Funeral for Black active duty airman killed in his home by FL deputies – National & International News – FRI 17May2024

Hundreds attend funeral for Black active duty airman killed in his home by FL deputies.

Parts of Houston, TX, may be without power for weeks after storm.

S. Africa calls on ICJ to order Israel to stop Rafah assault.

NATIONAL NEWS

Hundreds attend funeral for Black active duty airman killed in his home by FL deputies

Hundreds of mourners, including many Air Force officers in full-dress, attended a packed funeral service for Senior Airman Roger Fortson at a suburban Atlanta megachurch. Fortson, 23, was originally from the Atlanta area but was serving at Hurlburt Air Force Base in Florida. He was fatally shot in his home by Okaloosa Co. Sheriff’s deputies in an incident that is still under investigation.

Among those paying tribute to Fortson was Col. Patrick Dierig, who commands the 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt. “As you can see from the sea of Air Force blue in front of me, I am not alone in my admiration of Senior Airman Fortson,” Dierig said. “We would like to take credit for making him great, but the truth is that he was great before he came to us”.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Forton’s family, told mourners, “We will remember him for the American patriot he was. … He was the best from East Atlanta. … He was the best from the state of Georgia. He was the best from America. He was one of the best this world had to offer”.

The day before the funeral, Crump and Fortson’s mother, Meka Fortson, held a press conference after viewing law enforcement body camera footage from the fatal incident. Crump said the video showed that when the deputy encountered Fortson, Fortson’s gun was pointed at the ground in one hand, with the other hand raised, signaling he was not going to shoot. Meka Fortson said, “You’re going to give me justice whether you want to, Sheriff Aden, or not,” referring to the Okaloosa Co. Sheriff.

Deputies went to wrong apartment

On May 3, Senior Airman Roger Fortson was alone in his apartment in Fort Walton Beach, FL, when he heard a knock at his door. At the time, Fortson was Facetiming with his girlfriend, an Alabama woman who gave her account of the events she heard over the phone. When Fortson heard the knock, he went to the door and asked the visitor to identify himself, but no response came.

Instead, the knocking became more aggressive. Fortson said he was going to get his gun because he couldn’t see who was at the door. He put down the phone with the connection still open and went to the door. The girlfriend heard a commotion at the door, which she now realizes were gunshots. She heard a deputy refer to three shots to the chest and three to the forearm. After the shooting, other deputies entered the home, where they quickly found something that tipped them off to the fact that Fortson was a member of the military.

Fortson later died of his injuries, leaving his family and his girlfriend with few answers. According to Ben Crump, Okaloosa Sheriff’s deputies were responding to a domestic disturbance call at Fortson’s apartment complex and went to the wrong apartment. 

Parts of Houston, TX, may be without power for weeks after storm

A fierce thunderstorm with hurricane-force winds swept through the Houston, TX, area yesterday, leaving nearly 1 million households and businesses without power. The storm, which reportedly included some “twisters”, uprooted trees, downed powerlines, and left streets littered with debris and some impassable due to flooding. Non-essential workers have been told to stay home today, government offices were closed and school was canceled for 400,000 students.  

Local authorities say the damage was so severe and so widespread that it may take weeks to fully restore the power grid in affected areas. Four people so far have also been confirmed dead. At least 2 died as a result of falling trees and one person died when winds blew over a crane.

Though the storm has passed the Houston area, Louisiana and other Gulf states continued experiencing severe weather today.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

S. Africa calls on ICJ to order Israel to stop Rafah assault

The International Court of Justice in the Hague held emergency hearings yesterday and today after South Africa’s delegation called on the UN court to order Israel to halt its military operation in Rafah and (potentially) the rest of Gaza. South Africa presented its case before the court yesterday, and Israel is presenting its case today. Attorneys for South Africa argued that Israel’s assault in Rafah is inconsistent with Israel’s obligation to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. Israel today presented a familiar argument of self-defense, while accusing South Africa of aiding Hamas.

Even if the court does issue orders to Israel to halt its military campaign in Rafah (or the rest of Gaza), it’s unlikely Israel will heed them. Back in January, the ICJ ruled in favor of South Africa, finding that there was a plausible risk that Israel is committing acts of genocide against the people of Gaza. At the time, the court did not immediately order Israel to halt its military campaign, but did impose several preliminary measures on Israel. These included orders to do everything possible to limit civilian casualties, and to allow aid to enter Gaza unimpeded. 

South Africa has accused Israel of flouting these orders, most recently by its invasion of Rafah. In the last ten days, over 600,000 displaced people who have been sheltering in Rafah have fled to Northern Gaza, where aid is even more scarce and most of the buildings have been flattened. The full-on assault in Rafah has also further impeded the flow of aid, which was barely a trickle to begin with.

American doctors in danger

Since Oct. 7, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians (15,000 of them children). This is likely a massive undercount. The official numbers haven’t risen significantly for weeks, and the UN recently revised its count of deaths downward. This is not because the rates of deaths have slowed, nor because fewer people have been killed in reality. Rather it is because Israel has systematically decimated Gaza’s health system, which is responsible for counting the dead, making it impossible to gather reliable information for all deaths. None of the official numbers include the thousands of people who have been buried under rubble for weeks or months. Nor do they include the unrecorded mass graves that rescuers invariably find following intense Israeli military assaults and occupations of civilian facilities and neighborhoods.

The assault on Rafah has also endangered the lives of about 20 American doctors volunteering in Rafah’s still (barely) functioning hospitals. Some of the American volunteers are reportedly receiving emergency care themselves due to dehydration. Earlier this week, Israeli snipers targeted a marked UN vehicle, killing its foreign driver and wounding another UN aid worker. This vehicle was headed to one of Rafah’s hospital and there are unconfirmed reports that this was part of a rescue mission to evacuate one of the American doctors.

US says Gaza pier now operational

The US military has confirmed the arrival of the first aid trucks in Gaza via its temporary marine pier. President Biden first announced the construction of the pier during his State of the Union address in March. At the time, it was estimated that it would be 2 months before the pier was operational. 

Theoretically, the pier will allow delivery of about 2 million meals a day into Gaza, where most of the population is experiencing famine. However, there hasn’t yet been any explanation of how the aid will be distributed now that most of Gaza’s main roads have been destroyed. It also remains unclear who the US is working with on the ground in order to distribute the aid.

While more aid is better than no aid, the pier is a much more expensive and less efficient way of delivering aid compared to delivery by land through aid crossings from Israel into Gaza. For months, Israel has been actively obstructing the flow of aid through a ponderous and unnecessarily burdensome inspection process. That’s when they’re not allowing far-right Israeli settlers to either block aid routes entirely or standing by as the settlers attack truck drivers and destroy the aid they’re carrying.