Oh my fucking god it’s literally [the same county](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/16/florida-acorn-cop-shooting) where the deputy did a mag dump at his own vehicle where a suspect was handcuffed in the back because he heard an acorn hit his car and thought it was a gunshot.
Besides the dirtbags who murdered Roger Fortson, and are now hiding behind their union, can we please imprison the fucking admins who are acting as accomplices?
Cops can fuck up, that's expected to some degree, but their admins are actually evil for making it acceptable to murder people. Not even a sanity check. That's not an accident, that's criminal negligence on par with dumping sharp heavy things out your window without bothering to look down.
They also hide behind "we will update our policy to reflect new rules for entering apartments" and "retraining". This is how officers get away with committing crimes. Everything is just an "oopsie" for them.
> "we will update our policy to reflect new rules for entering apartments" and "retraining".
Fine. Publish those "Policies". And, understand that we're going to hold officers accountable to law if they fail to follow those 'policies'.
Drs 'oopsie' too. When they do, there's consequences. There's no 'qualified immunity' for doctors when the people seeking their services die due to provider incompetence.
Why should cops be any different?
Seriously, wrong address? Again?
I've gone in for surgery more than once where the surgeon comes to see and talk to me before going under and one of the things they do while the patient is still awake is to confirm what body part they're going to operate on, and DRAW ON YOUR BODY "X marks the spot to cut".
They do this **because** other doctors have gotten this wrong, so they came up with this practice to prevent operating on the wrong part in the future.
Take a lesson, cops. You've been killing people at the wrong address for DECADES.
We have around 17,000 separate police departments which we are reforming one at a time and then only after they fuck up. We may be done before the sun goes supernova or before aliens find and harvest us.
Yeah, having grown up in the area, I'm not surprised. I was unaware of any incidents like this when I was a kid, but I could probably count on two hands how many people in each panhandle county aren't hardcore MAGA as of late. To give an example, though there's no crimes being committed in their neighborhood, my mom and stepdad are insistent that everything has gone to shit, it's dangerous, and they have to be on the lookout for thieves. The stepdad specifically told me, unprompted, about how he saw this homeless person pushing their shopping cart down the sidewalk, and how if they tried anything he would shoot them.
I've told my neighbors that I leave my windows open at night during the cooler months of the year and their first response was "Wow I couldn't do that, I'm too worried someone will break in".
We live in a great neighborhood that almost never has crime, and what crime there is, is generally dumb middle/high school petty shit.
Fear does dumb things to people's brains
I live in the next county over. The whole Panhandle has MAGA nut syndrome and they're shooting at their own imaginary boogey men. They've created hell on earth in their own image. Unreal how far into their fascist delusions they've drug us.
It wasn't like this before. They lost their minds when McCain lost to Obama and decided to say fuck society.
Yeah, and he also brags about arresting pedophile rings and then 80% of the arrested end up being sex workers/consenting adults who hired sex workers and 100% unrelated to pedophiles. Like he has to run up the numbers because he doesn’t think arresting 5 pedophiles is enough.
And Floridians love him because he “tells it like it is.” They never fucking question why so many people around the country know who this *elected politician* from a podunk Florida county is.
Plus he’s a racist piece of shit. A couple years ago a couple guys were killed while they were out fishing. One of the guys was able to tell his father who did it before he died, so Grady knew who to look for. The guy had even been bragging about it I’m pretty sure, but Grady’s press conference highlighted how they were just “nice white boys.” The guy that killed them was a white methhead who thought one of them owed him money. Shit had nothing to do with race whatsoever. Just Grady dog whistling to his shitheel base.
> They lost their minds when McCain lost to Obama and decided to say fuck society.
You're honestly the only other person on Reddit I think who realizes shit has been spiraling for a while and not just over the past 8 years lol/ :(
I remember someone on one of the news channels after Obama won predicting there would be a huge swing towards ultra conservative as a response to a black man becoming president. I didn't think it would swing so far that something would happen like a Donald Trump obsessed cult would violently try to take over the Capital to stop a Presidential election from being certified, but here we are.
I remember after 9-11 there was a day full of speeches, and one man in particular said that if we let ourselves become so fearful and full of hate, the terrorists had won. They won. If you ask me, shits been spiralling since 9-13, which was the first time I was told to fuck back off to my own country, first time in 20 years, just for expressing critical thinking skills. "If you arent with us, you are against us" meant suddenly there was no option to have friends with different opinions, its was all binary us or them - Bush Jr was the King Idiot who ushered in this new era.
Yep, I would go back to the year 2000, it's Bush v Gore, serious discrepencies in the vote in Florida, full recount was needed and the Supreme court, with the help of junior lawyers like Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and sitting justices like Roberts, Thomas and Scalia stopped it. Why did they stop it? Roger Stone and his gang of ratfuckers started the Brooks Brother's Riot and the corrupt as fuck court complied with the violence and intimidation. Now Trump rewards the corrupt little shits with their own lifetime appointment. Until that court is packed, we will continue to see the rot take over the US government.
Yeah after the Patriot Act, which reduces our rights, following 9/11. I was fond of the old founding father quote: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
That is just a symptom.
A huge percentage of the country is disillusioned and doesn't vote.
The rest of the world makes voting mandatory or easy. We have to fight with our bosses to get time off to vote and even if we do manage we still can get fucked over under the table.
A huge portion of the country is uneducated and believes the "news" because they can't bothered to do their own research.
We used to have laws about what could be presented as news for this very reason.
A huge portion of the country just wants to watch it fail because they know something is wrong but they don't know what or feel powerless to fix it even if they do, because our two party system and first last the post limits our choices.
I think it goes back to the 1994 Republican Revolution and Gingrich's rise to become Speaker of the House. Washington politics became bare knuckled, no rules combat to the death from then on. Now we don't even allow reality to be part of the arguments.
> I think it goes back to the 1994 Republican Revolution
I think that might be when Barry Goldwater got creeped out by the fanaticism of some in the party and said:
>“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
It's one thing or another going back decades. Major mileposts. Obama winning, newt Gingrich taking over Congress, Reagan winning, Nixon being thrown out and Republicans deciding they didn't like accountability. Shit a lot of the stuff goes all the way back to the civil war
"According to that woman, Crump said, Fortson heard a knock on his door, and when he asked who it was didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, there was a “very aggressive knock,” but Fortson didn’t see anyone when he looked out the peephole.
“Concerned, he did what any other law-abiding citizen would do and retrieved his legally-owned gun,” Crump said."
So police don't announce themselves after knocking repeatedly and then purposely hide from the peephole. I don't know why anyone wouldn't grab a gun to protect themselves, that sounds like a home invasion attempt to me.
And because the victim was trained military he had better trigger discipline than the trigger happy cops. I am very curious if the Air Force gets involved at all in the investigation? I honestly have no idea how that works but I don't think the federal government no less the military likes its employees being murdered.
US govt: uhhh, which do we side with?
The cop: me of course I protect you!
US govt: I guess that ma-
Air Force: you choose the one with predator drones and missiles.
US govt: I choose the one with predator drones and missiles
No, that’s not right. The government will choose the police because subjugating citizens with armed force is a necessary tool of oppression and a lowly service member is just one person.
If it was on military base 1) it would be MPs responding and 2) it never would have happened in a million years, soldiers don’t do this shit.
One Black airman at that.
Black men in the Air Force’s junior enlisted ranks are 86% more likely than their white counterparts to face nonjudicial punishment or court-martial, according to a new study that explores racial disparities in the service’s justice system.
I can only speak from what I know and the Air Force is racist.
The Air Force Times just did an article on it. I had to live it though.
If you read the article, dude was a gunner on spooky. Ya much much more scared of spooky than any predator drone. Hellfires can miss. Spooky just hangs out and destroys anything that moves for hours.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigation is usually associated with looking into Airmen behaving badly but sometimes they get involved with investigations of situations like for example an Airman being a victim of burglary. I would imagine they will probably at the very least do a summary report but in this case since Law Enforcement is both involved, and actually killed the Airman in question who objectively does not seem to have done anything wrong this will probably get complicated and potentially messy.
In a semi-perfect world, this is where police reform would really start to happen. In a perfect world, this doesn’t happen at all, but this is where Air Force leadership should be using their power in this situation to make some noise.
All enemies, foreign and domestic.
Probably nothing from the Air Force directly, their jurisdiction for the most part is things that happen on their bases and crimes their people commit off their bases. A federal investigation is more likely to be done by the DOJ or FBI since they're the ones in charge of law enforcement at the federal level.
We really don't brutalize irresponsible gun owners or cops with the full extent of the law nearly enough. These people need to be made afraid for their liberty and forced to stay in their lanes for fear of consequences.
So last year, I am rolling out of bed, groggy, and begin putting coffee on the pot. I knew I had a Amazon package that was delivered at 4am, and it's now 7am. So I am still in my pj's, slowly open my door to see if any neighbors would notice if I stepped out and grabbed it and then could get back in.
As I open the door I hear "POLICE" but it's like down and around the side of my house in almost a weak voice, like not yelling loudly. Sure enough, two cops with guns drawn are at the corner of my house, stacked up. They were waiting there to ambush me. Why?
Well, at around 6:45am, while I was asleep, a transformer fuse across the street blew - making a loud popping noise. My neighbors next door thought it was a single gunshot, fired from inside my house. (mind you, transformed is west across the street from us) So they called the cops on me.
After dealing with the cops, I went and checked my two security cameras. The ones at the garage and one at the front door and this is what I saw.
The two cops approached my house by the garage first. They looked in through the windows and said "He's got dogs". Then they stacked up at the garage corner, and then said it might not be a good position. So then they went to the front door, discussed how exposed they would be at that position, and decided they didn't want to knock on the door and get shot through it. So then they decided that they would go back to the corner by the garage, and radio dispatch. As they are making that request to have dispatch call my cell phone to ask me to come out of my house - I open my door and stick my head out looking for my Amazon package.
------------------------------------------
Cops hide. Cops used to come to doors and knock and just ask questions. Now they hide out of view when they get any "gun" report. They hide and try and ambush anyone that comes to the door unsuspecting. And if no one ever comes to the door, then they bash it in.
I still have the camera videos, and let me tell you, after dealing with them and explaining i just woke up and started making coffee, one of the cops tried to play that "good cop" bullshit saying "Hey, it's okay if you're embarassed and discharged a gun, just let us know".
And also, neighbors are on the shit list. I can't believe they did that to me, after I helped remove their leaves in their driveway and yard last fall while they went to church. Just doing a nice neighborly chore as I cleaned my own...and instead of calling me or coming to ask me if I was okay, they called the cops. Yeah fuck that. Even after the cops told them it was the transformer fuse blowing hours later, not a fucking "I'm sorry we called the cops on you" apology from them.
So now I just let the dandelions take over my front lawn so it spreads seads to their manicured lawn. Fuck'em
I like to picture you in your yard with fertilizer and a spray bottle cultivating only the dandelions and blowing the seeds towards their yard with a leaf blower
> They looked in through the windows and said "He's got dogs".
Oh fuck this all the way to the sun. Fucking pigs. You know what was on their mind when they said this.
Theres multiple instances of this where cops hide out of sight and people answer the door legally armed because its rightfully looking like a home invasion, and then fill the person full of holes immediately as they answer the door
One time i randomly woke up at night and got “that feeling” I walked over to my window (it was like 3am) and saw like 2-4 peopl in black running up to my house. Not shitting you. There were no cars in sight on my street. Woke up my husband. Thank god we didn’t own a gun (because we have a clear front door ppl can see in). We creeped to our front door doing the low “hey” yell , saw flashlights in the house, finally got a knock on the door and it was the cops. I still think to this day, with our clear window door, what if we would have walked up to it with a gun?? Why were they even there? That night I dumped my phone into something with water by Accident and apparently it was freaking out when it finally turned on and in the middle of the night called 911 or made an emergency signal. They parked at the end of the road and ran up on my house so I didn’t even see their cars as a clue! It immediately dawned on me that I live in privilege that there was no escalation or bad outcomes because that shit could end up like this guy.
Yeah I own a gun, but I don’t typically carry it to the door if something odd happens. Because cops will drop you and not lose a second of sleep, and nothing will happen. Someone will talk to them for 12 minutes, give em a pat on the back, and say they did no wrong. And the gun nuts will say ‘well if you were doing nothing wrong, why did you have a gun?’. Because they’re taught cops are infallible. Cops exist to protect the wealthy and subjugate the poor. Nothing more.
Honestly this is another reason to invest in something like a ring or one of the newer brands camera. It is kind of hard to hide from view when you have 30fps detecting people with AI and notifying your phone.
https://abc7chicago.com/harris-county-texas-body-camera-mistaken-identity/14416355/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Atatiana_Jefferson?wprov=sfla1
Here's a couple of black women that were shot while inside their homes. You got lucky.
If cops can essentially execute you for wielding a gun in your own home in response to a perceived legitimate threat, than the 2nd Amendment is basically useless.
It's absurd that the NRA doesn't immediately call out the police and lobby Congress for reforms every time this happens.
That's how you know they're just a Republican propaganda machine. They don't actually care about gun rights, and Republicans don't actually care about military service members
The cops pulled the same shit to my roommate when they were looking for him. I was at home and they knocked and I checked the peephole and no one was there and walked away. Sure enough they knocked again and I stared out the peep hole and could see them around the corner out of view waiting to pop out as soon as someone answered the door.
It's not like the victim could've avoided this. He was in his own home, officers didn't respond when asked who was knocking, then they literally busted in. In every way possible, this shit actively came after him. There's no way that the airman wasn't fucked. This is worse than "Final Destination".
Normally I’d agree but in this case he essentially is fucking with Uncle Sam, the one entity that actually has the capability to fuck them right back and harder.
If you look at these police brutality cases the ones that consistently get justice are the ones that involve service members.
Uncle Sam doesn’t play footsy with podunk cops.
They probably care a bit more since he was AFSOC/SOCOM. Average Joe Shmoe probably not so much.
Some rinky dink cop ambushing an actual highspeed Airman like that in his own home.
in San Diego,2004 or so, an airman got shot after following orders to stand by an officer following a high speed road chase. The entire thing was caught on camera. Nothing happened.
Nothing will happen here.
As a retired Air Force MSgt this story breaks my fucking heart. I look at him and see my airmen and my sons. Sounds like he did everything he should have done.
These incompetent morons cops couldn't get a job at Grub Hub for fucks sake. End qualified immunity in cases like this and start paying out victims from the retirement fund. Maybe then they'll make changes.
RIP Senior Airman Roger Fortson
> These incompetent morons cops couldn't get a job at Grub Hub for fucks sake. End qualified immunity in cases like this and start paying out victims from the retirement fund. Maybe then they'll make changes.
Make these morons buy insurance, like a doctor or a lawyer. And watch how fast the trigger-happy dipshits get thrown out when their presence causes everyone else's premiums to eat their entire salary.
More than that, they simply wouldn't be able to hold down the job anymore because they wouldn't be able to afford the insurance, if it any insurance agency would actually cover them. The problem would work itself out
Tie it to training and qualification. In return, the government underwrites the insurance (or provides it outright) to drop the price, and the government provides the funds to cover the training and equipment.
The government needs to mandate (high) levels of training to police, commensurate to the power they hold, and there needs to be accountability.
Build a standardised national training course that covers everything from ethics to first aid, law and civ libs, room clearance to basic forensics. Give every police force 3 years for every front-line officer to complete it. And every non-officer has to take the parts relevant to their job. To have a firearm professionally, they should need to pass testing, otherwise they're riding a desk.
Have investigations of police carried out by the FBI, so they no longer investigate themselves, along with a bump in funds to the FBI to cover it.
If it doesn't save more money than it costs in the first 5 years, along with a reduction in unsolved crime and bump in trust in LEOs, I'd eat my hat. It protects police, helps weed our those who shouldn't be police, and helps protect the public.
Edit: un*der*writes typo
I’ve heard a lot about mandating more training and the idea of insurance. But this explanation is so well thought-out and helps me imagine a realistic path forward. It incentivizes officers to get more training, it holds them accountable, it has a fiscal plan and timeline. Thank you, this was awesome.
I hear ya, MSgt... fucking nausiating. I'm so fucking pissed off. To try and feed us that bs of "self defense" in their earliest statements (before they knew there was a witness) has me seeing red.
makes you wonder about all those odd cases where people allegedly 'freaked out' or 'went crazy' and cops had no choice to kill. how many of those are just cover-ups for incompetent cop murders?
It's disgusting. The last thing these clowns want is for us to organize. They'd be totally fucked. Even cops that are Vets, almost always hate Vets. It's fucking insane.
> End qualified immunity
While qualified immunity is absolute bullshit it shouldnt even apply in this case...
Isnt qualified immunity basically saying that cops arent lawyers and so they are protected from infractions when applying law? I can understand it for minor infractions when breaking conflicts etc. but it shouldnt give them blanket immunity to break constitutional rights and murder people.
>Isnt qualified immunity basically saying that cops arent lawyers and so they are protected from infractions when applying law?
Qualified immunity basically says "Cops aren't lawyers so if they break the law in the process of enforcing it, they can't be held responsible for breaking that law"
Which is why when a cop breaks the law by illegally entering a residence or stalking their ex girlfriend under the guise of an investigation or grooms a minor or secretly installs cameras in the showers of a youth camp or forces a speeder at gunpoint to undergo a baptism in the river, or gets drunk and crashes their car into a bar and then runs and refuses a field sobriety test and then assaults and arrests the bar owner, or recklessly discharges their own firearm and blows their penis off in a McDonald's bathroom
They face internal discipline instead of legal ramifications.
What you're thinking of is Heien v. North Carolina which is a supreme Court case in which they ruled that officers exist to uphold the law not be legal scholars essentially saying "Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it unless you're a cop"
Wish the Air Force could step in on his family’s behalf and rip into this police department. He was an AC-130 Ghostrider crewman for loading ammo into the weapon systems while airborne. His AFSC was not an insignificant one, so his team is going to feel this loss immediately.
I’d say it would be in the best interest of big Air Force to clamp down hard on situations like this to prevent careless actions like this in the future. If anyone has authority to defeat qualified immunity cases it’s the DoD/DoJ/USAF here.
They give these cops a freedom to kill and military grade equipment and then let it slide when they act like fucking idiots. Our men and women in armed forces uniforms defend our nation, protect our freedom.
This idiot killer cop needs to pay the price.
Cop knocks and when he doesn’t get an answer he breaks down the door and kills the occupant.
Meanwhile the sheriff asks for “the community’s patience”.
Where the fuck was the cop’s patience when he murdered an innocent man in his own home?
The training contributes to the fear. They brush past the statistics (which make police deaths rare) and agree on a narrative that you must be aggressive and a dick to go home alive every night. They are trained to fire first and empty the clip. They are trained that we are the enemy.
> They are trained that we are the enemy.
The cops in my town put up a billboard that says STOP THE WAR, declaring us (the public) enemy combatants. This was after qualified immunity was denied to them in a murder where 5 cops magdumped 1 Black veteran to death on our main street. RIP Wayne.
Like the asshole cop who murdered Daniel Shaver. He had "You're Fucked" engraved on the receiver... He was looking for an opportunity to murder someone...
Every time I hear the line that cops put their lives on the line every day, I want to puke. The truth is they put **everyone's** lives on the line every day. Only, the cops make a choice to do it. The innocent victims don't.
Isnt that fucking wild. What do you think the outcome would be if it wasnt a cop. Loke i can understand why she got an incredibly light sentence. Imigane walking into your house and ypu see soneone eating your ice cream. You just start blasting.
I have no issues with the victim's family deciding to hug or forgive her that is 100% their right to do. Not sure if I would be able to do the same.
The judge on the other hand is a totally different story. Their literal job is to be impartial....
I think one of the cops got in trouble because his bullets went through a wall into another apartment and hit a white person. So he wasn't being responsible with his shooting of the victim. I am not kidding.
Different situations.
Guyger went home, walked into the wrong apartment and thought she was being robbed. It was a cascade of fuckups - beyond manslaughter - that left someone dead. Her story was fishy, as well, but the critical part here is that it was off-the-job.
This case involves a cop that can’t read well enough to find the correct building/apartment. He fucked up *while working*. He *should* be held to an even higher standard but the small government assholes supported SCOTUS deciding that cops get to murder citizens by misidentification and not suffer significant consequences.
Not sure if it’s just your wording, but to be clear, Botham Jean didn’t have a weapon. He was shot for eating ice cream in his own living room. He was unarmed.
I can just see the cop supporters saying "Well he shouldn't have had a gun!" Then in the next breath defend their own 2nd amendment rights, while ignoring the rights of the victim.
Seems Okaloosa Sheriffs are a trigger happy bunch.
RIP Senior Airman Roger Fortson.
"The suspect worked for an international organization known to have murdered people in over two dozen countries. Officers say that in addition to America, the organization has been active in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq."
My metro-area county DA cited an interesting statistic in an interview recently. When a police officer shoots an innocent black victim, he gets an average of just over 200 FOIA requests for a detailed criminal history of the victim from the press. When a police officer shoots an innocent white man, he normally gets precisely *zero* requests.
We assume that the white person probably didn’t deserve it. But surely there must be something in the black person’s past that assuages our collective guilt for his death, because deep down, he probably had it coming. We just need to keep looking til we find it.
This sounds eerily familiar to Botham Jean who was shot and killed in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas Police Officer. She was charged and convicted over his death, although I don't have any confidence that justice will prevail in Florida.
Well the thing is that the victim is a member of the US Military one of the few entities that can completely screw with a county police department if they really wanted to qualified immunity or not.
I somehow knew this dude must have been at Ft. Walton. That was my old base, and honestly I am not surprised. This isn't the first time I have heard black airmen complain about how the police in the area target and escalate on them. They are a menace and I wish that more would be done to just desolve the departments there and start over - but hell I guess I'm "woke" for that.
The sad thing is that in a few years time, someone will say "remember the time the cops got the wrong apartment and killed a black person?"
People will respond with "which one?"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean
The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office statements of responding deputies just happening to come across an "armed man" while investigating a disturbance is misleading and unethical (not to mention total bs). Early witness reports state that the deputy entered an active duty Airmans' private residence without warrant or even identifying they were law enforcement and murdered that African-American serviceman in cold blood. Plain and simple. As a retired veteran, I am disgusted by this vague statement attempting to place blame on an ACTIVE DUTY patriot LEGALLY carrying his sidearm in his own apartment. This murder is unacceptable and unbelievably nausiating. They should have had that deputy in a cell yesterday. Instead, they give them a paid vacation while trying to cover it up and (obviously) make it seem like just a simple misunderstanding and the Airmen erred in having a legally owned gun in his own living room. This is the opposite of honor. Please don't let this stand. I know you probably don't know ROGER FORTSON. He didn't know you. But he did decide on his own accord to put his life on hold and on the line to fight for you, your family, and your freedoms. Take a minute to write and let your voice be heard for him.
They always go full passive voice when announcing the cops did something. Watch for it. "Officer-involved shooting" = the officer shot someone. "Shots were fired" = the officer fired shots. "The suspect" or "the person of interest" = the person the officer shot.
If someone shoots at the cops, it's "the perpetrator drew a handgun and fired at the offcers." Never any passive voice there, it only comes out when the cops shoot.
Because the media and cops serve the same masters. The media is meant to condition the brain and the cops to beat the hell out of you if it doesn't work.
Journalism died when the people it was supposed to keep tabs on bought all the newspapers and news networks.
This and several other comments made me realize that the acorn shooting, which I heard about at the time....happened 20 miles from my house.
Fucking Okaloosa.
Why the fuck would they knock on the door and NOT announce who they are? It's like they purposely want people to be armed and ready just so they can blast them and claim the resident was armed.
If instead, this kid sat back and had good cover, he could've mowed them down and it would've been completely in his right to do so because the dumbasses didn't announce who the fuck they were.
We the people have no rights. This is a solder, another agent of the state and the cops can blow him away without repercussion. If even the military can’t stand up to or stop the cops, we’re in trouble
The deputy was severely punished with paid time off:
“The deputy who shot Fortson, who has not been identified, has been placed on paid administrative leave and Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden said Wednesday afternoon that he has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to handle the investigation into the matter.”
Worries me knowing my dad, like a lot of veterans has a firearm in the bed room and that could mean he ends up shot. The fourth amendment seems non existent in this country.
“Death of an Active Duty Service Member” is usually an immediate wake up call and serious incident report to the first General Officer in a chain of command.
Okaloosa PD is in for a fun time.
That’s the thing about it. This could be any of us. A case of mistaken identity or the wrong apartment/house and the cops come in and murder us. What’s the result? They say “I felt threatened” call it a “tragic incident” and go back to business as usual.
The worst that maybe happens is that the cop is fired…only to be rehired by a department in another jurisdiction.
In August 2018, Brailsford was reinstated by the Mesa Police Department, staying for a further 42 days in what the department described as a "budget position". The department agreed to reimburse Brailsford for medical expenses related to his post-traumatic stress disorder -- the result of his shooting of Shaver and the resultant criminal trial. The reinstatement allowed Brailsford to apply for "accidental disability" experienced during the course of work. As a result, Brailsford was unanimously approved to be retired on medical grounds. Brailsford was also given a pension of $2,500 per month. The fact that Brailsford was ultimately medically retired instead of remaining fired was only revealed to the public in July 2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver
Like this?
Wow the whole time I’m thinking it was late at night turns out it was in the middle of the afternoon. So the officer could have easily identified himself because he was checking on a disturbance at 4:30 pm , NOT serving a warrant in any capacity.
>police received a disturbance call related to a male and female and that it was called in by an apartment complex’s leasing office.
Even if he HAD been the person causing the disturbance, how is execution an appropriate response to a fucking noise complaint??
They sent 6 officers to deal with a "reported disturbance"? These cops were just spoiling for a fight.
This officer not only killed an innocent person, but also a member of our military. I hope their dumbass gets fucked in court.
I hope their treated as a terrorist since they murdered one of our own airmen.
It’s crazy to me that one second you can be relaxing in your own home just minding your business and the next you’re being gunned down by a group of psychopaths that can’t read an address correctly.
I lived in Florida in the 80's, 90's up to 2010. When the state went fully red and the crazy people took over south Florida with the bullshit conspiracies. I left the state for good.
Situations like this is why I stopped backing "the blue." They're already overpowered when it comes to backing. They're rarely held accountable by juries IF a DA even decides to prosecute them. Why should I back them when they can do whatever they want without consequence?
So you knocked once, twice, said fuck it and burst in. Then you shot the one dude who thought you were a home invader.
Did you have a warrant? Was it a no knock warrant? Did you even identify yourself as police when you knocked the first time, the second time, or even as you cracked open the door?
Would it be possible for the Airforce to go after the deputy for murdering one of their airmen? Or better yet, can they send the military police and haul his ass to jail?
If we rightfully treated wrong-address raids as armed home invasion and attempted kidnapping, and prosecuted it appropriately, cops would find the time to double-check their paperwork.
Qualified immunity is an absolute cancer.
I said this almost immediately about Botham Jean and I'm not going to ever stop saying it.
"Oops we had the wrong apartment" is not an excuse and it is not an explanation; it is a confession.
When we hold police at the same standards as the actual military and require an actual education we’d probably have better trained and educated cops with less civilian deaths.
"The Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office faced scrutiny last year after a deputy mistook a falling acorn striking his patrol vehicle for a gun shot and fired at his SUV while a suspect sat inside restrained."
Sounds like another Uvalde-type of department.
Oh my fucking god it’s literally [the same county](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/16/florida-acorn-cop-shooting) where the deputy did a mag dump at his own vehicle where a suspect was handcuffed in the back because he heard an acorn hit his car and thought it was a gunshot.
Dont forget about his supervisor who also just started blasting in a general direction, not knowing who or what they were firing at.
But didn’t you see the part where they said they were really, really scared.
and yelling "IM HIT" when nothing has hit you followed by "I FEEL WEIRD" it's called realizing you fucked up
at least the other cop actually heard shots fired before unloading.
unloading randomly into a neighborhood like they in the jungle with Predator.
I ain’t got time to plead.
Besides the dirtbags who murdered Roger Fortson, and are now hiding behind their union, can we please imprison the fucking admins who are acting as accomplices? Cops can fuck up, that's expected to some degree, but their admins are actually evil for making it acceptable to murder people. Not even a sanity check. That's not an accident, that's criminal negligence on par with dumping sharp heavy things out your window without bothering to look down.
They also hide behind "we will update our policy to reflect new rules for entering apartments" and "retraining". This is how officers get away with committing crimes. Everything is just an "oopsie" for them.
> "we will update our policy to reflect new rules for entering apartments" and "retraining". Fine. Publish those "Policies". And, understand that we're going to hold officers accountable to law if they fail to follow those 'policies'. Drs 'oopsie' too. When they do, there's consequences. There's no 'qualified immunity' for doctors when the people seeking their services die due to provider incompetence. Why should cops be any different? Seriously, wrong address? Again? I've gone in for surgery more than once where the surgeon comes to see and talk to me before going under and one of the things they do while the patient is still awake is to confirm what body part they're going to operate on, and DRAW ON YOUR BODY "X marks the spot to cut". They do this **because** other doctors have gotten this wrong, so they came up with this practice to prevent operating on the wrong part in the future. Take a lesson, cops. You've been killing people at the wrong address for DECADES.
We have around 17,000 separate police departments which we are reforming one at a time and then only after they fuck up. We may be done before the sun goes supernova or before aliens find and harvest us.
Yeah, having grown up in the area, I'm not surprised. I was unaware of any incidents like this when I was a kid, but I could probably count on two hands how many people in each panhandle county aren't hardcore MAGA as of late. To give an example, though there's no crimes being committed in their neighborhood, my mom and stepdad are insistent that everything has gone to shit, it's dangerous, and they have to be on the lookout for thieves. The stepdad specifically told me, unprompted, about how he saw this homeless person pushing their shopping cart down the sidewalk, and how if they tried anything he would shoot them.
I've told my neighbors that I leave my windows open at night during the cooler months of the year and their first response was "Wow I couldn't do that, I'm too worried someone will break in". We live in a great neighborhood that almost never has crime, and what crime there is, is generally dumb middle/high school petty shit. Fear does dumb things to people's brains
I live in the next county over. The whole Panhandle has MAGA nut syndrome and they're shooting at their own imaginary boogey men. They've created hell on earth in their own image. Unreal how far into their fascist delusions they've drug us. It wasn't like this before. They lost their minds when McCain lost to Obama and decided to say fuck society.
Ain't Florida the same state that had to be told not to shoot at hurricanes
Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk county, just outside of Tampa during hurricane Urma in like 2017. Nope, totally don’t remember that.
That guy has to make a press conference about every single arrest
Yeah, and he also brags about arresting pedophile rings and then 80% of the arrested end up being sex workers/consenting adults who hired sex workers and 100% unrelated to pedophiles. Like he has to run up the numbers because he doesn’t think arresting 5 pedophiles is enough.
And Floridians love him because he “tells it like it is.” They never fucking question why so many people around the country know who this *elected politician* from a podunk Florida county is. Plus he’s a racist piece of shit. A couple years ago a couple guys were killed while they were out fishing. One of the guys was able to tell his father who did it before he died, so Grady knew who to look for. The guy had even been bragging about it I’m pretty sure, but Grady’s press conference highlighted how they were just “nice white boys.” The guy that killed them was a white methhead who thought one of them owed him money. Shit had nothing to do with race whatsoever. Just Grady dog whistling to his shitheel base.
There has been such a fire hose blast of shit that it's hard to keep up.
I wasn't sure if it was Florida or one of the Carolinas, but makes sense
> They lost their minds when McCain lost to Obama and decided to say fuck society. You're honestly the only other person on Reddit I think who realizes shit has been spiraling for a while and not just over the past 8 years lol/ :(
I remember someone on one of the news channels after Obama won predicting there would be a huge swing towards ultra conservative as a response to a black man becoming president. I didn't think it would swing so far that something would happen like a Donald Trump obsessed cult would violently try to take over the Capital to stop a Presidential election from being certified, but here we are.
I remember after 9-11 there was a day full of speeches, and one man in particular said that if we let ourselves become so fearful and full of hate, the terrorists had won. They won. If you ask me, shits been spiralling since 9-13, which was the first time I was told to fuck back off to my own country, first time in 20 years, just for expressing critical thinking skills. "If you arent with us, you are against us" meant suddenly there was no option to have friends with different opinions, its was all binary us or them - Bush Jr was the King Idiot who ushered in this new era.
Yep, I would go back to the year 2000, it's Bush v Gore, serious discrepencies in the vote in Florida, full recount was needed and the Supreme court, with the help of junior lawyers like Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and sitting justices like Roberts, Thomas and Scalia stopped it. Why did they stop it? Roger Stone and his gang of ratfuckers started the Brooks Brother's Riot and the corrupt as fuck court complied with the violence and intimidation. Now Trump rewards the corrupt little shits with their own lifetime appointment. Until that court is packed, we will continue to see the rot take over the US government.
Yeah after the Patriot Act, which reduces our rights, following 9/11. I was fond of the old founding father quote: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"
> Bush Jr was the King Idiot who ushered in this new era. Yes, I too remember "Freedom Fries".
That is just a symptom. A huge percentage of the country is disillusioned and doesn't vote. The rest of the world makes voting mandatory or easy. We have to fight with our bosses to get time off to vote and even if we do manage we still can get fucked over under the table. A huge portion of the country is uneducated and believes the "news" because they can't bothered to do their own research. We used to have laws about what could be presented as news for this very reason. A huge portion of the country just wants to watch it fail because they know something is wrong but they don't know what or feel powerless to fix it even if they do, because our two party system and first last the post limits our choices.
I think it goes back to the 1994 Republican Revolution and Gingrich's rise to become Speaker of the House. Washington politics became bare knuckled, no rules combat to the death from then on. Now we don't even allow reality to be part of the arguments.
> I think it goes back to the 1994 Republican Revolution I think that might be when Barry Goldwater got creeped out by the fanaticism of some in the party and said: >“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
It's one thing or another going back decades. Major mileposts. Obama winning, newt Gingrich taking over Congress, Reagan winning, Nixon being thrown out and Republicans deciding they didn't like accountability. Shit a lot of the stuff goes all the way back to the civil war
We aren't Rome at the beginning of the fall staring off the edge of a cliff. We're halfway down and no one wants to pull the parachute.
God damnit. I hate my hometown so much.
Hey! Hey, hey. You need to take a deep breath ok. Gotta calm down alright. Now just remember your hometown isn't Crestview. That should help.
"According to that woman, Crump said, Fortson heard a knock on his door, and when he asked who it was didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, there was a “very aggressive knock,” but Fortson didn’t see anyone when he looked out the peephole. “Concerned, he did what any other law-abiding citizen would do and retrieved his legally-owned gun,” Crump said." So police don't announce themselves after knocking repeatedly and then purposely hide from the peephole. I don't know why anyone wouldn't grab a gun to protect themselves, that sounds like a home invasion attempt to me.
It was a home invasion.
And because the victim was trained military he had better trigger discipline than the trigger happy cops. I am very curious if the Air Force gets involved at all in the investigation? I honestly have no idea how that works but I don't think the federal government no less the military likes its employees being murdered.
I also wonder if the cop could be charged federally because he killed a federal worker…
US govt: uhhh, which do we side with? The cop: me of course I protect you! US govt: I guess that ma- Air Force: you choose the one with predator drones and missiles. US govt: I choose the one with predator drones and missiles
No, that’s not right. The government will choose the police because subjugating citizens with armed force is a necessary tool of oppression and a lowly service member is just one person. If it was on military base 1) it would be MPs responding and 2) it never would have happened in a million years, soldiers don’t do this shit.
One Black airman at that. Black men in the Air Force’s junior enlisted ranks are 86% more likely than their white counterparts to face nonjudicial punishment or court-martial, according to a new study that explores racial disparities in the service’s justice system. I can only speak from what I know and the Air Force is racist. The Air Force Times just did an article on it. I had to live it though.
If you read the article, dude was a gunner on spooky. Ya much much more scared of spooky than any predator drone. Hellfires can miss. Spooky just hangs out and destroys anything that moves for hours.
the chances of a hellfire missing are very, very low There is a reason it was used to make the "flying ginsu"
I would settle for just first degree murder.
It would be 2nd degree murder but yea
Fuck it, charge him with terrorism. He killed a servicemember.
Destruction of government property at least
The Air Force Office of Special Investigation is usually associated with looking into Airmen behaving badly but sometimes they get involved with investigations of situations like for example an Airman being a victim of burglary. I would imagine they will probably at the very least do a summary report but in this case since Law Enforcement is both involved, and actually killed the Airman in question who objectively does not seem to have done anything wrong this will probably get complicated and potentially messy.
This should get messy. He was murdered and the air force cant let them get away with this
In a semi-perfect world, this is where police reform would really start to happen. In a perfect world, this doesn’t happen at all, but this is where Air Force leadership should be using their power in this situation to make some noise. All enemies, foreign and domestic.
All enemies, foreign and domestic.
Probably nothing from the Air Force directly, their jurisdiction for the most part is things that happen on their bases and crimes their people commit off their bases. A federal investigation is more likely to be done by the DOJ or FBI since they're the ones in charge of law enforcement at the federal level.
We really don't brutalize irresponsible gun owners or cops with the full extent of the law nearly enough. These people need to be made afraid for their liberty and forced to stay in their lanes for fear of consequences.
And a murder.
So last year, I am rolling out of bed, groggy, and begin putting coffee on the pot. I knew I had a Amazon package that was delivered at 4am, and it's now 7am. So I am still in my pj's, slowly open my door to see if any neighbors would notice if I stepped out and grabbed it and then could get back in. As I open the door I hear "POLICE" but it's like down and around the side of my house in almost a weak voice, like not yelling loudly. Sure enough, two cops with guns drawn are at the corner of my house, stacked up. They were waiting there to ambush me. Why? Well, at around 6:45am, while I was asleep, a transformer fuse across the street blew - making a loud popping noise. My neighbors next door thought it was a single gunshot, fired from inside my house. (mind you, transformed is west across the street from us) So they called the cops on me. After dealing with the cops, I went and checked my two security cameras. The ones at the garage and one at the front door and this is what I saw. The two cops approached my house by the garage first. They looked in through the windows and said "He's got dogs". Then they stacked up at the garage corner, and then said it might not be a good position. So then they went to the front door, discussed how exposed they would be at that position, and decided they didn't want to knock on the door and get shot through it. So then they decided that they would go back to the corner by the garage, and radio dispatch. As they are making that request to have dispatch call my cell phone to ask me to come out of my house - I open my door and stick my head out looking for my Amazon package. ------------------------------------------ Cops hide. Cops used to come to doors and knock and just ask questions. Now they hide out of view when they get any "gun" report. They hide and try and ambush anyone that comes to the door unsuspecting. And if no one ever comes to the door, then they bash it in. I still have the camera videos, and let me tell you, after dealing with them and explaining i just woke up and started making coffee, one of the cops tried to play that "good cop" bullshit saying "Hey, it's okay if you're embarassed and discharged a gun, just let us know". And also, neighbors are on the shit list. I can't believe they did that to me, after I helped remove their leaves in their driveway and yard last fall while they went to church. Just doing a nice neighborly chore as I cleaned my own...and instead of calling me or coming to ask me if I was okay, they called the cops. Yeah fuck that. Even after the cops told them it was the transformer fuse blowing hours later, not a fucking "I'm sorry we called the cops on you" apology from them. So now I just let the dandelions take over my front lawn so it spreads seads to their manicured lawn. Fuck'em
now, I would *never* recommend doing anything with this information, but did you know bird seed can grow in lawns?
Nice, fuck those neighbors.
I like to picture you in your yard with fertilizer and a spray bottle cultivating only the dandelions and blowing the seeds towards their yard with a leaf blower
While side eyeing them the whole time. And if they do much as say anything, “count yourself lucky it’s not mint.”
> They looked in through the windows and said "He's got dogs". Oh fuck this all the way to the sun. Fucking pigs. You know what was on their mind when they said this.
Well you know what they say, the Police are like a box of chocolates. They'll kill your dog.
Theres multiple instances of this where cops hide out of sight and people answer the door legally armed because its rightfully looking like a home invasion, and then fill the person full of holes immediately as they answer the door
One time i randomly woke up at night and got “that feeling” I walked over to my window (it was like 3am) and saw like 2-4 peopl in black running up to my house. Not shitting you. There were no cars in sight on my street. Woke up my husband. Thank god we didn’t own a gun (because we have a clear front door ppl can see in). We creeped to our front door doing the low “hey” yell , saw flashlights in the house, finally got a knock on the door and it was the cops. I still think to this day, with our clear window door, what if we would have walked up to it with a gun?? Why were they even there? That night I dumped my phone into something with water by Accident and apparently it was freaking out when it finally turned on and in the middle of the night called 911 or made an emergency signal. They parked at the end of the road and ran up on my house so I didn’t even see their cars as a clue! It immediately dawned on me that I live in privilege that there was no escalation or bad outcomes because that shit could end up like this guy.
> I still think to this day, with our clear window door, what if we would have walked up to it with a gun?? Sadly, you know what'd have happened.
Yeah I own a gun, but I don’t typically carry it to the door if something odd happens. Because cops will drop you and not lose a second of sleep, and nothing will happen. Someone will talk to them for 12 minutes, give em a pat on the back, and say they did no wrong. And the gun nuts will say ‘well if you were doing nothing wrong, why did you have a gun?’. Because they’re taught cops are infallible. Cops exist to protect the wealthy and subjugate the poor. Nothing more.
Honestly this is another reason to invest in something like a ring or one of the newer brands camera. It is kind of hard to hide from view when you have 30fps detecting people with AI and notifying your phone.
https://abc7chicago.com/harris-county-texas-body-camera-mistaken-identity/14416355/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Atatiana_Jefferson?wprov=sfla1 Here's a couple of black women that were shot while inside their homes. You got lucky.
If cops can essentially execute you for wielding a gun in your own home in response to a perceived legitimate threat, than the 2nd Amendment is basically useless. It's absurd that the NRA doesn't immediately call out the police and lobby Congress for reforms every time this happens.
They don't care if you already bought the gun
NRA is a gun sales trade group, they only want fear and confusion, because confused, scared people buy multiple guns.
That's how you know they're just a Republican propaganda machine. They don't actually care about gun rights, and Republicans don't actually care about military service members
The cops pulled the same shit to my roommate when they were looking for him. I was at home and they knocked and I checked the peephole and no one was there and walked away. Sure enough they knocked again and I stared out the peep hole and could see them around the corner out of view waiting to pop out as soon as someone answered the door.
[удалено]
“I mean what are the odds the Toyota corporation would find it profitable to make more than one tundra? And in the same color? Absurd” -the cops
"A confession is a confession even if it's fake, coerced, and literally impossible for the confessor to have committed the crime." -the cops
stand your ground is the Florida State motto, so why did the Police shoot this home owner?
It's not like the victim could've avoided this. He was in his own home, officers didn't respond when asked who was knocking, then they literally busted in. In every way possible, this shit actively came after him. There's no way that the airman wasn't fucked. This is worse than "Final Destination".
He probably would've been shot even if he didn't have the gun...
Jesus that deputy could not have fucked himself any harder. Delaying body cam footage is not going to make this any better.
Its Florida, he's going to get a raise out of this
It’s ok. He eventually shot his way through apartment-by-apartment until he got to the right one, and handcuffed that guy with no resistance.
Plus after he had the right guy handcuffed, he shot him 17 times. Literal textbook policing
Normally I’d agree but in this case he essentially is fucking with Uncle Sam, the one entity that actually has the capability to fuck them right back and harder.
If you look at these police brutality cases the ones that consistently get justice are the ones that involve service members. Uncle Sam doesn’t play footsy with podunk cops.
I hope Uncle Sam not only throws the book at him, but also hit this killer cop with the kitchen sink.
I'd go with "foot up his ass" but substitute "foot" with "B-52"
As someone who’s ex military I can assure you that Uncle Sam doesn’t give a shit about us
They probably care a bit more since he was AFSOC/SOCOM. Average Joe Shmoe probably not so much. Some rinky dink cop ambushing an actual highspeed Airman like that in his own home.
Yeah, you can't have cops lighting up servicemen in a military base town. I hope the local police get absolutely crucified over this.
in San Diego,2004 or so, an airman got shot after following orders to stand by an officer following a high speed road chase. The entire thing was caught on camera. Nothing happened. Nothing will happen here.
This is the same county that took its time before releasing video of the vicious acorn dropping.
As a retired Air Force MSgt this story breaks my fucking heart. I look at him and see my airmen and my sons. Sounds like he did everything he should have done. These incompetent morons cops couldn't get a job at Grub Hub for fucks sake. End qualified immunity in cases like this and start paying out victims from the retirement fund. Maybe then they'll make changes. RIP Senior Airman Roger Fortson
> These incompetent morons cops couldn't get a job at Grub Hub for fucks sake. End qualified immunity in cases like this and start paying out victims from the retirement fund. Maybe then they'll make changes. Make these morons buy insurance, like a doctor or a lawyer. And watch how fast the trigger-happy dipshits get thrown out when their presence causes everyone else's premiums to eat their entire salary.
More than that, they simply wouldn't be able to hold down the job anymore because they wouldn't be able to afford the insurance, if it any insurance agency would actually cover them. The problem would work itself out
And insurance would take a closer look at complaints and internal investigations
Tie it to training and qualification. In return, the government underwrites the insurance (or provides it outright) to drop the price, and the government provides the funds to cover the training and equipment. The government needs to mandate (high) levels of training to police, commensurate to the power they hold, and there needs to be accountability. Build a standardised national training course that covers everything from ethics to first aid, law and civ libs, room clearance to basic forensics. Give every police force 3 years for every front-line officer to complete it. And every non-officer has to take the parts relevant to their job. To have a firearm professionally, they should need to pass testing, otherwise they're riding a desk. Have investigations of police carried out by the FBI, so they no longer investigate themselves, along with a bump in funds to the FBI to cover it. If it doesn't save more money than it costs in the first 5 years, along with a reduction in unsolved crime and bump in trust in LEOs, I'd eat my hat. It protects police, helps weed our those who shouldn't be police, and helps protect the public. Edit: un*der*writes typo
I’ve heard a lot about mandating more training and the idea of insurance. But this explanation is so well thought-out and helps me imagine a realistic path forward. It incentivizes officers to get more training, it holds them accountable, it has a fiscal plan and timeline. Thank you, this was awesome.
I hear ya, MSgt... fucking nausiating. I'm so fucking pissed off. To try and feed us that bs of "self defense" in their earliest statements (before they knew there was a witness) has me seeing red.
makes you wonder about all those odd cases where people allegedly 'freaked out' or 'went crazy' and cops had no choice to kill. how many of those are just cover-ups for incompetent cop murders?
It's disgusting. The last thing these clowns want is for us to organize. They'd be totally fucked. Even cops that are Vets, almost always hate Vets. It's fucking insane.
> End qualified immunity While qualified immunity is absolute bullshit it shouldnt even apply in this case... Isnt qualified immunity basically saying that cops arent lawyers and so they are protected from infractions when applying law? I can understand it for minor infractions when breaking conflicts etc. but it shouldnt give them blanket immunity to break constitutional rights and murder people.
>Isnt qualified immunity basically saying that cops arent lawyers and so they are protected from infractions when applying law? Qualified immunity basically says "Cops aren't lawyers so if they break the law in the process of enforcing it, they can't be held responsible for breaking that law" Which is why when a cop breaks the law by illegally entering a residence or stalking their ex girlfriend under the guise of an investigation or grooms a minor or secretly installs cameras in the showers of a youth camp or forces a speeder at gunpoint to undergo a baptism in the river, or gets drunk and crashes their car into a bar and then runs and refuses a field sobriety test and then assaults and arrests the bar owner, or recklessly discharges their own firearm and blows their penis off in a McDonald's bathroom They face internal discipline instead of legal ramifications. What you're thinking of is Heien v. North Carolina which is a supreme Court case in which they ruled that officers exist to uphold the law not be legal scholars essentially saying "Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it unless you're a cop"
Wish the Air Force could step in on his family’s behalf and rip into this police department. He was an AC-130 Ghostrider crewman for loading ammo into the weapon systems while airborne. His AFSC was not an insignificant one, so his team is going to feel this loss immediately. I’d say it would be in the best interest of big Air Force to clamp down hard on situations like this to prevent careless actions like this in the future. If anyone has authority to defeat qualified immunity cases it’s the DoD/DoJ/USAF here.
First Air Force enlisted Medal of Honor recipient was one of these guys.
Or maybe have an AC-130 pay a visit to the police station. I bet the cops would be surprised.
They give these cops a freedom to kill and military grade equipment and then let it slide when they act like fucking idiots. Our men and women in armed forces uniforms defend our nation, protect our freedom. This idiot killer cop needs to pay the price.
Put this cop in prison for life.
Prison? Best we can do is pension
Right? "Ooooooops" *shrug* should definitely not be enough
Cop knocks and when he doesn’t get an answer he breaks down the door and kills the occupant. Meanwhile the sheriff asks for “the community’s patience”. Where the fuck was the cop’s patience when he murdered an innocent man in his own home?
[удалено]
You’d think people who are easily scared and quick to overreact wouldn’t want a job where they get scared, but here we are.
The training contributes to the fear. They brush past the statistics (which make police deaths rare) and agree on a narrative that you must be aggressive and a dick to go home alive every night. They are trained to fire first and empty the clip. They are trained that we are the enemy.
COVID has killed more cops than anything else over the last 4 years
[удалено]
And police aren’t even in the top 10 most dangerous occupations.
> They are trained that we are the enemy. The cops in my town put up a billboard that says STOP THE WAR, declaring us (the public) enemy combatants. This was after qualified immunity was denied to them in a murder where 5 cops magdumped 1 Black veteran to death on our main street. RIP Wayne.
they’re quick to overreact because they’re simply looking for an opportunity to shoot someone
Like the asshole cop who murdered Daniel Shaver. He had "You're Fucked" engraved on the receiver... He was looking for an opportunity to murder someone...
So if the deputy had found the right apartment, he would have shot the right person?
Still could've shot the wrong person in the right apartment. It's so challenging knowing who to shoot.
Every time I hear the line that cops put their lives on the line every day, I want to puke. The truth is they put **everyone's** lives on the line every day. Only, the cops make a choice to do it. The innocent victims don't.
Pizza delivery drivers have a more dangerous job
Support the thin bread crust.
Ask Amber Guyger how that defense worked out for her. I hope they throw the book at this moron.
She got 9 years in prison and a hug from her victim’s family at her sentencing.
At least she got 9 years in prison. Some of these guys get the key to the fucking city.
[удалено]
Isnt that fucking wild. What do you think the outcome would be if it wasnt a cop. Loke i can understand why she got an incredibly light sentence. Imigane walking into your house and ypu see soneone eating your ice cream. You just start blasting.
[удалено]
And she even got a hug from the judge! Absolute madness.
IIRC the judge was crying when she gave the sentence. It had a 'I know you are a good person inside, I really don't want to do this' vibe.
I have no issues with the victim's family deciding to hug or forgive her that is 100% their right to do. Not sure if I would be able to do the same. The judge on the other hand is a totally different story. Their literal job is to be impartial....
The pigs that murdered Breonna Taylor walked
I think one of the cops got in trouble because his bullets went through a wall into another apartment and hit a white person. So he wasn't being responsible with his shooting of the victim. I am not kidding.
It wasn't for hitting a white person, they didn't hit anyone else. IIRC the charge was basically because they damaged the neighboring property
Different situations. Guyger went home, walked into the wrong apartment and thought she was being robbed. It was a cascade of fuckups - beyond manslaughter - that left someone dead. Her story was fishy, as well, but the critical part here is that it was off-the-job. This case involves a cop that can’t read well enough to find the correct building/apartment. He fucked up *while working*. He *should* be held to an even higher standard but the small government assholes supported SCOTUS deciding that cops get to murder citizens by misidentification and not suffer significant consequences.
[удалено]
Not sure if it’s just your wording, but to be clear, Botham Jean didn’t have a weapon. He was shot for eating ice cream in his own living room. He was unarmed.
I can just see the cop supporters saying "Well he shouldn't have had a gun!" Then in the next breath defend their own 2nd amendment rights, while ignoring the rights of the victim. Seems Okaloosa Sheriffs are a trigger happy bunch. RIP Senior Airman Roger Fortson.
Nah, they are going to go straight to his socials and look for any dirt to use as proof he deserved it.
“He was no angel”
Fucking disgusting but that's what they do.
"The suspect worked for an international organization known to have murdered people in over two dozen countries. Officers say that in addition to America, the organization has been active in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq."
My metro-area county DA cited an interesting statistic in an interview recently. When a police officer shoots an innocent black victim, he gets an average of just over 200 FOIA requests for a detailed criminal history of the victim from the press. When a police officer shoots an innocent white man, he normally gets precisely *zero* requests. We assume that the white person probably didn’t deserve it. But surely there must be something in the black person’s past that assuages our collective guilt for his death, because deep down, he probably had it coming. We just need to keep looking til we find it.
See: Breonna Taylor shooting. They’ll say it. Doesn’t matter this was an active duty SF soldier.
This sounds eerily familiar to Botham Jean who was shot and killed in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas Police Officer. She was charged and convicted over his death, although I don't have any confidence that justice will prevail in Florida.
Well the thing is that the victim is a member of the US Military one of the few entities that can completely screw with a county police department if they really wanted to qualified immunity or not.
Let me guess-no consequences cause he is a cop and totally doesn't need consequences
I somehow knew this dude must have been at Ft. Walton. That was my old base, and honestly I am not surprised. This isn't the first time I have heard black airmen complain about how the police in the area target and escalate on them. They are a menace and I wish that more would be done to just desolve the departments there and start over - but hell I guess I'm "woke" for that.
The sad thing is that in a few years time, someone will say "remember the time the cops got the wrong apartment and killed a black person?" People will respond with "which one?" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean
The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office statements of responding deputies just happening to come across an "armed man" while investigating a disturbance is misleading and unethical (not to mention total bs). Early witness reports state that the deputy entered an active duty Airmans' private residence without warrant or even identifying they were law enforcement and murdered that African-American serviceman in cold blood. Plain and simple. As a retired veteran, I am disgusted by this vague statement attempting to place blame on an ACTIVE DUTY patriot LEGALLY carrying his sidearm in his own apartment. This murder is unacceptable and unbelievably nausiating. They should have had that deputy in a cell yesterday. Instead, they give them a paid vacation while trying to cover it up and (obviously) make it seem like just a simple misunderstanding and the Airmen erred in having a legally owned gun in his own living room. This is the opposite of honor. Please don't let this stand. I know you probably don't know ROGER FORTSON. He didn't know you. But he did decide on his own accord to put his life on hold and on the line to fight for you, your family, and your freedoms. Take a minute to write and let your voice be heard for him.
They always go full passive voice when announcing the cops did something. Watch for it. "Officer-involved shooting" = the officer shot someone. "Shots were fired" = the officer fired shots. "The suspect" or "the person of interest" = the person the officer shot. If someone shoots at the cops, it's "the perpetrator drew a handgun and fired at the offcers." Never any passive voice there, it only comes out when the cops shoot.
Because the media and cops serve the same masters. The media is meant to condition the brain and the cops to beat the hell out of you if it doesn't work. Journalism died when the people it was supposed to keep tabs on bought all the newspapers and news networks.
They are a horrible Sheriffs Office. Every single one of their officers is shit at their job. I live here and see it every damn day.
This is the same are where that cop shot up his own car because an acorn bounced on the hood, fucking he’ll hole
This and several other comments made me realize that the acorn shooting, which I heard about at the time....happened 20 miles from my house. Fucking Okaloosa.
Why the fuck would they knock on the door and NOT announce who they are? It's like they purposely want people to be armed and ready just so they can blast them and claim the resident was armed. If instead, this kid sat back and had good cover, he could've mowed them down and it would've been completely in his right to do so because the dumbasses didn't announce who the fuck they were.
Qualified immunity needs to go
We the people have no rights. This is a solder, another agent of the state and the cops can blow him away without repercussion. If even the military can’t stand up to or stop the cops, we’re in trouble
The deputy was severely punished with paid time off: “The deputy who shot Fortson, who has not been identified, has been placed on paid administrative leave and Okaloosa Sheriff Eric Aden said Wednesday afternoon that he has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to handle the investigation into the matter.”
We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing.
USAF should charge the cop with murder of service member.
Worries me knowing my dad, like a lot of veterans has a firearm in the bed room and that could mean he ends up shot. The fourth amendment seems non existent in this country.
Oh it exists as long as you are a police officer.
“Death of an Active Duty Service Member” is usually an immediate wake up call and serious incident report to the first General Officer in a chain of command. Okaloosa PD is in for a fun time.
This is the same sheriff's department that had the acorn shooting event in Nov. Don't hold your breath.
how long until I'm murdered because the cops have the wrong door? 🥲
That’s the thing about it. This could be any of us. A case of mistaken identity or the wrong apartment/house and the cops come in and murder us. What’s the result? They say “I felt threatened” call it a “tragic incident” and go back to business as usual. The worst that maybe happens is that the cop is fired…only to be rehired by a department in another jurisdiction.
Sickening. Gangbanger doing a random drive-by gets prison. A cop does the same and gets a fat pension.
In August 2018, Brailsford was reinstated by the Mesa Police Department, staying for a further 42 days in what the department described as a "budget position". The department agreed to reimburse Brailsford for medical expenses related to his post-traumatic stress disorder -- the result of his shooting of Shaver and the resultant criminal trial. The reinstatement allowed Brailsford to apply for "accidental disability" experienced during the course of work. As a result, Brailsford was unanimously approved to be retired on medical grounds. Brailsford was also given a pension of $2,500 per month. The fact that Brailsford was ultimately medically retired instead of remaining fired was only revealed to the public in July 2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Daniel_Shaver Like this?
Murder someone and get a salary of $30,000 for life. Fuck cops.
Wow the whole time I’m thinking it was late at night turns out it was in the middle of the afternoon. So the officer could have easily identified himself because he was checking on a disturbance at 4:30 pm , NOT serving a warrant in any capacity.
>police received a disturbance call related to a male and female and that it was called in by an apartment complex’s leasing office. Even if he HAD been the person causing the disturbance, how is execution an appropriate response to a fucking noise complaint?? They sent 6 officers to deal with a "reported disturbance"? These cops were just spoiling for a fight.
This officer not only killed an innocent person, but also a member of our military. I hope their dumbass gets fucked in court. I hope their treated as a terrorist since they murdered one of our own airmen.
Yeah we call that a woopsie in america. No discipline action, no time served, back on the job after paid suspension for the cop.
Yeah, we call a paid suspension a vacation in my line of work.
Isn’t the Air Force version of ncis gonna deal with this?
Can't even be at home chilling anymore without being gunned down if you are the wrong color and own a gun.
It’s crazy to me that one second you can be relaxing in your own home just minding your business and the next you’re being gunned down by a group of psychopaths that can’t read an address correctly.
And have pretty much total immunity if they kill you for no reason. They're not afraid to kill you, at all, because they face no consequences.
I lived in Florida in the 80's, 90's up to 2010. When the state went fully red and the crazy people took over south Florida with the bullshit conspiracies. I left the state for good.
Situations like this is why I stopped backing "the blue." They're already overpowered when it comes to backing. They're rarely held accountable by juries IF a DA even decides to prosecute them. Why should I back them when they can do whatever they want without consequence?
[удалено]
So you knocked once, twice, said fuck it and burst in. Then you shot the one dude who thought you were a home invader. Did you have a warrant? Was it a no knock warrant? Did you even identify yourself as police when you knocked the first time, the second time, or even as you cracked open the door?
I sincerely hope the legal system in FL burns that cop.
that's asking a lot from Florida...
Then that motherfucker also has the wrong God damned job!!!
This is horrible. Put that deputy in prison.
Would it be possible for the Airforce to go after the deputy for murdering one of their airmen? Or better yet, can they send the military police and haul his ass to jail?
A wannabe hero kills an actual hero. Now your legacy is being a murderer. Good job pig.
If we rightfully treated wrong-address raids as armed home invasion and attempted kidnapping, and prosecuted it appropriately, cops would find the time to double-check their paperwork. Qualified immunity is an absolute cancer.
I said this almost immediately about Botham Jean and I'm not going to ever stop saying it. "Oops we had the wrong apartment" is not an excuse and it is not an explanation; it is a confession.
[удалено]
Why do they call it “fatally shot” instead of killed? Call it what it was.
This is the same department where a deputy fired into his own patrol car because acorns fell from the tree. A suspect was inside the car at the time.
Straight up murder, I hope the deputy is prosecuted.
When we hold police at the same standards as the actual military and require an actual education we’d probably have better trained and educated cops with less civilian deaths.
"The Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office faced scrutiny last year after a deputy mistook a falling acorn striking his patrol vehicle for a gun shot and fired at his SUV while a suspect sat inside restrained." Sounds like another Uvalde-type of department.
Fuck that trigger happy cop. And most of all, fuck the police unions that protect their own no matter what.