E Pluribus Kill 'Em

The death of Roger Fortson - another innocent Black person killed by law enforcement.

Roger Fortson came home last week.

He wasn’t visiting family or friends or taking a vacation from his Florida-based Air Force duties.

Roger Fortson came home in a flag-covered casket.

He wasn’t killed on the battlefield, in some war-torn country.

He was killed in his own home by the police.

On May 3, Fortson became the latest member of a sadly growing list of people Dying at Home While Black.

Fortson, a 23-year-old active-duty airman, was on FaceTime with his girlfriend when he heard two knocks on his door but didn’t see anyone through his peephole.

An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy was answering a call of a disturbance in progress. The disturbance involved an argument between a man and a woman.

Fortson armed himself, and as he opened the door for the deputy, the office saw Fortson was armed, and fired at Fortson six times, killing him.

Noted attorney Ben Crump is representing Fortson’s family in an attempt to determine what happened.

But Crump knows what happened.

Black Americans know what happened.

Fortson was killed because he was Black.

Just like Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, and Atatiana Jefferson.

Ms. Taylor was in her Louisville, Kentucky home with her boyfriend when narcotics detectives burst into her home. Her boyfriend, thinking that they were being robbed, fired a warning shot. Ms. Taylor was behind her boyfriend when the police returned fire with thirty-two shots. Six of those shots hit and killed her.

Botham Jean was killed in Dallas by an off-duty police officer who said she thought Mr. Jean had broken into her apartment. She entered the apartment, drew her service weapon and killed Mr. Jean while he was eating ice cream in his own home.

Ms. Jefferson was playing video games with her nephew when police were called to her home by a neighbor who reported Ms. Jefferson’s front door open. Ms. Jefferson retrieved a handgun from her purse after hearing a commotion outside. An officer saw Ms. Jefferson through a window, called out to her, and then fired through the window, killing her.

The killer of Mr. Fortson has not been identified, but the killers of Ms. Taylor, Mr. Jean and Ms. Jefferson were White.

The fact that the officer has not been identified leads to the conclusion that he is White.

If he had been Black, the sheriff’s office would have quickly announced it to quell any thought of racism.

They didn’t.

People argue about defunding the police.

They debate whether these People of Color killed by the police did the right thing.

But there is no argument about the fact that White people are rarely killed in questionable police shootings in America, while it is the norm for Black and Brown people.

On the few occasions when Whites have been killed without just cause, justice is swift and sure.

For Black and Brown people, justice is not only blind, but is often deaf and mute.

America has long used the Latin phrase “e pluribus unum.”

It is found on some of our currency.

It means “out of many, one,” or better put, “one of many.”

It’s sad that this slogan is appropriate for the deaths of Roger Fortson, Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean, and Atatiana Jefferson.

Each of their deaths are one of many.

And unfortunately, many more to come.