O/T How low can people be?

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:47 pm

Decorated soldier stunned by nasty bar beating
Updated Tue. Mar. 13 2007 12:49 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A recently decorated Canadian soldier honoured for his military valour in Afghanistan is still puzzled about why he was jumped from behind and beaten in his hometown bar this past weekend.

Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald, who was recognized by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean on Feb. 19 for braving enemy fire in Afghanistan, had his foot broken in three places and needed 10 stitches to close a cut above his right eye.

Fitzgerald, 27, also suffered a broken nose and two black eyes in the Friday night attack in his hometown of Morrisburg, Ont., about one hour south of Ottawa.

Fitzgerald is well known in his small town. He says he'd been in the bar only about 20 minutes, visiting with childhood friends, when he was suddenly struck from behind. Four men jumped him and began beating on him.

"They were saying 'What kind of hero are you now?'," Fitzgerald's mother Arlene told CTV News.

Bystanders pulled the attackers off Fitzgerald and his friends drove him to hospital.

Ontario Provincial Police later arrested an unidentified 21-year-old Morrisburg man and charged him with aggravated assault.

Const. Paul Murphy said more charges are expected to be laid against the man. Police also expect to lay charges against several other suspects, he said.

Fitzgerald says he still has no idea why he was attacked. He served eight months in Afghanistan and is a weapons instructor at CFB Trenton.

He was one of the first recipients of the Canadian Medal of Military Valour, "for outstanding selfless and valiant actions" carried out on May 24, 2006, during an enemy ambush "involving intense, accurate enemy fire."

http://www.gg.ca/honours/decorations/mv/index_e.asp

According to the military, Fitzgerald "repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free."

Arlene Fitzgerald is also flabbergasted that her son was able to come home in one piece from Afghanistan, but was beaten up in his own home town.

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopSto ... yline=True

Sliver · Post by **Sliver** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:19 pm

Very sad and quite pathetic

Farmer · Post by **Farmer** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:03 pm

Give some guys a few bottles of liquid courage and they will try most anything . Maybe these thugs need a tour of Afghanistan themselves , be interesting to see how brave they would be there.

BigTiny · Post by **BigTiny** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:01 pm

"No good deed goes unpunished."--Anonymous

Shakky · Post by **Shakky** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:22 am

Some people just shouldn't drink!!!

JR · Post by JR » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:47 am

The sad part about this, is I live a half hour from the bar. I'm waiting for the names of the people involved in the beating to be published.

Cowards and asshats! No cahones to go and fight and serve their country, but brave enough to gang up on a vet. Their day will come.

-Jason

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:07 am

JR. Here's the bame of the only one charged so far.

"Ontario Provincial Police have arrested 21-year-old Travis Baldwin, a Morrisburg resident and hockey player, and charged him with aggravated assault. An investigation is ongoing."

Do you know him?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... /20070313/

LoneWolf · Post by **LoneWolf** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:32 am

You're right A.W. That's about as low as they get.

What a bunch of coward punks.

Morrisburg is only about 10 minutes away from our property in Williamsburg. I too know the bar this happened at quite well.

I hope they are serious with the punks who did this.

Hi5 · Post by **Hi5** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:31 pm

Here's my idea of justice.

They should be made to "Run the Gauntlet", made up of veterans armed with pick handles. The beginning of the gauntlet would be made up of all vets of the Afganistan campaign. Next would be the vets from all Peace Keeping operations. Then the vets from Korea, and next the vets from WWII. At the end they would position the two surviving vets from WWI. That would be fairest, I think, because giving the older guys their licks later would be after the quicker, younger guys had done their work.

I'm not sure about this part yet, but I'm inclined to make that an annual event on the anniversary date of the assault.

mblaney · Post by **mblaney** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:06 pm

If what the new says is true... the media has a nasty way of only telling half of the story, usually embellishing it to make headlines.

Assuming the assault was as one sided as reported... I don't want them set to Afghanistan to 'represent' Canada. I think I best if they served jail time where they belong. I would also think that all named in the assault would now be sitting ducks for enlisted men; be nice justice if a few showed up on their doorstep

If the charged fella shows up to his hockey game on Saturday it would be nice if the fans boo him out. Or the other (or both) teams beat the crap out of him

. I don't think he will show up.

JR · Post by JR » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:59 pm

I'm glad I don't know the coward. He plays hockey for the Morrisbugh Lions though. I hope he gets "his" in a back alley. Damn lowlife.

-Jason

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:30 am

JR wrote:I'm glad I don't know the coward. He plays hockey for the Morrisbugh Lions though. I hope he gets "his" in a back alley. Damn lowlife.

-Jason

Somehow I don't see a person like this walking down an alley by himself.

LV2HNT · Post by **LV2HNT** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:18 pm

The story sounds kind of fishy to me. It is hard to believe that the soldiers friends and the other people at the bar would just sit there and watch him get beat up for no reason. I like to think that if anyone saw an injustice like this that they would atleast break it up very quickly, if not beat the snot out of the guys commiting the assault, whether it be against a soldier or a civilian. If the guys that did it were acting on their own for no good reason or if they were actualy attacking an anonymous soldier then I believe they should be punished severely, and mentaly evaluated because they must have some big problems.

I don't know about Canada but in the U.S. we have some very sick individuals when it comes to the whole war issue. Cindy Shehan is at the top of the list but their are many others. I just don't understand how people can be dumb enough to take out their frustrations on our armed forces. Personaly I feel that we shouldn't be at war and it is disgracefull for me to think of how my country has acted since 9/11 and when Bush came into office. I will never blame a soldier for my countries actions though. They are just following orders from above that they can't refuse unless they want to be locked up or discharged. If anyone is to blame it is the politicians that chose to send the troops out there in the first place. The troops are the biggest heroes we have because they have chosen to dedicate their lives to training and preparing to defend our country and it's people in the case of a war. How can you hate someone for stepping up and saying I am here for you and I am willing to die for your protection? It makes no sence to me. It also makes no sence that most Americans have changed their minds and decided the war is a bad thing therefore we need to leave Iraq as soon as possible. We have unfortunately made our bed so we should have to lie in it. We are the reason that it is in such bad shape now so we should have a responsibility to leave Iraq in better shape than it was in, when we went in. I believe it is the only way to save face in the eyes of the rest of the world.

A.W · Post by **A.W** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:39 pm

LV2HNT wrote:The story sounds kind of fishy to me. It is hard to believe that the soldiers friends and the other people at the bar would just sit there and watch him get beat up for no reason. I like to think that if anyone saw an injustice like this that they would atleast break it up very quickly, .

I don't think it's fishy. There were enough witnesses just not enough helpers. I've never been able to walk past an injustest but there are many people that will.

I've seen it happen many times when I was in law enforcement. It's still happening....Somebody's buddy gets shot in a crowded club but no witnesses come forward.

Nowadays some people wont even take their cellphone off their belt and make a call.

warpipe · Post by **warpipe** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:08 pm

It would be quite interesting to see this young lad's face if a group of Canada's finest show up in fatigue's, at the Morrisburg courthouse May 1. I'd bet then we'd see who the real tough guy's are!