The sheriff for Illinois’ Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which employed the former deputy who shot and killed Sonya Massey in her home earlier this month after she called 911 to report a possible intruder, said during public comments Monday night that they had “failed” her.

“Sonya Massey – I speak her name and I’ll never forget it,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said during a “Community Healing & Listening Session” Monday night at Union Baptist Church in Springfield. “She called for help and we failed. That’s all she did: call for help."

“I’m going to say something right now I’ve never said in my career before: we failed,” Campbell continued. "We did not do our jobs. We failed Sonya. We failed Sonya’s family and friends. We failed the community. I stand here today before you with arms wide open to ask for forgiveness.”

  • ccunning@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “I’m going to say something right now I’ve never said in my career before: we failed,” Campbell continued. "We did not do our jobs. We failed Sonya. We failed Sonya’s family and friends. We failed the community. I stand here today before you with arms wide open to ask for forgiveness.”

    Great. So how did you end up hiring this known asshole, and what are you going to do to keep it from happening again?

    • MagicShel@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      Yes. Forgiveness demands a commitment to be better in the future. No matter how eloquently and humbly phrased, this is just “sorry” if there are no concrete actions being committed to.

      • ccunning@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The common refrain from my childhood was “‘Sorry’ isn’t good enough”.

        It was really annoying at 8yo, but I get it now…

        • Doxatek@mander.xyz
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          4 months ago

          I’m sure even when you heard it as an 8 year old It wasn’t after you shot someone in the face for no reason. Lmao.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      Police chief:

      To ensure this doesn’t happen again, we’ve prepared hundreds of “I’m sorry” templates that will fire off. So when our officers do heinous shit like this again, the Sorry will be within 24 hours, not a week later.

      Some examples of these, you ask?

      Sorry for shooting your dog.

      Sorry for roughing up your grandfather.

      Sorry for showing up at the robbery hours later.

      Sorry for laughing when you called for aid.

      Sorry for raping that woman.

      Sorry for all stats about us beating our spouses and partners.

      Sorry for spending millions on taxpayer money on surveillance that statistically has shown it doesn’t move the needle in public safety

      We can do better. By saying sorry faster.

      • Adderbox76@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        Don’t forget the newest hit single; “Sorry we shot through your four-year-old child in order to kill the man holding him hostage.”

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Sorry for spending millions on taxpayer money on surveillance that statistically has shown it doesn’t move the needle in public safety

        Hey do you have supporting links for this? I’m not asking to challenge you, I’m asking because I’d like to have some of those at hand in related/similar discussions.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Wow, this is the first time that police department has failed with him at the helm? What an incredible record!

      In the sense that it lacks credibility.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      and what are you going to do to keep it from happening again?

      “People are asking questions. What we are going to do to stop anyone from finding out when this happens next time?”

    • NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Hiring “bad apples” needs to be a crime for the sheriff, chief, etc. It’s sad that’s what it would take to keep guns and badges out of these guys hands.