A video that’s been viewed millions of times on social media shows a man being thrown to the ground in Okinawa, Japan, by U.S. service members.
The man is a D.C. resident who took a trip to the country last week to visit friends, he said in an interview you’ll see only on News4.
Kareem El shared his account of what happened.
“I was out in Okinawa visiting friends, having a good time. I found myself on Gate 2 Street,” he said.
It’s around the corner from Kadena Air Base.
“One minute I was standing outside, kind of minding my business. The next minute, I was being asked for an ID,” El said.
Surveillance video provided to News4 by El’s lawyer shows him stepping outside of a bar and being approached by a patrol of U.S. military police about 15 seconds later. They talked for about five minutes before El was forced to the ground.
“I told you not to f—ing touch me!” someone can be heard saying.
“Yo, what the f— are you guys doing, man?” someone else asks.
“After not providing that ID, I found myself being assaulted, being taken to the ground,” El said. “Shortly thereafter, illegally detained and then being taken to the parking lot of a military base where, eventually, it was noted that I was not in the military and was released, but the events leading up to that were deeply traumatizing.”
U.S. Forces Japan told News4 it’s common to see these types of patrols near U.S. military facilities in Japan to “regulate the conduct of off-duty troops.”
A military spokesperson also confirmed the incident to News4, saying that “in the early morning hours of Nov. 22, a U.S. patrol detained a non-SOFA [status of forces agreement] American citizen outside a bar in Okinawa City. The U.S. Forces Japan commander has directed an investigation to review the incident. We have paused unilateral patrols until the investigation is finished, and we are retraining our patrol members.”
El and his lawyer, Lee Merritt, are looking at what their next steps will be. News4 asked the lawyer what justice in the case would look like for him.
“We don’t think it was any coincidence that this happened to Capt. El but that he was targeted because of his race,” he said.
“Ultimately, we want to make sure, as Capt. El said, that this doesn’t happen again, and whatever that takes, whatever changes need to occur to ensure that U.S. citizens or any citizens aren’t harassed by U.S. military in places like Okinawa. It’s very important to us,” Merritt added.
“I think there’s definitely something to be said about the fact that there were a lot of people on that street who looked like they could be in the military — clean-cut, clean-shaven – and I can’t tell you why I was singled out,” El said.
News4 asked the military about the comment by Merritt claiming El was targeted because of his race.
A spokesperson for U.S. Forces Japan told News4 the patrol approached El “solely because they “believed he was an American servicemember.”
El was once in the Marine Corps but left. He was a civilian when he was thrown to the ground. He said military police asking him for his ID was an “illegal request” and that he told them he was no longer a service member.
AloJapan.com