people at work, he verbal threat to cause harm to those people, and then her reaching quickly for the boiling water with her head tilted down like that… combined with what we can make out of her expression in the footage in motion.

            • nyctre@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Lmao, what a bunch of bullshit. “With anger in her face”

              There’s like a half second of video that’s not covered by the guy’s arm (after she squatted, I mean) but the guy here, who’s not a racist btw, saw an angry woman trying to kill some cops with some hot water. Literally all you have to do is stay more than 2-3 meters away and nothing will happen to you, but whatever, I guess she got what she deserved.

              Also, she said it very dryly, hardly angry or threateningly. And even if she were, in what world is a cop replying with “you’d better not, I’ll fucking shoot you in your fucking face” a normal, disarming response?