Marlon Brawndo  - 2019-01-19
from HuffPo:
"David Steven Bell, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound man facing charges for punching a preteen girl at a North Carolina mall, was acting in self-defense and suffers from various medical conditions, according to his lawyer.
“His actions were in an effort to defend himself against the perceived threat from a large pack of youth who had trapped and surrounded him,” attorney Andy Banzhoff told The Asheville Citizen-Times.
Banzhoff, who did not return calls for comment from HuffPost, also said Bell, 51, is being treated for a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. A copy of the arrest report obtained by HuffPost on Thursday lists Bell as “disabled” in the section asking for an employer.
Banzhoff did not detail the cause of his client’s alleged medical issues or say whether they will be used as a defense in court.
Asheville police arrested Bell on Jan. 12 after he allegedly pushed and punched an 11-year-old girl and assaulted two 13-year-old girls at the Asheville Mall. A video that appears to show the alleged assault went viral after it was posted online.
Bell, of Black Mountain, was arrested and charged with assaulting a child under 12 and two counts of assault on a female. The circumstances leading up to the incident are still under investigation, police said.
Banzhoff told the Asheville newspaper that Bell was leaving the mall when he saw a woman being harassed by “a large pack of youths.” The attorney said Bell was surrounded by the youths when he escorted the woman to an exit.
Things turned physical, Banzhoff said, when a young female shoved Bell and then another girl stepped forward in an “aggressive manner.” Bell pushed the youth away, which caused her to lose her balance and fall, the lawyer said.
“She then got to her feet and aggressively charged in the direction of Mr. Bell,” Banzhoff said. “As she entered Mr. Bell’s personal space, he struck her with his closed fist.”
Bell is white and the girl he punched is black.
“His actions were not motivated by any animus towards the persons in that group,” Banzhoff said. “Mr. Bell’s belief is that all persons are created equal and that we are all children of God.”
Bell and his family, the attorney added, are praying for “those impacted by this unfortunate incident.”
Bell is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 5."
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Marlon Brawndo - 2019-01-19
There's a version available on Youtube. Liveleak link appears to be broken.
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That guy - 2019-01-19
I guess by the point I'm disagreeing with people I don't normally disagree with on poetv, I don't know what this site has for me anymore.
Like r/popular or r/all stuff just doesn't interest me here.
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That guy - 2019-01-19 Haha.
Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap
Ok, so in Pillager's defense, this particular instance of this video only has 9K views, so Pillager might not have know that it has actually done laps around the internet right now.
And also it's clear that other poesters have a different view of what poetv should be than I do. That's all good. I just think everything good here is either "I found this weird shit/awesome person", or the occasional crowd pleaser video (plus a few smaller categories like awesome science video). For me, I'm getting too many political shibboleths or videos with 500k+ views.
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TeenerTot - 2019-01-20 Personally, I don't judge a video by the number of views. This is where I come to watch shit, not You Tubes or Live Leakers or whatever. This video is new to me and I'm glad it's here.
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Pillager - 2019-01-20 @that_guy, I don't patronize Reddit. I found this video on 8chan.
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That guy - 2019-01-20 love, that's a pretty hot take on my comment for a video where I didn't 1-star or rant and rave.
It's like you read right past what I said.
It appears that I disagree with most of the site about whether so many high-view-count videos belong here. Fair enough.
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Binro the Heretic - 2019-01-20
So to all the people who think he was justified in doing what he did because all those little girls were being scary, let's play a little game:
Imagine he was Black and the girls were White.
How do you feel now?
Stars for evil.
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Rosebeekee - 2019-01-20 But Huffpo said he has medical problems and is disabled! Don’t be ableist. Clearly he’s more likely to be hurt by someone else than he is to hurt another person.
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Marlon Brawndo - 2019-01-20 We know he has PTSD. I wouldn't be surprised if it was much more than that, though. If he is mentally ill, would it really be that shocking? I don't condone what he did. But legally, mental illness tends to be a different ballgame. I think he should be under psychiatric evaluation before anything else.
Remember when people like this just got involuntarily committed? Yeah, we should return to that.
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Caminante Nocturno - 2019-01-20 Wow, you just reenacted the climactic scene from A Time to Kill.
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2019-01-20
The youtube comments are a fucking dumpster fire.
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Marlon Brawndo - 2019-01-20 I thought this story would bring out the best in people concerning race relations in America. Imagine my shock when I read the Youtube comments!
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2019-01-20 I just uploaded and posted a slow motion version. It's currently in the hopper. i don't know what's going on here, but I'm not seeing this guy being physically threatened. And he aggresively shoves two DIFFERENT girls (not the some one, as in the video description ) including the one he punches.
But EVERYBODY posting in the YT comments sees him as the victim. And even weirder, they seem to be making up scenarios in which he's defending the white girls against the black girls, even though they just seem like a bunch of girls to me.
To me this looks like mean girls vs. crazy guy. Race may be involved. It's hard to dismiss the possibilty, but it may not be the primary cause. These girls may be bullying this allegedly brain-damaged guy but it does not look like self defense, and to me the distance between what's happening and what's going on in the comments is more telling and interesting.
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SixDigitDebt - 2019-01-20
You know, he's surrounded. I don't see the whole thing so I can't say for certain but I can tell you from experience; you make a good example of ONE in a hostile group, there's a solid chance you'll walk out of the situation.
Mob mentality actually is pretty scary.
Not that I really think punching a little girl in the face is a good thing, but the shove away he gave to her was a GOOD indicator that maybe she shouldn't run right back at him.
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