Unless you watch Fox News or read the Daily Caller or the Daily Mail you probably don’t know who Chris Marquez is.
Chris Marquez is a Marine veteran who served for eight years in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in Iraq.
On November 7 2004, American, British and Iraqi troops began a fierce, unrelenting conflict with insurgents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah – little knowing that the campaign would last two months and become known as The Second Battle of Fallujah.
The fighting was furious throughout, but it was the brutal events of one particular day – November 13 – that would become known in Marine Corps legend as ‘The House of Hell’.
That day, in south-western Fallujah, two Marines on a seek-and-destroy mission found themselves caught in a vicious foxhole. They managed to surprise and kill one hidden insurgent, but in doing so alerted others on the roof to their presence.
A volley of bullets came through a skylight, followed by grenades, wounding both soldiers. US reinforcements arrived but were also caught in the gunfire and trapped.
First Sergeant Brad Kasal, who had arrived outside the building, grabbed another Marine and the two entered to provide support. Kasal was an experienced Marine who had fought in the first Gulf War, and the two managed to neutralize another insurgent before being surrounded and hit in the legs with gunfire.
A grenade was thrown into the room to finish them off and Kasal threw himself on top of his comrade to protect him, suffering further injuries to his legs.
Nevertheless, Kasal was able to pull his comrade out of harm’s way, then draw his pistol and guard them for over an hour while reinforcements fought their way into the house to rescue the men.
Two of the reinforcements that battled their way into the room were Chris Marquez and Dane Shaffer, who carried Kasal to safety. Photographer Lucien Read was also there, and took the picture that would immortalize the three and become an iconic image of the terrible violence being wrought in the country.
Ten years later, Wyoming artist John Phelps would recreate the image as two statues that would be placed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Here’s a photo of the action:
His and his fellow Marine’s actions were immortalized with a statue
There are two of these statues- one at Camp Pendleton and one in Camp Lejeune.
Marquez was assaulted by three black youths outside a McDonald’s in Northwest DC.
Marquez left the establishment after eating, but allegedly sustained a sudden blow to the back of his head outside the McDonald’s, which knocked him unconscious. When he woke up, his pants were ripped and wallet gone, which contained $400 in cash, three credit cards, his VA medical card, school identification, metro card and driver’s license.
“I remember this group of teens harassing me while I was eating, they surrounded my table and kept on asking me ‘Do you believe black lives matter,’” Marquez told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Then they started calling me a racist. I can’t recall if they were saying anything else to me at this moment because the blow to my head really screwed up my memory.”
DeAnthony Mason, manager of the McDonald’s, reviewed security footage and told Marquez in a phone call Saturday that when he left the restaurant a teen with a white shirt struck him on the side of the head, knocking him unconscious. The other teens then converged on his incapacitated body, taking his belongings. The head blow Marquez sustained left his memory dazed, but Mason’s review of security footage helped him piece together what occurred.
The Washington Post weighed in and their greatest emphasis was that the motive was not “verified.” Then they added this:
Police could not verify the motive as described by Marquez and said they are continuing to look into the case. Dustin Sternbeck, the chief D.C. police spokesman, said detectives are reviewing surveillance video of the assault but it was not immediately clear what it shows.
Well, here’s the video:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/J7-NGftbESU[/youtube]
I’m no surveillance expert, but I see a black youth follow Marquez outside the restaurant, cock his arm and slam Marquez from behind. Then I see Marquez lying on the ground and getting kicked in the head.
Kim LaCapria at Snopes calls this an “altercation.” An altercation is defined as
a heated or angry dispute; noisy argument or controversy.
Strikes me as this was something more than an “altercation” but it does not surprise that leftist snopes and its twits largely dismiss the assault. LaCapria’s primary concern was that the altercators not be identified as being part of the Black Lives Matter movement and nothing else.
It is sad commentary that the legacy news outlets have ignored this story and the few left wing outlets that have touched it are more concerned with the possible fallout that could damage the politically correct narrative than they are with the crime itself. These are the incidents that never seem to matter.
There is a Gofundme account for Marquez here.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.