Light 'Em Up

Does the 2nd Amendment & the Castle Doctrine Apply Equally or at ALL for Black Americans? Sr. U.S. Airman Roger Fortson, Amir Locke & Donovan Lewis: Gunned Down in Their Own Homes. Hard Truths Examined. Does This Ever End? Who Will be Next?

Phillip Rizzo Season 5 Episode 8

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With the May 3rd, 2024, shooting and killing of Sr. U.S. Airman Roger Fortson in his off-base home in Fort Walton, FL, by an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy, we shine the antiseptic light of the truth in this deep, thorough and investigatory episode of Light ‘Em Up on the killing of black men in their homes by law enforcement.

Click the link to view the available Body Worn Camera footage + extra coverage on the Fortson case.

This isn’t a topic anyone is talking about or wants to hear — these are precisely the topics we cover.  In a time of uncertainty, facts help guide and educate.

The cold hard facts bear out evidence that the 2nd Amendment’s “Right to keep and bear arms” as well as the Castle Doctrine DO NOT apply equally nor consistently for individuals of color as it does for Caucasians.  Note well: (The Castle Doctrine is a common law principle which states that individuals have the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves against an intruder in their home.)

In this episode we’ll unpack the:

♦ Actions taken by the Deputy Sherriff before, during and after the 6 shots he emptied into Mr. Fortson.  We’ll examine what crucial dispatch and on scene information he had when he responded to the call.

♦ Examine similar fact-patterns in the cases of Amir Locke, asleep on the sofa in his cousin’s Minneapolis, MN apartment, Donovan Lewis (in his home in Columbus, Ohio) and the “Open Carry Rights” of young 12-year-old Tamir Rice (in Cleveland, Ohio).

♦ Introduce you to a little-known concept of “dispatch priming” (where the 9-11 dispatch officer “primes” the officer with information which can lead to “mistake of fact” deadly confrontations…as in the Tamir Rice shooting death with the Cleveland Division of Policing.

The fact remains:  Good intel saves lives; bad intel gets people killed.

♦ We’ll review closely the language of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989) which is used daily to determine the legality of every UoF (Use of Force).

It's imperative that every person understands and comprehends the key components of the legal holding of this case, so much so that that we will itemize them verbatim in our “Show Liner-Notes” for this episode here.

♦ We’ll expose the harsh history of many of the founding U.S. states on how they perceived black people as “property” and spoke unequivocally regarding their “rights, privileges and immunities” to access to firearms.

This isn’t argument nor conjecture, but the real-world fact pattern that we are faced with.  We feel like we constantly ask this same question:  Where do we go from here? Why do we keep coming back to this again and again?  Will anything ever change?

The most recent effort in the U.S. House, The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, is just as dead as its namesake.

We truly believe simply because this bill bears the name of George Floyd, no Republican will vote for it.  It would be political suicide to do so. There seems to be no hope for it passing.

Tune in for the explosive details.  Follow our sponsors Newsly & Feedspot

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