In 2020, the top enlisted leader of the Air Force went public with his fear of waking up to the news that a Black airman had been killed by a white police officer. Then four years later, a Florida deputy shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson in his apartment. \u201cI doubt if that police officer knew or cared that Roger was an airman. What he saw was a young, Black male,\u201d retired Chief Master Sgt. Kaleth O. Wright said in an interview on Wednesday with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
After George Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Wright, who like Floyd is Black, felt compelled to speak publicly about the fears that he and his younger troops had. It didn\u2019t seem to matter how hard he\u2019d worked to serve his country. There were still police who would only see him as a threat. The national outcry surrounding Floyd\u2019s death pushed Wright to lead some initiatives to better address racial issues within the Air Force. But by his own account, they didn\u2019t go far enough. Fortson\u2019s death has left him wondering if things will ever change.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, in the midst of what happened to Roger, it\u2019s kind of a big deal. People are talking about it, the Air Force is dealing with it. But in a couple of weeks, it will go away, right?\u201d Wright said. The investigation into Fortson\u2019s death is ongoing, and the sheriff\u2019s office has not released the name or race of the officer involved. On Wednesday, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden went to Hurlburt Field where Fortson served and met with Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command, to talk about the next steps.<\/p>\n
Sabu Williams, president of the Okaloosa County NAACP branch, was there and said he did not leave with a sense that the sheriff\u2019s office thought Fortson\u2019s race was a factor in the shooting. But \u201cbias certainly played a role in this thing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cFrom my perspective, we feel we don\u2019t get the benefit of the doubt. It seems to be a shoot first, ask questions later\u2019 kind of thing.\u201d In a statement posted to his Facebook page late Wednesday, Bauernfeind said the meeting with the sheriff\u2019s office was productive and that the command would host a town hall in the coming days to talk further about the shooting and the way forward.<\/p>\n
There is no government-managed national data collection system that tracks fatalities caused by law enforcement officers. The FBI has a database, but it\u2019s voluntary, and less than two-thirds of local, state, tribal and federal agencies provided data for it last year. In any case, there is no breakdown by race. Databases kept by private organisations, however, have found that fatal police encounters have risen each year since Floyd was killed and those killings are disproportionately of Black people.<\/p>\n
Two databases, one by The Washington Post and another compiled by Campaign Zero, run by academics and activists advocating for police accountability, found that while more white people are killed in police encounters overall, Black people are disproportionately killed by police. Black people make up about 12 per cent of the US population but account for about a quarter of police killings in each of the databases. In the meeting at Hurlburt, Williams requested that the sheriff\u2019s office pursue de-escalation training and unconscious bias training, which he said the sheriff supported.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said in a statement posted on Facebook that they have received the local NAACP\u2019s \u201clist of demands and understand their concerns.\u201d In the meeting at the airfield, the sheriff \u201cemphasised his commitment to do what is right\u201d, it said. Michael P. Heiskell, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, said the deputy\u2019s race doesn\u2019t matter when determining whether unconscious bias played a role.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the race of this deputy, whether he\u2019s Black, white, Hispanic, whatever \u2013 in this instance where this deputy saw a Black person with a weapon and immediately used deadly force, instead of calmly and reflectively assessing the situation, this is it.\u201d Williams\u2019 NAACP chapter is drafting state legislation it wants to name after Fortson. The bill would require police to use de-escalating language before using force if they encounter someone with a gun who is not being held in a threatening position.<\/p>\n
Released police body camera footage shows Fortson had his gun in his hand when he opened his front door, but the barrel was pointed to the floor. Within seconds the deputy shot him, only afterward telling him to drop the weapon. \u201cA little bit of de-escalation or discussion\u201d by the deputy could have given the airman the chance to put down the gun, Williams said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t given any time.\u201d MaCharie Dunbar, a board member of the Black Veterans Project, a national organization created to address racial inequality in the experiences of Black service members, said he wonders whether it would have made a difference if Fortson had been in uniform.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing proven true time and again is that if you\u2019re Black in America, it doesn\u2019t matter what kind of job you have, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, the house you live in,\u201d said Dunbar, who is retired from the Air Force and had been stationed at Hurlburt Field. \u201cAt the end of the day, you\u2019re just Black. And there are some who hold on to this ideology that Black people are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortson\u2019s shooting occurred against a wider backdrop of increased attention by the military to racial issues in its ranks. Over the past few years, internal reviews have found significant disparities in opportunities for promotion and uneven military punishments. But there has been significant pushback against those efforts, with far-right members of Congress criticizing them as being \u201cwoke.\u201d Congress this year put caps on what the Pentagon can pay experts in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n
Wright said that pushback has served to silence much discussion on the issue and, for now, the most helpful thing commanders can do is listen. \u201cIf you\u2019re a white male officer in the United States Air Force, you don\u2019t wake up every day thinking about race,\u201d Wright said. \u201cWe have Black airmen and officers that wake up every day and they go into rooms and they\u2019re the only Black person.\u201d He said commanders need to understand the toll this takes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes with stress and anxiety. It comes with a feeling of not belonging. And, you know, most of us are taught to just assimilate, right? You know, don\u2019t complain, don\u2019t be the outcast. Don\u2019t be the outsider because, you know, sometimes you get labeled as an angry Black man.\u201d If airmen don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re supported in their own units, it\u2019s unlikely they will trust opening up to commanders on an issue as big as Fortson\u2019s shooting, he said.<\/p>\n
Wright is now thinking about writing another column, and maybe getting involved on the issue again. But he\u2019s not sure what needs to be done to prevent a future incident. Bringing the sheriff\u2019s deputies on base to help them see Black airmen differently won\u2019t fix the problem without a larger, societal change, he said. Asking commanders to have the equivalent of \u201cthe talk\u201d with Black airmen that parents have with their Black children about encounters with the police isn\u2019t a solution either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that commanders could say anything to airmen that would necessarily be helpful about, \u2018if the police knock on your door, do this, don\u2019t do that,\u2019 \u201d Wright said. \u201cYoung African American males, they know the drill, right? They already know the story. And, still, it\u2019s not enough.\u201d Wright has two sons, ages 22 and 27. His heart has been breaking for Fortson\u2019s mother, who buries her 23-year-old son on Friday. \u201cThat could have easily been one of my sons,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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