Thursday, April 4, 2013

Road Rage Incident Exasperating, Then You Learn A Sad Backstory

A video going viral shows a Marine near Camp Pendleton going absolutely bonkers with rage following a fender bender on a highway.
A still from the Marine road rage incident shows
the Marine outside the car while the victim/driver
sits stone faced in the vehicle.

As people sit silently in the car that rear ended the Marine vehicle, you see the Marine just totally losing his shit.

News reports from ABC 10 out of San Diego indicate the Marine might have caused the crash by slamming on his brakes abruptly in the early stages of the road rage incident.

At first, you think, "What a moron." as he goes on and on. But there's something off, even more so than you'd see in a standard issue adult temper tantrum. His voice rises. Amid his rage, you feel like he's going to cry, that maybe there's an element of fear in his incoherent anger.

The television station also reported the Marine might have PTSD. ABC 10 interviewed Psychologist Dr. Michael Mantell, who said he thought the Marine might have something called "intermittent explosive disorder."

"It's where you have these explosive, unpremeditated outburts of anger Mantell told 10News. "These are people who thrown things, they break things, they inflict harm on others.
......PTSD is never a defense or an excuse said Mantell. It may be an explanation."


Meanwhile, the unnamed, unseen woman in the car videoing this display is herself a Marine, injured in war, paralyzed from the waist down, according to media reports. The guy behind the wheel is her brother and caregiver.

The angry Marine, a Sargeant, has been charged by military police with communicating a threat, and more charges are possible, according to local media.

I was torn about showing all this because maybe it's a little exploitive. But boy, if any of what ABC 10 has been reporting about the people involved, it's clear the damage from war reaches far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan and lands on our doorstep in scary, unpredictable and sad ways.

Here's the video
 

4 comments:

  1. Hard to be sympathetic on this one. I know a number of fellow vets suffering from PTSD, and it doesn't look like this. This looks like a classic case of anger management mixed with a healthy dose of the machismo that the USMC prides itself on. The whole "voice cracking, as if about to cry" bit is also common in bullies. Difficult for me to feel anything but repulsed by this.

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  2. Google "SBSD 8 2 12 Sgt Ashley funeral"

    This is Sgt. Joshua Brightman (the road rage Marine) at another Marines funeral last August. He and his buddies showed up with guns when the WBC had stated they would picket the funeral (WBC didn't show). Distressing the family noticed their little stunt and had to ask the deputy to speak with them. Brightmans response to the police and his opionions are equally distressing. I agree, this isn't PTSD.

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  3. He's not on of the good men we're looking for

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  4. I have an opinion about Brightman's behavior which has nothing to do with combat experience.

    http://chickensoupfortheterroristsoul.blogspot.com/2013/05/chicken-soup-with-marine-sergeant.html

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