Why? Because marine reservist Jasen Bruce said he “looked like a terrorist.” He doesn’t. He looks like a Greek priest.
Why? Because Bruce said he tried to rob him. He didn’t. He’s a priest.
Why? Because the man yelled “Allahu Akbar.” He didn’t. He’s a priest.
Why? Because the man grabbed Bruce’s crotch and made sexual advances in perfect English. He didn’t. [But feel free to insert priest joke here… they make the same jokes in Greece.]
The priest was lost.
The marine is an idiot and should be jailed. But the priest is forgiving.
Here’s the story in the St. Petersburg Times by Alexandra Zayas and Demorris Lee:
A Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.
What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.
Dude, do you really think a terrorist just walked down the street and happened to pick on you, the one patriotic American ready to defend himself and his country by beating a man of God with a tire iron?
Bruce is a sales manager for APS Pharmacy in Palm Harbor. His blog entries tout the benefits of increasing testosterone and human growth hormones. He was charged with misdemeanor battery in 2007…
Online photo galleries depict him flexing big muscles wearing little clothing.
An exterior surveillance video of Tuesday’s chase captured the two men in motion, said Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Laura McElroy:
“You see a very short, small man running, and an enormous, large muscular man chasing after him.”
What a f*cking idiot. It’s sh*t like this that makes me a little more sympathetic to the Flying Imams.
Here’s Bruce’s mugshot:
And also reminds me of one of my favorite jokes. It ends like this: “For you it’s a tragedy. For me it’s a mistake!”
Update: In the case of the marine reservist who attached a priest for looking like a Muslim terrorist, all charges were dropped. The priest didn’t stick around America to press charges. To rehash, this idiot chased a Greek priest for three blocks and beat him with a tire iron while telling a 911 operator (listen to the call here):
I got a guy who’s trying to mug me. … He just grabbed my f—— b—- when I got out of my car. … I just hit him with a tire iron and he’s trying to take off. He said he was going to f—— kill me. … This guy’s not gonna come back. I wanna knock him out.
…
He looks like a Middle Eastern guy, a Taliban guy. … He straight up looks like he came from Afghanistan … knows where I live and knows what I drive and I’m not letting him come back. I’ll kill him. I got a wife.
So let me get this straight. This priest, who says he was lost, looked like he was from Afghanistan, tried to rob the idiot, then grabbed his balls, and then yelled “Allahu Akbar.”
Ohkaaay.
The prosecuting lawyer called this ‘roid rage noting the attacker is “a 220-pound pharmacy manager who blogs photos of himself flexing his muscles and had worked as a drug informant for police.”
The attacker, after charges were dropped, says he forgives the priest. Gee, that’s mighty Christian of him.
Here’s a picture of the attacker.
He’s not gay at all.
This reminded me of the Reverend Jonathan Ayers story and about how justice is not being done in that one.
What's the latest in the Ayers' case? Funny how these things drop out of the news.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I've already posted on some of that information about Ayers. I've moved all your Ayers-related comments to that post. Please put further Ayers-related comments there, to keep this post on topic.
And thanks for the info.
I think it does help to compare the two cases. The police in the Ayers case could have arrested the two shooters, gotten their statements and then plastered their names and statement and mugshots all over the media, just kike the police did with the guy who attacked the priest in this case.
Comparing the two cases and how they were handled shows a form of police corruption that runs rampart (and generally unremarked upon) in this country. When something like the Ayers shooting or the Mehserle shooting happens, police love to say that they are just getting the same treatment that would be afforded any other accused. That is ridiculous and the story this here thd is about shows it to be so.
Sort of. But legally police are given (and for good reason) "good faith" exceptions when they make mistakes. Even fatal mistakes. Police are generally held to the legal standard of "negligence." It's a pretty high bar. That is not true for the public. The public doesn't and should not have that luxury.
And I'm not so sure about other parallels. The cops in the Ayers case made many mistakes. Perhaps they rise to the level of criminal negligence. I don't know enough about the case to make that call confidently, but I certainly would consider that possibility.
But even then, the actions of the police in the Ayers case are much more defensible (and I say that without justifying them) than if they had simply beat a guy with a tire iron because he "looks like a terrorist."
Bruce is clearly "funny in the head".
I suggest that if he is convicted detoxification from all those roids is appropriate.
That and he needs to be out of the Corps. A combat tour would only make this guy nuttier.
I can only imagine how pumped this idiot was to get deployed and kill a bunch of terrorists. And then he come back and glory in the "hero" label and believe his fucked-up beliefs were justified.
Too bad he really has no idea who the bad guys are. And no idea how much he personally makes America a worse place.
Indeed, you schmuck, you just beat a Christian priest with a tire iron (though it would be no different if the guy had been a Muslim… but then more people would be defending the idiot).
Thanks to you, former Marine Bruce, you really are letting the terrorists win. Because you just became one.
No. As a matter of law, the police have the exact same legal rights to self defense. The legal standard is the same whether you are a policeman or not. The only thing that is different is that in some states a non-police has more of a duty to try to retreat.
There is not a "good faith" exception to excessive force, and especially not to excessive deadly force. You are probably comparing the "good faith exception" to the exclusionary rule with the doctrine of self defense as a defense to a murder or battery charge.
Both policemen and regular citizens can plead self defense, but: (i) the defendant has the burden of proof on that issue; (ii) the need for self defense must be objectively reasonable; and (iii) is not just a matter of subjective good faith — not in any state in the union.
Now that is the law, but the practice is different. Therein lies the corruption.
Also, at this point in time, the conduct of the Ayers' shooters is much less defensible. In this case, the defendant says that the priest sexually assaulted him. Probably he is lying, but maybe not. Priest doesn't want to press charges, you say? Maybe he is really forgiving. Or maybe . . .
On the other hand, in the Ayers case we have the video and we know that: (i) the out of uniform officers actively caused any threats to their own safety (which takes away self defense as a defense to murder btw); and (ii) they shot him when he was driving away from both of them (whoops, tere goes the objectively reasonable prong of self defense). I am not saying that they should be cleaning off the needle yet, but they know plenty enough to arrest them, take their statements, publish their statements, publish their names and publish their mugshots. They chose not to, not because of legal weakness in the criminal case, but just because they were on duty police. Favoritism. Corruption. And of course this corruption looks to continue past the precinct house and right into the courts.
Christ man, beating a Greek priest was not self-defense. He thought he had captured a terrorist!
I am not saying that the Marine should not have been arrested. I am saying that it is POSSIBLE that the priest was actively pushing his buttons about homphobia and terrorism under the Marine lashed out in justified self defense. Likely? No. Possible? Sure.
On the other hand, in the Ayers shooting, the video tells us everything we need to know about what went down. They probably acted slightly less egregiously than the Marine in forming an unreasonable belief that there safety was threatened, but: (i) we KNOW that belief was unreasonable (the video shows us that); and (ii) it does not require some sort of supersonic unreasonableness to wipe out the legal justification of self defense (plain old ordinary garden variety unresonableness, like ayers shooters exercised, wipes out self defense just as well).
Not really apropos of the conversation, but I'm always up for the opportunity, however slightly related to the main issue, to share one of the all-time great badass quotes. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, the Archbishop of Athens issued an open letter stating that Greeks had an obligation to protect Jews and other persecuted groups. The Nazi commandant threatened to put him before a hiring squad, to which the archbishop responded: "In Greek Orthodox tradition, prelates are hanged, not shot. Respect our traditions!"