By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we welcome WBAI Interim Program Director Keziah Glow to the host’s chair to discuss the deadly police shooting of 36-year-old mother of two Sonya Massey inside her Woodside Township home near Springfield, Illinois on July 6.

Massey was unarmed when Sangamon County Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson shot her to death. Massey had called 911 because she was concerned about a possible prowler outside her home.  

Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson has since been fired from the force and charged with murder. He had an extensive disciplinary file while still on the job in central Illinois. CNN reported that Grayson had also been  discharged from the U.S. Army for serious misconduct, and had a record of driving while under the influence.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 included common sense reforms—including the creation of a national registry for police officers like Grayson who are fired from one police department for cause only to be hired somewhere else. 

The legislation arose after George Floyd’s murder by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020. But although it passed the House, it failed in the U.S. Senate.

Larry Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress talks about Massey’s killing. His Organizaiton held a street action in Newark, New Jersey this past weekend in protest the police killing of Massey. Similar protests were held at dozens of locations around the country.

In the second half of the show, we get an update from Vinnie Variale, president of DC 37 Local 3621, representing FDNY EMS officers. The FDNY EMS unions are currently negotiating their contract with the City of New York. Even though FDNY’s EMS work right alongside police and fire and face similar dangers on the job, their pay and benefits lag far behind other first responders. 

Last year, for only the second time since the FDNY absorbed the city’s EMS workforce in 1996, the average response time for a city ambulance to answer a life-threatening emergency exceeded ten minutes. At 10:43, that response time was 36 seconds longer than the previous year. This is according to the Mayor’s Management Report [MMR] looking at fiscal year 2023. The woeful response time was also 1:21 longer than what was reported four years ago.

Listen to the entire show below:

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