Navy officer accused of assaulting Japanese woman in U.S. custody

[Tennis]

TOKYO — A U.S. Navy officer who was arrested Friday on charges of groping and punching a Japanese woman on a commercial air flight from the United States has been released to U.S. custody.

A spokesperson for U.S. Naval Forces-Japan said a Navy lieutenant assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Five One (HSM-51), based at the Atsugi Naval Air Facility, Japan, was handed over to U.S. authorities late Saturday under terms of the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments.

According to Japanese press reports, the officer was arrested in an alleged assault on a 19-year-old female college student while on a flight from San Diego to Japan.

It was the second high-profile arrest of a U.S. serviceman for sexually related offenses in Japan in less than a week and could further complicate efforts to relocate a key U.S. airbase on the island of Okinawa.

Navy Commander Ron Flanders said the officer, whom he declined to identify further, was being confined to the Atsugi airbase, which is located near Tokyo.

“We are investigating for potential violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and if we determine there were violations we will take disciplinary actions that we deem appropriate,” Flanders said.

A 33-year-old U.S. military servicemember was arrested at Narita International Airport early Friday after he repeatedly touched the student – who was sitting next to him on the plane -- on the thigh, then punched her in the head several times, according to Japanese news reports. The alleged assault took place over a period of about 90 minutes. Flight attendants helped the student move to a new seat and reported the incident to police upon arrival in Tokyo.

The incident follows the arrest on March 13 of a 24-year-old Navy-enlisted man on a charge of raping a Japanese woman at a hotel on the island of Okinawa, where about 27,000 U.S. troops are stationed. The sailor remains in police custody on Okinawa. Under Japanese law, suspects can be held for up to 23 days without formal charges.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...apan/82008926/

What's going on with these soldiers? It feels like every week there is a story about them assaulting a woman in Japan. Wasn't there another one just recently?

[Independent voter]

Dudes are off the hook.

[Tennis]

Maybe they need special screening for soldiers to serve in Japan? @supertony51 @Belize @Mistame

Don't abuse mentions

[Skroe]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...apan/82008926/

What's going on with these soldiers? It feels like every week there is a story about them assaulting a woman in Japan. Wasn't there another one just recently?

It happens once or twice a decade. Not every week.

And it's just a law of averages really. The US Military employs 1.4 million people and rotates hundreds of thousands of those around the world every year. While there are many protections are in place, there hasn't been a system yet created by man capable of not being defeated, and that includes systems mean to screen out bad apples. If even 1% of the US Military is bad apples, that's still 14,000 bad apples.

It may sound cold blooded, but things like this are statistically likely to happen when you have so many people doing 3-9 month tours of duty, before they're replaced by a new group.

In Japan, it's become an object of political football because the Okinawan have wanted the US to vacate it's various bases on the island for years, and the US has expressed a willingness to move many forces to Guam, to Japan-proper, and remote parts of the island. A terrible thing that is statistically likely to happen and keep happening always turns into political football by those people. To them, it's not the one rapist who is guilty. It's the entire US military presence that are guilty rapists. That's the subtext.

The thing is, with China being menacing and Japan freaked out about it, Okinawa's importance is only going up, not down, and leaving is not going to happen anytime soon.

[Theinquisition]

Maybe they need special screening for soldiers to serve in Japan? @supertony51 @Belize @Mistame

Get my name out of your mouth.

[oxymoronic]

Get my name out of your mouth.

hey supertony can you tell us all where you got that cool sig "Moderators, please don't ban me for having a different opinion than yours"?

[Belize]

Maybe they need special screening for soldiers to serve in Japan? @supertony51 @Belize @Mistame

The fuck are you mentioning me for?

[May90]

Here is how I read this story: "A person is accused of assaulting another person". That the former person is an American male and a Navy officer, and that the latter person is a Japanese woman, is completely irrelevant, and the mention of these details serves only to ignite "righteous wrath" against certain groups of people in the reader.

[darkwarrior42]

hey supertony can you tell us all where you got that cool sig "Moderators, please don't ban me for having a different opinion than yours"?

Your signature is a self-righteous appeal to emotion, I'm not sure you have any room for criticizing others.

On topic: I promise you this does not happen every week. Skroe is correct, being in the military doesn't make you any better or worse than anyone else, you get enough people together and eventually it's bound to happen (sadly).

I'm not even going to touch your statement that the Japanese are more either more deserving of protection (implying others are inherently less valuable) or that they are in greater need of protection (implying they are incapable of taking care of themselves). At least, I don't see any other way to interpret your statement about special screening for Japanese duty, or are you just really concerned about the political relations between Japan and the US?

[May90]

Your signature is a self-righteous appeal to emotion

Plus poorly spelled.

[Tennis]

The fuck are you mentioning me for?

Uh cuz I want you and @supertony51 to chime in.

[Kraenen]

The (racist) Asian "masculinity" crowd will love this.

[Theinquisition]

hey supertony can you tell us all where you got that cool sig "Moderators, please don't ban me for having a different opinion than yours"?

why does it matter? I made it myself.

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Uh cuz I want you and @supertony51 to chime in.

Skoe gave you more attention than you deserve, and explained it better than I would have anyway.

[Belize]

Uh cuz I want you and @supertony51 to chime in.

What would I have to chime in? Some guy is accused of assaulting someone else.

Tell me exactly what you're trying to insinuate by wanting me to "chime in", and stop beating around the bush.

[oxymoronic]

why does it matter? I made it myself.

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Skoe gave you more attention than you deserve, and explained it better than I would have anyway.

you got it from me you dimwit. now either give me credit or remove it.

and thats cool, your stupid mom joke is edited...

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Plus poorly spelled.

only if you're dumb as a rock

Infracted

[Theinquisition]

you got it from me you dimwit. now either give me credit or remove it.

and thats cool, your stupid mom joke is edited...

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only if you're dumb as a rock

1. Kiss my ass I wrote it myself.

2. kiss my ass anyway.

3. Yes, you have some grammatical errors in your sig, shocking.

Infracted

[Darsithis]

Let's get back on topic, please. Thanks

[Belize]

Let's get back on topic, please. Thanks

Let's be fair, there wasn't much of a topic to begin with, other the massive over-exaggerations based on a sample pool smaller than an ant's self awareness.

[Kasierith]

Upon further moderator review, as the OP is banned and there really wasn't much to talk about in the first place, I'm going to just close this here as it probably isn't going anywhere at all.

Closed.