Free Republic

Three black soldiers arrested for stabbing white comrade to death 'called him a cracker' - so why are police now so sure it was NOT a hate crime? Police today said the stabbing death of a white Army soldier allegedly at the hands of a group of African American comrades was not a hate crime - despite witnesses claiming they called him a 'cracker' during the confrontation. Tevin Geike, 20, was left for dead in a parking lot near his base in Lakewood, Washington, in the early hours of Saturday morning and three soldiers have been arrested over the killing....

A U.S. Army officer from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state has been charged with threatening to have his estranged wife and his superior officer killed. Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said Lt. Col. Robert E. Underwood pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three counts of felony harassment at his Superior Court arraignment in Tacoma. He is being held in the Pierce County Jail. A Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman said that Underwood had also made threats to blow up the state Capitol in nearby Olympia. Serena Kiptoo, identified in court documents as Underwood's girlfriend, told police that Underwood had said...

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – A civilian employee was injured by a bear he encountered on the base Thursday afternoon. It happened around 12:45 p.m. as the man, in his 50s, was walking his dog in an area called the Engineer’s Bluff, which is southwest of the main base area. A JBLM spokesman describes it as a heavily forested area. The man was chased out by the bear, but he fell to the ground. The bear took a swipe at the man as it ran past. The employee was treated for cuts and scrapes to his arm and leg at...