{"id":1771,"date":"2026-04-09T17:34:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1771\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:34:45","slug":"us-military-acknowledges-mistake-in-us-civilians-arrest-on-okinawa-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1771\/","title":{"rendered":"US military acknowledges \u2018mistake\u2019 in US civilian\u2019s arrest on Okinawa street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Two<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tU.S. military police on a joint patrol of Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Japan, on Dec. 6, 2025. (Ryan M. Breeden\/Stars and Stripes)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa \u2014 U.S. Forces Japan has acknowledged that military police on patrol on an Okinawa street made a \u201cmistake\u201d when they aggressively detained a U.S. civilian last month in an incident captured on video<\/a> that went viral.<\/p>\n

Two videos posted online show a U.S. military police officer lifting and slamming Kareem El to the pavement<\/a> along Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city early Nov. 22. The incident ignited a social media backlash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the investigation is still ongoing, it is clear that the detention of Mr. El was a mistake on the part of the patrol, who approached him solely because they believed he was a U.S. servicemember,\u201d USFJ spokesman Col. John Severns wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post first reported Severns\u2019 statement on Thursday in Washington, where El is from. El has said he was on Okinawa on a business trip.<\/p>\n

USFJ commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost halted unilateral patrols by the U.S. military<\/a> on Okinawa and ordered an investigation into the incident, Severns said by email Nov. 26. El is not connected to the military and was detained by a liberty patrol consisting only of U.S. military police, Severns said.<\/p>\n

U.S. military police continue joint patrols in Okinawa city with Okinawa Prefectural Police, most recently on Dec. 6 on Gate 2 Street, a popular nightlife district outside Kadena Air Base.<\/p>\n

USFJ instituted the joint patrols in April to enforce an order prohibiting<\/a> service members from drinking alcohol off base between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. The order stemmed in part from a rash of sexual assault allegations<\/a> that arose in December 2023 and have so far yielded two convictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military began its own patrols in September in Okinawa city and in November in Chatan town and Naha city, Okinawa\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

El, 32 and a former Marine captain, told Stars and Stripes in an interview Nov. 28 that he was detained without provocation in front of Star Bar around 2 a.m. on Nov. 22.<\/p>\n

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing El, in a statement Nov. 29 said he suffered a head injury, wrist lacerations, cuts and abrasions and \u201csignificant psychological trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Dec. 4 video call with Merritt and Stars and Stripes, El said he was dropped from three feet onto concrete<\/a>, injuring his face and the left side of his body. He said the slam injured his knees, and his wrists were lacerated from being handcuffed.<\/p>\n

Merritt said his office has opened its own investigation and is exploring possible civil claims against the individual police officers involved in the incident and the U.S. military. <\/p>\n

Merritt said he has spoken to U.S. and Japanese citizens who claim to \u201chave suffered similar injuries or harassment.\u201d He did not say how many he interviewed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. military police on a joint patrol of Gate 2 Street in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Japan, on Dec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2072,2073,8,2077,162,2076,2078,1315,2071,496,2075,2074],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okinawa","tag-arrest","tag-civilian-arrest","tag-japan","tag-military-patrols","tag-okinawa","tag-okinawa-civlian-arrest","tag-us-forces-japan","tag-us-military","tag-us-military-okinawa","tag-usfj","tag-viral-arrest-video","tag-viral-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}