I attended the rally that was held July 30 at New Mount Pilgrim Church in honor of the late Sonya Massey. She is the Black woman from the Springfield area who called 911 because she thought she heard a prowler. She had a pot of water boiling on the stove which they asked her to address. According to news accounts, as she went to pour the water in the sink, one of the deputies who had to be at least 15-20 feet away with a counter in between them, pulled out his gun and ended up shooting her just below her left eye.

The church was filled with a number of dignitaries, including Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Rev. Al Sharpton, Attorney Benjamin Crump, Roland Martin, and a number of family members of people who had been killed by the police.

Missing were Black politicians, including Mayor I’m-a-Black-man-living-on-the-West-Side-of-Chicago and even more noticeable, white politicians like Governor Pritzker, on whose watch and literally in his backyard this assassination occurred. If the governor is on the short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate, now more than ever, we need to make demands of him. These politicians show up at the Black community in churches asking for our votes, but when we’re killed, they’re MIA?

Ben Crump related a profound history of interactions of Black people with the police. Although the George Floyd Act, which “would seek to address the racial profiling and use of force that so often results in deadly police encounters,” passed the House in March 2021, it has stalled in the senate. With Kamala Harris needing the Black vote to win the presidential election, now’s the time to seek an executive order out of her.

Within the state of Illinois, some are proposing the “Sonya Massey Law,” which would not allow police officers to move from district to district unchecked. The deputy who shot Massey, reportedly, had been through a number of police districts and had disciplinary problems in the past.

Sonya Massey’s two children, her father, and several other family members were present. The rally raised $15,000-plus for the children. It was heartbreaking to hear her son say that the police never told him who killed their mother. He had to learn about it through the media. The family will need even more money as they fight to get justice for Sonya. A rally this past weekend of bikers who protested in Springfield is a sign that this is a cause we are not going to allow anyone to sweep under the rug.

The Democratic National Convention starts in about two weeks. It’s going to be interesting to see what, if any, demands are made to the nominee in return for our support.