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Florida deputies who fatally shot US airman burst into wrong apartment, attorney says

https://apnews.com/article/police-shooting-airman-florida-8bcc82463ada69264389edf2a4f1a83d

A civil rights attorney says deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U.S.

Florida deputies who fatally shot US airman burst into wrong apartment, attorney says

Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U.S. Air Force airman who was home alone when they saw he was armed with a gun, an attorney for the man’s family said Wednesday.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on May 3.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter.

56 comments

stembolts

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Sure, you are allowed to have a firearm. As long as we (the police) never see you with it, or anything shaped like it, on your person ever, even if you are inside your own apartment. Oh, also don't be black. Black people all have guns all the time. /s

That constitutional right doesn't feel very constitutional when it's a death sentence to exercise it.

He's got a gun! Quick! Murder him as fast as possible!

But we have the right to have them? Oh wait I get it, you have the right to have a firearm but not the right to be alive at the same time, ahh, now it makes sense. Got me with the loophole, no "right to live while bearing arms" in the constitution, but you can bear arms, just gotta forfeit your right to be alive.

Mammothmothman

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They know they are the tyrants mentioned in the 2A

Diplomjodler3

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Of course. Right wingers never feel bound by their own rules. Rules are just a tool for oppressing the outgroup.

prole

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Uh yeah, the second amendment says nothing about tyrants. I mean the entire thing is like one sentence dude come on.

The 2A is not, and never has been, about protecting the US from tyrannical leaders. That is not what a well-regulated militia was for.

Cybermonk_Taiji

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Asafum

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A-fuckin-goddamn-men.

I was literally just coming to write a similar comment.

So right wingers are you still going to lick those boots or maybe actually give a shit about that 2nd amendment you love to use as a cudgel against "the left?"

TachyonTele

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Is the Air Force at least going to care about this? When is this shit going to be stopped?

mosiacmango

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They didn't care about him when he was alive.

They may care about the operational loss, but they certainly wont bring any kind of hammer down on the local PD.

Cipher22

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I'm honestly curious about a source for your perspective on the first sentence. I've seen firsthand where the USAF negotiated on an international level for enlisted Airmen over a DUI. This particular case was in Japan and while the Airman had to serve his term as dictated by the Japanese courts, he was aloud to do so in a US Military facility, which was a significantly higher QOL for that Airman.

I couldn't find an article while looking for a minute, but it's been quite a few years. I also promise that skin tone was not a distinguishing factor.

At the end of the day, though, I would simply like information on your perspective, not to convince you to change.

lath

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Own country vs other countries. Doesn't matter what a US soldier did in other countries, if it can be swept under the rug, it will. Own country, they don't give a shit.

ShepherdPie

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Are Japanese prisons that bad? I would expect them to be much better than ours based on my understanding of their society but I honestly have no idea.

sparkle

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Japan is an ultraconservative hellhole, their law & justice system is probably the most backwards in the first world. Their crime management is pretty much just fascism many times, extremely out of proportion punishments for the crimes, and if the government accuses you of something and it goes to trial, you're basically toast. They all but torture you while you're being processed, often times they use harsh treatment to try to force a confession out of you before trial. The state prosecutor also has no legal obligation to present all the facts, they have a lot of freedom to cherrypick and withhold information relevant to the trial in order to make the defendant look as guilty as possible.

They have a 99.8% criminal conviction rate.

Japanese inmates are often treated inhumanely, the way Japan treats prisoners regularly would be considered a human rights violation in most western countries.

Imagine how Republicans treat criminals, and multiply it by a hundred. Japanese society/government HATES anything that's out of order and does all it can to stamp out any "deviance" from norms. This usually results in them treating financial crimes, theft, drugs, etc. extremely harshly, but doing pretty much nothing about crimes like sexual harassment & sexual assault, which are kind of culturally prevalent or even slightly acceptable in Japan. Legally rape victims are treated far worse than rapists. You'd even probably be treated leniently for DUI as long as it wasn't a taboo/illegal drug (i.e., if it's alcohol).

The reason urban Japan seems so nice and orderly is similar to the reason that the streets of Pyongyang seem so clean and behaved. Extremely terrible treatment of people who step out of line, except in Japan it's mostly culturally than politically. There's a reason they're known for suicide and hikikomoris.

It is a very common misconception that Japan is very progressive because of anime and the extremely rampant sexualization/objectification of women in the form of cute/funny things like panty dispensing machines and wacky television game shows and cat girls, and in general Japanese stuff just being very bright and bouncy and all that. But it's very misleading, their culture obsessed with cuteness/"kawaii" stems from an attempt to radically and rapidly distance their cultural image from that of Imperial Japan. They definitely succeeded in changing the world's perception of them, but they didn't address their deep societal issues which were in part caused by the US basically controlling their politics after WW2.

I should point out though that not all Japanese prisons are dystopian torture chambers. But you still get very few rights and freedoms while imprisoned, even socializing may be completely forbidden.

PM_Your_Nudes_Please

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Yeah, Japanese prisons are actually horrible. You basically have zero leeway in anything you do. You’re basically expected to sit quietly in your cell for 20 hours of the day. The rest of your time is spent either quietly eating, or kneeling quietly in the yard during your mandated outdoor time. Punishments for non-conformity are strict and swift, and guards aren’t afraid to beat you senseless for speaking out of turn.

Japan is actually extremely conservative, and that really shows in their justice system. They have a near 100% conviction rate after someone is arrested, because there are basically zero protections for the accused. No right to a defense lawyer, prosecution can exclude exculpatory evidence, police can drug and beat you to force a confession, etc… Only 0.2% of accused people are actually found innocent. And no, I didn’t mean 2%. I mean 99.8% of arrests lead to a conviction.

They have a large amount of tolerance for socially “normal” crimes like public intoxication, (the stereotype of the drunken Japanese businessman stumbling home at 2AM is very real,) but if it’s a socially unacceptable crime (like petty theft) or if you’re a foreigner, then they’ll throw the book (and basically the entire library) at you. The Yakuza is basically allowed to operate openly, as long as they don’t bother the normal citizens. But if you’re accused of smoking weed, you can expect to die in prison.

jonne

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Americans getting arrested in other countries is "a great injustice". If American cops kill an American, nobody cares.

Look at what the US has done to protect obviously guilty Americans from facing any type of consequence from committing crimes abroad. Stuff like the woman who killed a motorcyclist in the UK because she was driving the wrong way, or the airmen that killed scores of people by flying into a gondola cable in Italy.

Confused_Emus

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~~Did someone edit a comment? Or the post itself? Where does Japan come into an article about an airman killed by police in Florida?~~

EDIT: I put the em-PHASIS on the wrong syl-LABLE when reading the comment. Never mind.

catloaf

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It is an anecdote about the Air Force going to bat for one of its members, in a much less desirable scenario.

Confused_Emus

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Thanks. I was misinterpreting the previous comment.

Dkarma

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You saw some colonels nephew get out of a DUI and that makes u think the us military has integrity???

Lmfao. They don't hire the brightest do they?

Kid_Thunder

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I remember many years ago, the AF was charging airmen when some were splitting their tongues. The least they could do is charge these local PD with felonies. Obviously isn't going to happen.

What is crazy is the woman he was video chatting with said he heard a knock, asked who was there. No answer. Then a louder knock a couple of minutes later which is when he got his gun and they burst in. It sounds like it was unannounced.

I hope we get the video for this but Florida is trying to kill all of its open information policies, so we may never get to see it.

I really hope the cops are charged and convicted on at least manslaughter. Florida is pro-gun but also pro-cop. If the video shows them as being unannounced, I could see people actually being concerned because it could happen to any gunowner at that point, racial bias aside.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod

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charging airmen when some were splitting their tongues

Like, cutting their tongues down the middle to make a forked tongue?

Kid_Thunder

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yes AKA tongue bifurcation.

Gork

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This sounds like a very Florida Man activity.

tiefling

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Oh hey that's me! I've had mine split since 2017. I'm a sideshow performer and can hold lit torches with mine. AMA 🐍

Semi_Hemi_Demigod

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Now I have even more questions. How many people did this before it became a problem? How did this get started and why did people participate in it? Was this an issue in other branches? Is it a case of "we have to wear uniforms so we're going to do something rebellious to stand out?"

tiefling

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It doesn't have anything to do with the military. It's a body mod along the same line as tattoos, piercings, suspension, scarification, subdermal implants, and so on. It likely happens that some military personnel had it done but that's very much not where it came from.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod

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Yeah, I get that it's a popular body mod. I had a friend in that community and I learned a lot about it and it seems cool. I'm just confused because the body modders I met weren't exactly the sort of folks I'd see joining the military, especially the Air Force.

Kid_Thunder

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It was a small group of people circa 2003. They added to the Dress and Appearance AFI as 'mutilation' and specifically called it tongue splitting.

All kinds of people go into the military for various reasons. Many to get out of some way of life back home regardless of how they feel about the military and US policies you know? They can get college paid for, cut ties with whatever or whoever, get a place to live, get meals taken care of, get money in their pocket and maybe learn a trade. Obviously, there's a lot of cons there too but some people see it as their best way 'out' of something.

Back then OIF/OEF was just kicking off and everyone was all 'Never Forget' so the AF had so many people they actually started taking volunteers for people to leave early and then started forcing people out (called Force Reduction), which is crazy with the shear amount of deployments going on but the AF also had too many NCOs as well. So yeah. Shit show as usual.

ShepherdPie

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Yes I'm also very curious about the meaning of this line.

Zorsith

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(IANAL) So, technically speaking, signing up for the military means the government literally owns you. Self harm and body modification (even as mild as forgetting sunblock and getting sunburned, unapproved cosmetic surgeries) can be punished, on the grounds of damaging government/military property, making a soldier non-combat-ready.

morphballganon

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Sooo when are we going to stop bursting into any apartments?

Never?

MsPenguinette

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It's not fair of you to expect our cops to be compitent! It's against their nature

SpaceNoodle

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compitent

Found the cop

APassenger

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Doing quite well for a small penguin, tho.

LifeInMultipleChoice

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If this man gunned them down as they came in, it would have been covered by his rights as his life was endangered. It would never go that way on court. That's when things will change though, when people start killing armed people on their property under their castle/stand your ground laws. If 30 cops in a small enough area suddenly get themselves killed they will use their union to fight for disarming civilians and taking away the 2nd amendment rights/self defense laws, or the judges will stop signing warrants once they start getting sued/disbarred for allowing the cops to enter a dangerous situation they shouldn't have. Punish the police and the judges, and change might occur. So.. never

PriorityMotif

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I remember a similar case where the police didn't announce themselves and were trying to claim qualified immunity in front of a panel of judges. One of the judges said that he would have shot at them too.

ThunderWhiskers

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I AM NOT ADVOCATING VIOLENCE*

It is seeming more and more every day that the only way this situation is going to change is if more people start shooting police that are trespassing on their property. It's become readily apparent that non-violent systems intended to prevent this kind of behavior do not work.

Cybermonk_Taiji

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Sir_Kevin

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And once again we're given the name of the victim but not the murderer. ACAB

Ragnarok314159

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Just look for the one posting pictures from his month long paid vacation.

Potatos_are_not_friends

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Police officers "fatally shoot"

People of color "accidentally murder"

FlyingSquid

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Reminds me back when Hurricane Katrina happened and the news reported a scene of black people in New Orleans breaking into a supermarket as looting and a scene of white people doing the same thing as "finding food."

ChaoticEntropy

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Negligently murder.

exanime

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wait what? the cops were addressing a noise complaint and that, somehow, gave them permission to break into someone's home? (never mind they got the wrong home to begin with)

RagingRobot

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You would think they would realize it was the wrong house when they showed up and it was quiet

UnderpantsWeevil

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the cops were addressing a noise complaint

Someone heard another acorn drop.

ChaoticEntropy

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The office did not offer details on what kind of disturbance deputies were responding to or who called them.

Sooo... noise complaint then? They died because a deputy basically tricked them in to making themselves a threat.

Fredselfish

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I keep repeating this every fucking time I read a story like this. IF THE POLICE CAN KILL YOU FOR JUST HAVING A GUN ON YOUR PERSON. THEN WE DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO OWN GUNS THAT THE SECOND ADMEMENIT SAYS WE DO.

This happens all the fucking time and cops get away with these killings. So we are in a police state.

We need to be allowed to defend ourselves even against the police. If they break into the wrong house ( which they shouldn't be allowed to do without a fucking warrant) then we need to be allowed to shoot those fucking cops.

Then maybe they would take time to make sure they were at the right place.

ACAB.

homesweethomeMrL

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Are the cops on vacation yet

TachyonTele

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No. They have to take a few days off first.

Hptyhop84

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There will be an investigation by other pigs, therefore they will find him innocent & he will get a paid vacation by the tax payers probably promoted.

Xtallll

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Cops claim they aren't civilians, let's throw them to the military justice system, send them to Leavenworth, they can spend their days turning big rocks into little rocks.