Today a Philippine court sentenced Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton U.S.M.C., of New Bedford, Ma. to 6-12 years in jail for the Oct 2014 homicide of a transgender Filipino sex-worker Jennifer Laude by first strangling and then dunking her head into a toilet bowl in a hotel after discovering her deception.
Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde ordered Pemberton jailed at the New Bilibid Prison, a national penitentiary in Muntinlupa. A 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement allows U.S. forces to conduct military exercises in the Philippines, states the country can prosecute U.S. service members, but that the U.S. has custody over them "from the commission of the offense until completion of all judicial proceedings."
However a 2009 Philippine Supreme Court decision ruled that convicted U.S. personnel must serve their sentences in the Philippines. Last year as a compromise the U.S. agreed to have the Lance Corporal detained in a compound at Philippine military headquarters in Quezon City guarded by U.S. Marines.
I have given "the talk" to grunts and junior officers under my command many times. "Watch out for the Bennyboys people! If your swapping spit with Daisy and you reach down and find out Daisy has a stem, that is a Bennyboy!". I'm really hoping that this talk is not being dismissed due to 'Obamaifcation' of the U.S. military - you know what I mean, and grunts are still warned about Bennyboys, Billyboys, Baklas or whatever else those folks are called now.
The killing has sparked anger in the Philippines,
reigniting calls by lefties and nationalists for an end to a U.S.
military presence in the country at a time when America is reasserting
its dominance in Asia and the last thing that's needed is resistance to a U.S. military presence because some goddamn fool didn't listen to the lecture, got angry and did something stupid and is now not staying at the Hilton for the next few years. Understood?
Semper Fi
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