Oh, and there's an added bonus to this story. Those 'online photo galleries', well, they're basically gay porn, as shown in this news report: [YT="Marines Go Wild In Tampa, Florida"]SCI6H46Dypw[/YT] Now, obviously, I can't imagine the Marines are too happy about any part of this story.
That Marine's a major league retard. He should've been on permanent overnight latrine duty at some obscure Marine training facility in the middle of nowhere. Then this would never have happened. This Marine probably eats paint chips.
I've followed this story fairly closely. Apparently, the Fox affiliate in Tampa pulled all of those "facts" out of their ass. Jason wouldn't talk to the local teevee stations, except through his lawyer, so they started making shit up. Jason then appeared on Bubba The Love Sponge (Tampa's version of Howard Stern) with his lawyer because Bubba promised not to censor or edit the audio in any way. He was armed with the actual police reports, the 911 audio, and facts. Yeah, Channel 10 is outright lying and Channel 28 is now backtracking faster than hell after picking the story up. As for the "gay" photos, they have that wrapped up too. This cat did a one time photo shoot with a reputable modeling agency and those websites then lifted the copyrighted images. The modeling agency is in the middle of a year long law-suit over it. Of course, this is what Jason is claiming and his evidence is compelling. However, I want to see the police reports for myself before I believe anyone completely. Edit: His lawyer is also claiming to have the parking garage's security camera video proving Jason's side of the story. He's only released it to the police though. Edit 2: The priest is now saying that he doesn't want to press charges, that he just wants this incident to go away. Edit 3: So this priest wanted "directions." He was inside of a key-card access parking garage walking up to strangers instead of at the half-block wide Shell gas station outside the garage? Something is fishy here.
It doesn't add up, though. First, if I'm understanding the statements on 'Bubba the Love Sponge', which is, I'm sure, more than happy to let him say whatever he wants, he corroborates at least the allegation of a sexual assault, which his lawyer also discussed. Now, from what I've seen of him, the priest is a pretty unfit sort of guy. Would anyone, in his physical shape, wander off the street and up to a random stranger in a foreign country and grab the crotch of someone who could easily beat the shit out of them without a tire iron? That the priest would drive into a gated, presumably monitored area, providing easy witnesses? And hell, is it so hard to believe that maybe the convenience stores and gas stations in the area couldn't help someone whose English was so broken? Further, from my understanding of the events, the Marine chased the priest for three blocks while calling 911 about it, after having beaten him with a tire iron, which hardly seems like a reasonable defense. The other points seem to come directly from a Tampa police spokesperson, and were not made up by the media. Now, I'd be happy to acknowledge that the Tampa police could be trying to railroad the guy, but they'd have to do a lot of lying to pull it off - not a privilege I'd expect them to extend to a priest that gropes our troops.
Hmmm......the priest ran three blocks (in sandals) after getting bonked with a tire iron? Strange..... But that "All American Gays" site is......disturbing at best.
Even without the retarded beating the shit out of him element, if this Marine honestly thought this guy was a terrorist he should have called the police because he has no authority to attack anyone on American soil. There have been incidents in the past where some gung-ho military member held illegals at gunpoint and ended up going to jail themselves for unlawful restraint. So even if this marine legitimately thought this guy was a terrorist he had no business attacking him unless he felt his life or the lives of others were in immediate danger (e.g. self defense). From that article though I can't help but think he just came up with an excuse for beating the shit out of someone.
OK, let's assume for a second that the priest did grope the guy. Hell, let's even grant him that he and the priest got into a brawl after the priest had done so - if he had, I'd say that would have been reasonable. But hitting someone with a tire iron could easily kill them - was potentially deadly force warranted here? Especially in a gated, monitored area?
Yeah, this will be assault with a deadly weapon, even if the marine was groped by him. If he'd just decked him with his fist, that would have been one thing, but attacking him with a tire iron is another.
Before I ride the Marine too hard (he wishes) I must say, speaking from my own worldly experiences: it is quite terrifying when some bearded foreigner approaches, grabbing your crotch and stammering incoherently in broken English....... but enough about Italian school-girls......
He claims that his wife was going to be home in 15 minutes and he didn't want her pulling into the parking garage with that guy wandering about. You've also got to remember that Tampa is old-school (Pre-revolutionary) Cubans as opposed to the "new" Cubans that have swarmed into Miami. I've spent a great deal of time in Tampa and there are exactly two accents. Fresh off the plane Brooklyn and horrible mangled Spanglish. The c-store folks should be used to it. Depends. Tampa is home to Tarpon Springs, better known as the largest Greek Orthodox Community in the Western Hemisphere. The church mobilized fast doing PR work and damage control. Bruce's story is a little too "good". However, without seeing the actual reports, I don't know who to believe.
Image linkatude fail. You have to upload it somewhere, not just link to its location on your hard drive. I learned this in 1997 - 98 or so.
I tried clicking a smilie three times (tard rimshot) and nothing happened. So, I tried something different.
That's great. He still can't bludgeon him half to death with a tire iron. Wave it around some, sure, but connecting it to his skull something like four times? He's lucky he even had a guy to chase. Neither of which sounds, pun intended, like Greek to me. They might be used to people not being able to speak English, but that doesn't mean that they can communicate directions to him. They're all familiar with Spanglish, which means they can toss some 'está aquí, está allí' in there, but I doubt any of them really even know how to handle Greek. Directions can be difficult to give even when you're talking the same language, and it ain't exactly like Florida has award-winning traffic engineering. So, the area is home to a lot of Greek Orthodox - wouldn't it make sense, then, that he might try the residential areas as well as the convenience stores? I'm fully willing to believe that it went down exactly as he said, but that'd mean the priest had to be seriously fucked in the head (I mean, of course, before he got his head fucked in with a tire iron). And hell, maybe he is, but as I read it, it sounds like a much greater confluence of coincidence for Bruce's story than for the priest's. And again, even if Bruce is 100% telling the truth, the tire iron is beyond the pale.
I don't see the problem. Self-defense is a very broad term, and legally, if you grab my nuts, that's Assault in the 2nd and I'm legally within my rights in using deadly force to protect myself. I could literally beat you to death with the tire iron and because the cops are only hearing one side of the story, I get to walk.
I just watched the video, and see that this priest was just off the boat from Crete?! It's a place full of what are basically peasants. Having visited there a few times and met dozens of Cretins (heh) I'm 99% certain the Marine just hated the fucker on sight, and got it all wrong about greeks vs arabs. Fuckin idiot is an embarassment to our fine military. I'd bet money.
I was under the understanding that you cannot escalate force in self-defense. And, just for kicks, are you saying that hitting a guy in the head with a tire iron is a reasonable response to the transgression?
Outside of the psychological side of things, escalation doesn't have a lot to do with it once you're attacked. The term you're looking for is "reasonable force." Is a 27 year old, 207lb man hitting a 29 year old 240lb man with a tire iron reasonable? I'm leaning towards yes. The latter has 30lbs on the former. Is a 27 year old, 180lb woman hitting a 29 year old, 207lb man with a tire iron reasonable? You bet your ass. The latter has 30lbs on the former. Yes, sir, I am. I'm an asshole that hates to fight. I hate it so badly, that if you put me in a position where I've got to fight, you can bet your sweet ass that at least one of us is going to the ER. It's like I tell everybody on the street that's about to nut up. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way has you going to jail. The hard way has you going to the ER and then to jail. You pick. Of course, by taking that stance and intimidating people, I hardly ever have to fight. Most people just back down.
It's possible that this priest is gay, found his pictures and information at that site and tracked him down, thinking he wants that kind of attention. It might explain the grope if the two don't speak each other's languages.
If someone you didn't know walked up to you and grabbed your nuts, would your first response be, "gee, let's be friends." No, it'd be "what the fuck is wrong with this person, and why are they touching my junk" followed by you not being able to find an answer to that question and fighting them off you by any means necessary.
