A Marine reservist, Jasen Bruce, is under arrest in Tampa after beating a man whom he believed was a Muslim terrorist. The man turned out to be Father Alexios Marakis, a bearded Greek Orthodox priest in a traditional Greek robe.
Marakis was lost and had pulled over for directions when he approached Bruce, who initially had his back to him while getting clothes out of the trunk of his car. Marakis speaks little English. Bruce hit him with a tire iron and then chased him three blocks. He tackled the priest, pinned him to the ground, and called police to say that he had caught a terrorist.
Police say that Bruce later claimed (1) the priest tried to rob him, (2) the priest grabbed Bruce’s crotch and made an overt sexual advance in perfect English, and (3) the Greek Orthodox priest yelled “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
On the last part, Bruce reportedly explained, “That’s what they tell you right before they blow you up.”
We give this man weapons.
When he is not on reserve duty with the Marine, Bruce, 28, is a sales manager for APS Pharmacy in Palm Harbor. What is interesting is the media is reporting that his blog discusses the benefits of increasing testosterone and human growth hormones. He previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery in 2007 for shoving a tow truck driver. It is not clear if he was also a terrorist.
Bruce is now facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Marakis was hospitalized but does not want to press charges. My guess is that he would like to get out of Tampa.
For the full story, click here.
Paully:
he is apparently a gay man, dont ask dont tell wont work to well at this point.
he is done.
rcampbell:
if that Blackwater story is true, they need to be shut down quickly and with much malice.
Rather scary to think of the implications, what with the Neocons upset about Obama and the general mood of the country, could we be looking at a military style dictatorship in the next 2-4 years?
Hopefully the public has enough sense to vote people into office that have a devotion to civil liberties and an understanding of our founding documents.
This is not a good time for all of this to be occurring. Germany 1933 all over again? Doubtful, the Germans had been softened up by Hegel, Marx, and others in the early 1800’s to the ideas of the Nazi’s. We have our founding documents and a pretty good idea of right and wrong.
Byron said “Mr. Bruce is now on his way to being an former Marine”.
Not so. The UCMJ does not apply to him. He’s a reservist.
Mr. Bruce is now on his way to being an former Marine. Hopefully more for the attack and steroid use than anything else.
Byron
Oh, it’s true. I can recall the White House and the Defense Dept. authorizing the lowered standards beginning around 2005 to keep the cannon fodder of troops heading to Iraq. First they dropped the high school diploma or equivilance requirement, then the felony conviction obstacle, then they began recruiting in Mexico and other countries with the promise of posthumous citizenship for the recruit and family if the recruit were to die in service to Bush’s wars.
Let us not forget the very strong emphasis on being a Christian that pervades the military these days as well. Skinheads, just like their Taliban counterparts use religion and holy books to justify their hatreds and violence. Organizations like war machines and Blackwater just love that leathal combination of religious zealotry, deep seated bigotry and violent behavior.
nal,
The link must have just been a problem for your computer. I had no problem loading it, nor did the site contain any malicious code.
The link just has a lot of photos of Mr. Bruce.
Sikhs have also been attacked for their headgear. Usually though it was to the attackers surprised, because Sikhs are fierce warriors in general. This War on Terror crap has been promoted so far by the media, that the ignorant who cannot tell the difference in religious headgear, or the varied skin colors,
feel justified in their racist/bigoted activism.
@nal – do you use some sort of web filtering/adult content filter on your machine? That could be the problem.
To sum up the contents of the site: our Patriotic Bigot has a sideline doing softcore gay porn.
Don’t click on moar’s link. It hung up my computer and I had do ctl-alt-del to halt the process.
Elaine M:
that is very troubling if true.
Well it’s easy to do. We all look the same.
He also has an interesting sideline:
http://madabouttheboys.blogspot.com/2008/10/jasen-bruce.html
Some years ago, my daughter was doing a research paper for a graduate course she was taking. She found information about felons and skinheads being inducted into the miltary. We both found that terribly troubling.
***************
Here are links to two articles on the subject:
Army, marines give waivers to more felons (4/21/2008)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Army and Marine Corps are allowing convicted felons to serve in increasing numbers, newly released Department of Defense statistics show.
Recruits were allowed to enlist after having been convicted of crimes including assault, burglary, drug possession and making terrorist threats.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/21/military.waivers/
AND
Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts (NY Times, 7/07/2006)
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed “large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists” to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/washington/07recruit.html
the issue is that this guy is hopped up on steroids. It has nothing to do with him being a Marine. He is probably not going to be a Marine much longer.
Mespo:
you forgot the last couple of lines of the stanza:
“You will find us always on the job —
The United States Marines.”
nal,
good one.
This guy works at a pharmacy. They should check their inventory.
Well maybe our not so bright, testosterone charged Marine reservist took his Tampa venue a little too seriously trying to live up to this second verse of the Marine Corps hymn:
“We have fought in ev’ry clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;”
Watch out your orthodox priests in “northern lands” like Alaska!
This blog carefully extracts bits and pieces from a broad spectrum that would indicate our society is fragmenting into bits and pieces everywhere.
Or at least this blog has microscopic vision which sees tiny cracks in the fabric of society everywhere.
If we can’t see it we can’t fix it. Good job. Lets fix it if possible.
Otherwise little crackpots will turn into global crackpots.
http://ecocosmology.blogspot.com/2009/11/shadow-of-time-governs-earth.html
I expect an increase in incidents/stories like this as our National paranoia (xenophobia) grows unabated by common sense.
Good job, Fox News… keep that hysteria ratcheted up.
As well as he should. I believe that our schoolmarm provided us with this link and story yesterday. I believe that the story I read had some inference that he had a previous assault.