Police are killing more Americans than ever. Where’s the outrage?
The scarcity of protests is striking
THE DAY before Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old black woman in Springfield, Illinois, was killed by a police officer, her mother phoned 911. “The mental people told me to call 911,” she told the dispatcher, reporting that her daughter was having a breakdown. “She thinks everybody’s after her,” she explained, adding: “Please don’t send no combative policemen that are prejudiced, please...They’re scary.” The next day, Ms Massey called 911 herself to report that she was scared of intruders. Her mother’s fears were proved to be entirely founded. Within minutes of their arrival, one of the two responding officers, Sean Grayson, was threatening to “shoot her in the fucking face” unless she dropped a pot of boiling water she was moving off the stove. Then he did exactly that.
Explore more
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “More deaths, less outrage”
United States August 24th 2024
- San Francisco Democrats are embracing “law and order” politics
- Police are killing more Americans than ever. Where’s the outrage?
- How Robert F. Kennedy junior’s effect on the election has shifted
- Behind the surge in migrants crossing America’s northern border
- NASA insists that two astronauts are not “stranded” in space
- Where crashing cars is the point
- History will judge Joe Biden by Kamala Harris
More from United States
Donald Trump goes to war with his employees
The president wants to shrink and remake the civil service
Kash Patel is a crackpot
Is he also a menace?
The White House has been fluid on gender for a decade
Trump’s order “restoring biological truth” will not be the last word
A controversial idea to hand even more power to the president
Impoundment is about to come a step closer
Tom Homan, unleashed
America’s new border czar spent decades waiting for a president like Donald Trump