“I Rebuke You in the Name of Jesus!”
The spiritual, psychological, and physical toll of police violence on Black people
The list of innocent unarmed Black people killed in the United States by police officers who are supposed to “protect and serve” continues to get longer and longer. It is impossible to keep up with all the names of Black people in America killed by police officers. The continued and increasing number of police killings of unarmed Black people challenges the myth of “a few bad apples.”
Here we go again
On July 6, 2024, Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old mother of two children, called 911, telling the dispatcher she was concerned about a possible intruder. Officer Sean Grayson and his partner responded to the call at her Springfield, IL, home. While body-cam footage of the police murder of Massey can be found across the internet, because of the negative normalizing impact of watching such videos, I am not including the footage here.
In the 36-minute body camera video released on July 22, Massey is seen in her bathrobe telling the deputies she “heard somebody outside.” Officer Grayson told Massey they checked her backyard. As Massey talked with the officers, she sometimes appeared confused. At a press conference, Massey’s family said she suffered from mental health…
