# Five soldiers beat a gay man nearly to death **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 9, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706 "2006-03-09T17:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/161 "2006-03-11T02:58:00Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Look, you’re not fooling anyone. Everybody reading this thread knows you’ve pulled that out of context. The enormous majority of my posts are very clear about whether it matters if the guy’s big or small, gay or straight. Okay, time to call a spade a spade. You’re full of shit. You claim that you were just joking? And that you were NOT trhying to bolster your position by making the retribution feel as lopsided as possible? Give me a fucking break. :rolleyes: > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > If saying that “five guys on one guy” is thuggish is making them look “as bad as possible”, then reality condemns them. But you didn’t just say that, did you? No. You attemped to push the story to fit your take on it. > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > The third is from early in the thread, obviously, but I too remain undecided about whether homophobia lurked behind the viciousness of the attack. One, I don’t know if they thought the guy was gay, and two, now it seems like nobody knows how vicious the attack actually was. If they’d really beaten him nearly to death, as we thought way back on post 53, then yeah, I’d say probably they had a little gay panic moment and decided to see if it would fly in court this time because the guy gave them an excuse when he lifted the wallet. Hence, my post 149. > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > But since it looks like they didn’t reach the level of rage usually seen when hate is hiding behind violence, I have no opinion, personally. Why not? Because the facts that we have so far no longer allow you to think as badly of those five guys as you would like to. When the facts change, why doesn’t your opinion change? That’s what is supposed to happen. Before, when we had fewer facts, you were full of opinion. But now that we have more facts you become mum. Interesting. I think I understand you better now. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/162 "2006-03-11T03:02:40Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Okay, time to call a spade a spade. You’re full ofshit. You claim that you were just joking? And that you were NOT trhying to bolster your position by making the retribution feel as lopsided as possible? Give me a fucking break. :rolleyes: How much more lopsided does it need to be than “five on one”? > [@](#): > > But you didn’t just say that, did you? No. You attemped to push the story to fit your take on it. Here’s some evidence of your lack of reading. I didn’t make the post you quoted, I just defended it against your charges. > [@](#): > > Why not? Because the facts that we have so far no longer allow you to think as badly of those five guys as you would like to. When the facts change, why doesn’t your opinion change? That’s what is supposed to happen. Before, when we had fewer facts, you were full of opinion. But now that we have more facts you become mum. Interesting. > > I think I understand you better now. Uh…when the facts changed, my opinion changed. Now there are too many question marks (remember, initially, the story was misreported, so we weren’t discussing just assumptions, but what we thought were facts) for me to have one. That’s what I just said. Do you need glasses? Nobody’s been around arguing that the guys were homophobes for ages now anyway, I think. I might have missed it. If so, go bother them about it. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/163 "2006-03-11T03:07:23Z")
By the way, magellan, in this thread alone I must have posted hundreds of words in dozens of different posts. Most of them, as I’ve said, are very clear. Yet you’re obsessed with a single one-liner – of course it was a joke, do you really think I think fags are weak and helpless? I would have to in order to make that statement seriously – which you can’t seem to understand even now that I’ve actually broken it down for you. Did you read my other posts? Make sure you don’t miss the inappropriate and unnecessary raunchy gay-themed humor, it’s my specialty. And while you’re there, see if you can stop jerking off to it long enough to figure out what my position actually is and how it differs from your characterization of it. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/164 "2006-03-11T03:19:08Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > How much more lopsided does it need to be than “five on one”? Maybe like this: > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Do you think it took five big strong guys to get a wallet back from one fag? > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Here’s some evidence of your lack of reading. I didn’t make the post you quoted, I just defended it against your charges. If so, then I apologize. Who am I mistaking you with? Did you not type this in post 118? > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Do you think it took five big strong guys to get a wallet back from one fag? > [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Do you need glasses? Nobody’s been around arguing that the guys were homophobes for ages now anyway, I think. I never said you brought it up at that point to prove or insinuate homophobia. You brough it up to to make the situation look as lopsided as possible—even more lopsided than it actually was. The more you keep trying to deny that the deeper you dig. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/165 "2006-03-11T03:23:01Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > . Yet you’re obsessed with a single one-liner… No. I simply don’t understand why you continually refuse to admit what is painfully obvious. But I give up. Density wins. Unless it was dishonesty… ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/166 "2006-03-11T03:43:19Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > If so, then I apologize. Who am I mistaking you with? Did you not type this in post 118? Jesus, you’re not even reading your own comments now. I was responding to the “thuggish” quote you used:\* If saying that “five guys on one guy” is thuggish is making them look “as bad as possible”, then reality condemns them\*, I said. You said “but you didn’t just say that” etc. I didn’t say it at all. > [@](#): > > I never said you brought it up at that point to prove or insinuate homophobia. You brough it up to to make the situation look as lopsided as possible—even more lopsided than it actually was. The more you keep trying to deny that the deeper you dig. Oh, I get it. _You_ think fags are weak and helpless. You must, because that’s the only way to take my comment as “making it even MORE lopsided” as if being gay somehow automatically makes him even less than one person against five people. Do you honestly think I believe that, or that I would use that as a serious rhetorical tactic? You really, really think I was saying “And it’s even worse because the guy was gay, which is like hitting a girl”, don’t you. Or are you hung up on the “big strong” part? I dropped big at your request and you agreed to strong already. Are you mad that I’m saying they were guys? Should I assume they were drag kings so as to be fair to them? \*\*Note: This is another joke. I do not actually think you are saying this. \*\* (I know humor can be confusing for you, so I’ll try to label it clearly like that in the future). ---
**Author:** ![sulamith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sulamith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sulamith)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/167 "2006-03-11T04:09:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Question-aren’t you technically violating patient confidentiality by reporting what you learned while working at the hospital where he was treated? Repeaing gossip from ER nurses? What? By saying that IF he was a Gump-lipped…etc…etc? Well, he clearly isn’t, so why quote me on that? If you mean the part where I said he had a black eye, some bruises and no broken ribs, well I posted his picture earlier from the Chatham Co. Sheriff’s office. It showed the black eye and some bruises, and he’s walking around just fine, so one could take from that he has no broken bones. I don’t work at the hospital where he was treated, I am a college professor. In my neighborhood there are 8 nurses who live just on my street, two of which do work in the ER where Mr. Bennett was treated. Like I said, Savannah is a small town at it’s core, and seriously, people talk about this stuff. He wasn’t a patient under my care, and everything I told you has now been reported. Go to the website of The Savannah Morning News, [www.savannahnow.com](http://www.savannahnow.com) and read the Forums there. They are talking a blue streak about this, with much more info than I divulged. Yes, Otto, I agree with you that the five guys were wrong, but I also don’t think they all five participated equally in the beating, either. As another poster said, it’s not like soldiers are clones. They are a cross section of society just like the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/168 "2006-03-11T05:06:53Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > \*\* (I know humor can be confusing for you, so I’ll try to label it clearly like that in the future). No need. Based on our discussion and the nonsensical babbliing in this last post I won’t be trying squeeze sense out of our posts form here on out. The melon is too dense for me. And just to give you a clue to work with as you chew on this trainwreck of yours, I have always accepted that you were using it as a rhetorical device. THAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT, Casaba. :smack: :smack: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/169 "2006-03-11T05:28:57Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > No need. Based on our discussion and the nonsensical babbliing in this last post I won’t be trying squeeze sense out of our posts form here on out. The melon is too dense for me. > > And just to give you a clue to work with as you chew on this trainwreck of yours, I have always accepted that you were using it as a rhetorical device. THAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT, Casaba. :smack: :smack: :rolleyes: Yeah, there’s a dense noggin around here, all right. I can barely decipher what you’re on about anymore. Whether it was a “device” or not, the part you object to was a joke, and it was a joke that didn’t mean what you thought it meant. And in order to hammer away at it you have to ignore basically every single other post I’ve made to this thread. Was that first part your way of saying you’re not talking to me anymore? I’m wounded. “Why, if I thought we weren’t friends, I just couldn’t bear it.” ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/170 "2006-03-11T05:42:00Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Was that first part your way of saying you’re not talking to me anymore? I’m wounded. “Why, if I thought we weren’t friends, I just couldn’t bear it.” Heaven’s no. But now I know to look for you for amusement rather than incite. And I have to say that its rather amazing that you still don’t get it. I mean, I would have thunk that anyone who could actual stab at the keyboard and hit the submit button every now and then would’ve gotten it by my last post. But I guess I underestimated your density. My apologies. I promise it won’t happen again. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/171 "2006-03-11T05:49:09Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Did you read my other posts? Make sure you don’t miss the inappropriate and unnecessary raunchy gay-themed humor, it’s my specialty. If you are not gay then you really need to get another specialty. Hell I’m not even gay and you are comeing across like an ass. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/172 "2006-03-11T05:56:11Z")
> [@sulamith](#): > > What? By saying that IF he was a Gump-lipped…etc…etc? Well, he clearly isn’t, so why quote me on that? If you mean the part where I said he had a black eye, some bruises and no broken ribs, well I posted his picture earlier from the Chatham Co. Sheriff’s office. It showed the black eye and some bruises, and he’s walking around just fine, so one could take from that he has no broken bones. > I don’t work at the hospital where he was treated, I am a college professor. In my neighborhood there are 8 nurses who live just on my street, two of which do work in the ER where Mr. Bennett was treated. Like I said, Savannah is a small town at it’s core, and seriously, people talk about this stuff. He wasn’t a patient under my care, and everything I told you has now been reported. Go to the website of The Savannah Morning News, [www.savannahnow.com](http://www.savannahnow.com) and read the Forums there. They are talking a blue streak about this, with much more info than I divulged. > Yes, Otto, I agree with you that the five guys were wrong, but I also don’t think they all five participated equally in the beating, either. > > As another poster said, it’s not like soldiers are clones. They are a cross section of society just like the rest of us. Fair enough. The nurses who DO work there, however, need to keep their mouth shut. Small town or not, that’s a major HIPAA violation. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/173 "2006-03-11T06:03:34Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Heaven’s no. But now I know to look for you for amusement rather than incite. > > And I have to say that its rather amazing that you still don’t get it. I mean, I would have thunk that anyone who could actual stab at the keyboard and hit the submit button every now and then would’ve gotten it by my last post. But I guess I underestimated your density. My apologies. I promise it won’t happen again. You’re jealous of Martin Hyde and Greathouse, aren’t you? You’re mad because you’ve spent all this time trying to bait me and I still haven’t made you my pretend internet gay leather crush. Well, I’m sorry. The heart knows what it wants. Hint: I won two pages ago and I’ve just been kicking your broken ass around for fun ever since. You seem to be getting a little worn out, though, you’re starting to repeat yourself. You need a break? Maybe a drink of water? You’re not gonna give up on me now, are ya? askeptic, I make those jokes rarely, really, in all the posts I make here, even here in the Pit. I do it sometimes mostly because it makes me, and at least one other person I know of, laugh, and I think it’s more interesting than a lot of fuck-you-jerkface-ing. And as you can see, I’m aware that it’s skirting the line of good taste…but this is the Pit, where threads called, say, You Cuntwaffles Can Suck My Big Hairy Nutsack of Doom are acceptable. My little jokes are actually quite tame in comparison with half the shit that gets flung around here. Unless you meant I’m coming off like an ass in general, in which case all I can say is you oughtta see the other guy. On preview’s second thought, maybe you meant the jokes are offensive coming from a non-queer. Yeah. Don’t worry about that. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/174 "2006-03-11T06:23:53Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Hint: I won… Good for you, EE. Good for you. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/175 "2006-03-11T07:09:58Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > On preview’s second thought, maybe you meant the jokes are offensive coming from a non-queer. Yeah. Don’t worry about that. 🆒 Oh! In that case …never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/176 "2006-03-11T07:14:30Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#): > > [Charges Against Soldiers Dropped in Beating Case](http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4615673) > > Maybe WTOC and other reactionary forces should recall the words of Anthony de Mello I am curious as to who you think is wrong in this thread. The charges were dropped because the victim of the 5 on 1 attack chose not to cooperate in the prosecution. The dropping of the charges was in no way an endorsement of the actions of the five. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/177 "2006-03-11T12:03:10Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Hint: I won two pages ago and I’ve just been kicking your broken ass around for fun ever since. As a third party observer, I’m going to have to disagree with you there. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/178 "2006-03-11T14:08:52Z")
> [@bluethree](#): > > As a third party observer, I’m going to have to disagree with you there. Okay. So you think magellen has established that in a civilized society, people who assault others in the name of ‘justice’ are heroes who should not be prosecuted? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/179 "2006-03-11T16:16:41Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Okay. So you think magellen has established that in a civilized society, people who assault others in the name of ‘justice’ are heroes who should not be prosecuted? I think it’s pretty obvious to most reasonable people that someone being beaten up when caught during the commission of a crime is to be expected. You’ve been fielding an entire cornfield of strawmen here, and I don’t see more than one or two other posters buying it. It wasn’t vigilante justice, it wasn’t a savage 5 on 1 attack that left a man near death, it wasn’t a gay bashing incident, it wasn’t premeditated revenge, it wasn’t anything except “Hey, that guy just took my wallet, get him!”. You’ve been attempting to make it so much more than it actually was for some reason, and you’ve failed. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706/180 "2006-03-11T16:29:20Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > I think it’s pretty obvious to most reasonable people that someone being beaten up when caught during the commission of a crime is to be expected. You’ve been fielding an entire cornfield of strawmen here, and I don’t see more than one or two other posters buying it. It wasn’t vigilante justice, it wasn’t a savage 5 on 1 attack that left a man near death, it wasn’t a gay bashing incident, it wasn’t premeditated revenge, it wasn’t anything except “Hey, that guy just took my wallet, get him!”. You’ve been attempting to make it so much more than it actually was for some reason, and you’ve failed. I’m not attempting to say it’s any of that. I’m attempting to say if it were those things, it would be wrong. The people I’m arguing with are attempting that if it were one of those things, a vicious beating, it would still be right. And with posters like Bricker on my side, I feel pretty confident in my opinion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-soldiers-beat-a-gay-man-nearly-to-death/347706.md?page=10)