[karajorma]

In that case the pirate vessel was basically trapped and had no choice other than to fight unless they wanted to surrender. It wasn't as if they decided to attack it deliberately.

[jr2]

Might not be new...just found it on ebaumsworld. I'm sure it's fake but it's entertaining!



Orville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta , Georgia , told police he observed a male customer, later identified as Tyrone Jackson of Augusta , on surveillance cameras putting a laptop computer under his jacket... When confronted the man became irate, knocked down an employee, drew a knife and ran for the door.

Outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the "Toys for Tots" program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of the Marines, Cpl. Phillip Duggan, in the back; the injury did not appear to be severe.

After Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene Cpl. Duggan was transported for treatment.

The subject was also transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions, assorted lacerations, a broken nose and a broken jaw...injuries he sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb after stabbing the Marine.

Now that was a well written Police report.

[Aardwolf]

Is that all quoted, or are the first/last lines yours?

I'm sure it's fake but it's entertaining!

Wat. I see nothing implausible there except the "sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb" bit.

[Dragon]

"slipped and fell off the curb". Yeah, right.
Anyway, that's what you get for messing with Marines. And considering their esprit de corps, I'm surprised he was still alive...

[redsniper]

Wat. I see nothing implausible there except the "sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb" bit.

"slipped and fell off the curb". Yeah, right.

That's the joke...

[Klaustrophobia]

Is that all quoted, or are the first/last lines yours?

I'm sure it's fake but it's entertaining!

Wat. I see nothing implausible there except the "sustained when he slipped and fell off of the curb" bit.

except that this story has been circling the internet for years with slightly varying details.

[jr2]

Is that all quoted, or are the first/last lines yours?

Quoted, I heard about the story, so I Googled it and copied the first plausible version over to here. 

EDIT: Snopes has the real account here, I guess the part at the end might not have been true... more research in progress.

EDIT2: Discussion on the matter, as it happened: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2633548/posts

EDIT3: local news on it: http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2010-11-26/shoplifting-suspect-stabs-marine

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2010-11-29/marine-lauded-heroic-act

Looks like the perp didn't get roughed up after all.  Darn. 

[Mefustae]

Looks like the perp didn't get roughed up after all.  Darn. 

Yes, it truly is a shame that the criminal wasn't unlawfully beaten prior to serving his lawful punishment. How I pine for the days when you could beat the **** out of someone for the flimsiest reason, under the guise of "they probably deserved it".

[Scotty]

Unlawfully my ass.  If you're sitting on the sidewalk, and someone comes up and literally stabs your friend in the back there is no ****ing way you couldn't argue that you were just making sure he wouldn't do the same to you.

[karajorma]

Except that the injuries in the story are not consistent with self defence. They are consistent with the perp getting kurb stomped in revenge.

[Scotty]

I should probably have indicated that I took issue with mefustae's second sentence moreso than the first.  My mistake.

[karajorma]

Oh I won't doubt that there is a certain satisfaction to seeing a criminal bite off more than he can chew and get his arse handed back to him. But the injuries in the first version of that story rise well above that.

[Mefustae]

Oh I won't doubt that there is a certain satisfaction to seeing a criminal bite off more than he can chew and get his arse handed back to him. But the injuries in the first version of that story rise well above that.

Precisely my point. If someone attacks you, you take every measure necessary to ensure you own survival and the subjugation of the attacker. But there's a bloody limit to what you should to to him/her, from both a legal and moral point of view. If that story were true, those marines would have been brought of on some serious goddamn charges, and most likely faced a dishonorable discharge for potentially harming the attacker so badly. Think Nicolas Cage's character in Con Air.

[Klaustrophobia]

why are people getting all worked up over a FAKE story?

[NGTM-1R]

If that story were true, those marines would have been brought of on some serious goddamn charges, and most likely faced a dishonorable discharge for potentially harming the attacker so badly.

Bull****. They were assaulted with a weapon; unless the guy turned and tried to run or took a similar action anything that happened to him up to and including if they had killed him was completely justifiable. Civilians (and in this case military) are not held to the same standards of reasonable force as police because they are not trained to them.

For somebody practicing the Semper Fu of the time, such injuries would be the work of thirty or forty-five seconds and entirely in line with their training. The attacker would not have had the time or the wit left to indicate his surrender. There's a reason why the Marine Corps has had to rework their entire hand-to-hand training regimen in the last few years, it's because the original one was good only for inflicting extreme injury quickly.

Considering the time period, the training of those attacked, and the standards to which non-law-enforcement are held, this is an entirely plausible scenario and while it may not meet your moral definitions of reasonable force, it could well have met the legal ones.

[FireSpawn]

My view on situations like this are as such:

You are attacked by an aggressor with a deadly weapon.
Said aggressor uses aforementioned weapon on you/companion.
Logic dictates that your life is in immediate danger, as the person has just shown that they a fully capable of using the weapon to inflict harm and/or death.
To protect both yourself and your companion from a deadly threat, (almost*) any means used to remove the threat are valid.


**I say "Almost" only because if you manage to immobilise the threat in such a way to render them unable to act, without killing them, then any further action is unnecessary and unlawful.

Or you could just do this --> 

[karajorma]

Bull****. They were assaulted with a weapon; unless the guy turned and tried to run or took a similar action anything that happened to him up to and including if they had killed him was completely justifiable. Civilians (and in this case military) are not held to the same standards of reasonable force as police because they are not trained to them.

Absolute complete and utter tosh. There's a difference between not held up to the same standards and not held up to any standards whatsoever.

Cases have been brought several times over similar sitations. The simple fact that the story is fake and that the marines managed to apprehend the culprit without having to inflict anywhere near that level of damage proves that it would be completely unnecessary to do so.

[Polpolion]

Cases have been brought several times over similar sitations.

Please, tell us about these cases.

[Aardwolf]

**I say "Almost" only because if you manage to immobilise the threat in such a way to render them unable to act, without killing them, then any further action is unnecessary and unlawful.

They're 100% as dangerous as they were when they tried to stab you, up until the point you vaporize them.

[LordMelvin]

They're 100% as dangerous as they were when they tried to stab you, up until the point you vaporize them.

Thanks for that, Nu... wait, you're not nuke!