A former Marine pleaded guilty Thursday in a 2022 firebombing attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in California, federal prosecutors said.

Chance Brannon, 24, is one of three men charged in the Molotov cocktail attack on the building in Costa Mesa, which occurred while Brannon was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, officials said.

No one was hurt in the March 13, 2022, incident, which occurred in the early morning when no one was there. The front entrance had some burn damage, and the clinic had to reschedule about 30 appointments.

Brannon also had a rifle with a Cyrillic message that referred to death and a racial slur, as well as a thumb drive with a recording of the Christchurch, New Zealand, white supremacist mass shooting, the plea deal says in a statement of facts that Brannon agreed to.

  • athos77@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Okay, so this was the US DOJ. Since Chance was an active-duty Marine, why isn’t he also being charged by the military? I want his ass in Leavenworth too.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m guessing that some punishment already happened. I can’t see the details of it, but he was cited in articles as an “active-duty Marine” as recently as this past summer, when he was arrested, so something happened in the middle to make him a “former Marine”…

    • Notyou
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      1 year ago

      Usually, not saying I know this is what is happening, but usually the military waits for civilian courts to charge and find them guilty or not.

      Then the military can either Court Martial them on different charges (to prevent double jeopardy), or NJP depending on the crime. I would assume this would be a Court Martial offense.

      Not an expert just a guess for my time on active duty.

      • SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The Constitutional protection from double jeopardy does not apply across jurisdictions. You can be tried in state and federal court for the same act, and in military court too, if applicable.

        In practice, this doesn’t usually happen, you get tried and convicted in one or the other for a single crime. However, you may be tried for different crimes committed in the same act, for example by committing a hate crime, you may be charged by the state government for the act, plus a federal civil rights charge.

        And then the court martial will probably say “yeah you’ve already been convicted and you’re going to civilian jail, here’s your dishonorable discharge, get the fuck out”. Unless you did something really messed up and the military wants their pound of flesh too.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    What if P.P. protestors instead went to volunteer at an orphanage or something? Maybe spend that time providing daycare services? Literally anything to make new parents’ lives easier rather than worse?

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve got a buddy who is staunchly opposed to abortion. Not banning it, just personally opposed to it. Raised super Christian. Like, Halloween was OK with his parents but DnD wasn’t.

      If you ever bring up abortion around him, dude will GO OFF about how Republicans have absolutely ruined any chances we have at actually ending abortion, by trying to ban it instead of addressing the most common reasons people have abortions.

      It’s so fun to hear a guy I ostensibly disagree with on abortion shout about how the actual Christian thing to do is to revamp adoption, provide free childcare services, provide money to new parents, and have universal healthcare.

      “Banning it just causes harm to women and makes innocent people into criminals” is my favorite fake of his.

      Imagine a world without the GOP ruining everything.

      • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s okay, if they were the kind of people to do A instead of B they wouldn’t be monsters to be inflicted upon others.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That would be solving problems instead of “preventing” them in the first place.

      If only their “prevention” wasn’t a fucking terrorist attack…

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Chance Brannon, 24, is one of three men charged in the Molotov cocktail attack on the building in Costa Mesa, which occurred while Brannon was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, officials said.

    No one was hurt in the March 13, 2022, incident, which occurred in the early morning when no one was there. The front entrance had some burn damage, and the clinic had to reschedule about 30 appointments.

    What exactly did these idiots hope to achieve?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Doesn’t seem to have worked out for them, considering their ‘terror’ appears to have resulted in a mild inconvenience and them getting court sentences.

        • Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s not entirely true, attacks on Planned Parenthood around the nation have led to several of them being closed, and both staff and patients being too afraid to go there.

          Even though jailing the domestic terrorists is a good step to keep them from continuing it, it’s not necessarily enough to stave off the terror.