Posted on 06/23/2011 7:06:08 AM PDT by OldCorps
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – In the midst of Marine Week with tanks, guns, and heavy weapons parked on lawns all over downtown, the Mayor is wondering how two unarmed prowlers out-fought and robbed three Marines on the street.
Police report that two Marines in their early 20s were walking near the Soldier’s Memorial downtown around 2:30 Monday morning, when two suspects in their 20s approached. According to the police report, the suspects tried to sell the Marines jewelry and then an argument led to a fight.
Police say one of the suspects punched a Marine. Another suspect reportedly took a pocket knife from the other Marine and poked him with it, causing a minor cut. The Marines told police the suspects took one of their wallets and ran away.
Police say a third Marine was also present, but was not fully involved in the fight.
“We take this story at face value and we’re going to investigate it,” said Police Chief Dan Isom.
In the hallways of police headquarters, some police officials were struggling to understand the incident, saying it didn’t sound right.
Even Mayor Francis Slay reacted to the news with skepticism, wondering how three Marines, one of whom was carrying a knife, would lose their knife and a wallet to two un-armed men.
“They were in an altered state because they had a fair amount to drink and it was 2:30 in the morning,” Slay said. ”The Marines are great to St. Louis and certainly this is not indicative of Marine Week.”
But a Marine spokesman shed more light on the mugging, suggesting that the Marines turned the other cheek to avoid violence.
“Marines have been given rules of engagement not to engage in any violence except to protect their lives,” said Marine Spokeswoman Capt Kate Vanden Bossche.
When asked if the Marines have essentially been told to hand over their wallets in St. Louis, rather than fight to protect their property, Vanden Bossche said: “If someone is in such dire need that they need to rob someone, I don’t think that’s a fight Marines need to get into.”
A Marine press release on the attack indicates how the fight ended: ”After a brief altercation, the parties were separated with the help of the third Marine and police were contacted. The Marines relinquished their wallets and both assailants fled the scene.”
Possibly they were band members. The two guys should come down here to Wilmington, NC and try this on any Friday or Saturday night.
Nope, I was attached to the Marines.
Drunk sailors was somebody else’s problem.
From each according to his ability to each according to his need.
20 years ago people were cheering the end of communism. That was premature.
Vic: "But Gunny, we followed the ROE to the letter."
Gunny H: [facepalm]
The gender of only one of the marines has been identified in the article. Perhaps this has been deliberately under-reported? Had one or both of the other marines been women, there might not be as much surprise as to how this turned out. Do male marines get bothered much by civilians to buy jewelry?
God help us all, if the liberal view is that criminals commit crimes because of their “dire need”, and that we all need to roll over and submit to those in “dire need”. That’s a dangerous mindset in my opinion.
Ya, I can just imagine that if the Marines had fought back, they would have been prosecuted and convicted in civilian court. It’s a no-win situation for the Marines.
Indeed it is their view. It has to be, because their worldview has as its basis that if they can perfect society, all human failings will cease to be a problem.
However, the recession/depression that we're in has shown a drop in violent crime and robberies, inexplicable in liberal theory.
Maybe they were “DON’T ASK DON’T TELL” marines.
Like my dad ALWAYS said “Ain’t nothin’ good EVER came after 11 o’clock at night”!
Unless life is at risk, a Marine will obey those directives and not engage or be provoked by those not fit to dig their latrines.
It is a tribute to the training and discipline of these men that they followed orders over their pride.
It is also an indictment of the PC creep and zero tolerance into originally sound rules of conduct.
Semper Fi Marines.
quite true
Too sadly true, and given the statement of the Marine Corp representative, that's probably exactly what these guys were thinking.
It was my job to keep them from fighting after they were brought back to the ship.
One devildog was so drunk, he was trying to fight my corpsman and puked on a Marine we had working with us. When I checked back, they had him hand cuffed and he was trying to do drunk-foo kick boxing, when I looked again, they had him cuffed and shackled. He was hopping around trying to head butt people. Next time around I saw they had cuffed his cuffs to his shackles, he was crawing around on his belly like and inch worm trying to bite people. When I came back by again, he was out of the cuffs and shackles and they had him clamshelled between two Strykers with the handles duct taped together. I told the Marine and my Corpsman that, that would not do because if he puked again, he would choke to death, my Corpsman smiled and he and the Marine flipped the Stryker over so he was face down like they knew exactly what I was going to say.
The drunk Marine worked with me on my next watch. My Marines had a rule, if you puke in the drunk tank, you had to stand drunk duty and clean up other peoples puke. Sober, he was a really nice guy and embarrassed about his behaviour a couple nights before.
Lol! Very good catch! D@mn media.
That is so wrong on so many levels I wouldn't know where to start. Probably slapping Vanden would be a go start.
Problem is, if those three Marines beat the crap out of those “underprivileged youth”, they’d be court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, and sent to Leavenworth for 5 years. Then what would the Gunny do for them?
That's Capt KATE Vanden Bossche to you, private.
If I remember correctly, there was a time when the last thing an unarmed thug wanted to do was rob a Marine or an Airborne trooper. But that was 60+ years ago.
It was the three Marines that had the knife taken away from them, the two muggers were unarmed.
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