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Another U.S. airman arrested for drunk driving in Okinawa

Xinhua, July 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Another U.S. serviceman from the Kadena Air Base has been arrested by Okinawa police on suspicion of drunk driving since the U.S. military eased an off-base drinking ban last month, Japanese media reported Sunday.

A breathalyzer test showed that the blood-alcohol level of the suspect, Senior Airman Joren Ladd, was nearly five times the legal limit.

Police caught him around 10:15 a.m. (0115 GMT) on Saturday after the vehicle he was drinking crashed into a car that stopped at a signal in the beachside town of Chatan near the Kadena Air Base.

Ladd, 22, admitted to the allegations after being detained. "I had two beers," he was quoted by local reports as saying.

It was the second known case of a U.S. serviceman in Okinawa apprehended for drunk driving after the U.S. military lifted a mid-night curfew and an off-base alcohol ban on June 28. The first case happened on July 4.

Okinawa hosts some 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan, though it accounts for only 0.6 percent of the country's total land mass.

Okinawans have long complained about the heavy U.S. military presence and crimes involving U.S. servicemen repeatedly happening in Okinawa.

Around 65,000 people launched a protest against the U.S. military in Naha, capital city of Okinawa in mid-June following the brutal rape, murder and dumping of a 20-year-old local woman by a U.S. military contractor in April. They demanded the U.S. bases be totally removed out of Okinawa. Endi