Center for American Progress

RELEASE: Sonya Massey’s Memory Should Spur Federal Action To Meaningfully Change Policing
Press Release

RELEASE: Sonya Massey’s Memory Should Spur Federal Action To Meaningfully Change Policing

Washington, D.C. — Sonya Massey called police to her home for help, but instead, they took her life. The senseless killing of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman living in Springfield, Illinois, once again drew national attention to the reality of police violence in this country as well as the unconscionable lack of action that permits these kinds of killings to keep happening. 

A new column from the Center for American Progress recommends pivotal federal policies to ensure meaningful police accountability and create lasting safety solutions: 

  • Federal action to ensure meaningful police accountability: Congress should finally pass comprehensive legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The Biden-Harris administration should also build on the work of the 2022 police reform executive order to ensure that its most impactful provisions extend to state and local police. 
  • Federal action to create lasting safety solutions: Federal policymakers should dedicate resources to the establishment and proliferation of “community responder” programs and other community-based safety models. This can be done through the establishment of dedicated grant programs and the passage of the Mental Health Justice Act. These programs should also be anchored by accountable local government infrastructure to house, manage, and coordinate interventions that prevent crime and deliver safety. 

“We have waited far too long for federal policymakers to take meaningful action to curtail police violence. Sonya Massey’s name is now added to the long list of Black people who have been killed by police just for going about their daily lives,” said Rachael Eisenberg, managing director of Rights and Justice at CAP and author of the column. “Federal policymakers must take action now and not permit another preventable atrocity. Sonya Massey deserved better. The American people deserve better.”

Read the column: Sonya Massey’s Memory Should Spur Federal Action To Meaningfully Change Policing” by Rachael Eisenberg

For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Jasmine Razeghi at [email protected].

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