James Massey sentenced to a year and a half in prison for inciting riot

CHICAGO (CBS)– A judge on Monday sentenced a Chicago man to 18 months in prison for inciting a riot and encouraging people to loot downtown.

James Massey pleaded guilty to posting Facebook messages and videos telling people to meet up to head downtown on Aug. 10, 2020. He was also ordered to pay $185,000 in restitution, with no interest.  

Massey was charged in May 2021 in U.S. District Court with using a facility of interstate commerce to incite a riot.

Prosecutors said on Sunday Aug. 9, 2020, Massey posed Facebook messages and videos calling for people to travel downtown to loot and commit property damage. Throughout the early morning hours on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, numerous people did loot retail stores in the Loop, the South Loop, the Magnificent Mile, River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast, the Clybourn Corridor, and Lincoln Park, among other areas.

Prosecutors said Massey directed people to meet at a certain location and travel downtown together. Several people responded to messages throughout the night to plan, among other things, where they would loot, prosecutors said.

The looting happened after Chicago police shot a man in Englewood who had fired at officers. Social media wrongly said it was an unarmed teen.

At the sentencing hearing Monday, prosecutors argued that because of the social media viewership on his posts of looting, Massey was responsible for hundreds of people coming downtown. The defense argued that Massey was only responsible for the three people in his car, and claimed he was just a kid joining in with what everyone else was doing.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said Massey demeaned the cause of actual protesters by trashing and looting.