Bowe Bergdahl swept up in drug raid
I heard this a few days ago, but it’s only hitting the media this morning that a drug enforcement unit in Mendocino County encountered Bowe Bergdahl, the blue falcon who was a guest of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan for five years, at a marijuana growing facility, according to Fox News;
[Captain Greg Van Patten with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office] said Bergdahl was detained, but ultimately was “determined not to be connected to the operation, at least there was no evidence to suggest he was involved.”
When Bergdahl encountered the law enforcement team, Van Patten said he identified himself while the sheriff’s office reached out to the Department of Defense. The agency confirmed Bergdahl was on leave, and asked for their assistance in getting him back.
Sheriff’s office personnel later drove Bergdahl “to a halfway point,” where he met up with army representatives.
Apparently, Bergdahl was on a legitimate leave from his duty station at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and the Army isn’t pressing charges against him. I hope they do a urinalysis test on him. The police say that they encountered 180 mature marijuana plants at the grow site, that’s a lot for Bergdahl not to notice.
It’s strange though, that Bergdahl gets a leave and doesn’t use it to go home and visit his parents, isn’t it? The Department of the Army needs to hurry up and get this case cleared from the docket.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
I couldn’t sleep now I know why.
This is the best news I’ve read all week
BAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAAA !!!!
I used to hear “wrong place at the wrong time” as the reason given by many crims for their arrest. And the pocket money? Oh, they hit the lottery. The positive drug test? At a party or in a car and must have breathed in someone’s dope. All answers, of course, were bullshit. This guy reminds me of those bullshitters.
We got pulled over after my birthday earlier this month, after I and a friend had been drinking (our driver was stone sober), and I got pulled out of the car because my license was a day expired (forgot to renew it). They wanted to search the car for drugs because I had 500 dollars on me, and I explained it was for a tattoo and for a running gag, so instead they just sat there and hassled me like I was a drug dealer.
Moral of the story is that, apparently, having too much cash is now reasonable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing.
Just tooling down the road (at what time?) and were stopped? No reason for it? I bet you didn’t get pulled out of the car at all. I’m sorry that you did not have valid ID. At least three people were in the car, and two of them weren’t sober and one had $500. Yeah, that could arouse suspicion. Was the car searched? Were you arrested? I’m guessing that’s a no and no.
When I wrote, “I bet you didn’t get pulled out of the car at all,” I meant that no one physically yanked you from the car but, instead, asked you to step out.
Is a passenger in a car required to have an unexpired drivers license?
My favorite memory on this subject is about a friend of mine that was snorkeling in the Palm Beach Inlet, in the channel that had signs posted “No Snorkeling Here”. The Marine Patrol came up on him in a boat and hauled him out. Then they got pissed at him because he didn’t have ID… as if he was supposed to carry his driver’s license with him while snorkeling. I don’t know the law, maybe that is a legit requirement.
Then you have the “undocumented immigrant” set of rules I guess.
You know, there are indeed times when not showing a driver’s license will get some over-anxious legal beagle in a snit, but then, if you have your United Space Fleet ID with you, what’s the problem?
No, GDC, that is generally not a legal requirement. However, when one is questioned by police, positive ID is usually requested and, if there is any reason for the police officer to suspect that the person being questioned is a wanted person or is involved in a criminal act, the request may become something else. A wise crack here or there, a furtive gesture, a failure to obey… are among the things that can result in someone’s being ID’ed the old-fashioned way.
2/17 Air Cav is correct.
Being respectful and polite, “may I see your ID please?”, is the best way to get an ID on some one.
Reasonable suspicion is the trigger and or standard for a demand for ID or to run a subject.
USSC has upheld this!
Now if the occupants of the vehicle are being jack wads, well chances are the police may articulate reasonable suspicion some how and demand ID.
But what do I know after 20 years in LE …
If there was no probable cause to ask him to step out of the car no ID in an of itself is not an offense nor is an expired drivers license. Brown vs Texas on showing ID still stands to my knowledge.
Being drunk as a passenger isn’t a crime, being drunk as a driver quite another…
It’s best to never trust the police, they are not your friends. They make shit up to suit the situation and “teach” a lesson where none needs to be taught.
It’s why I film/record every single encounter with the police.
It’s harder to tell lies when they’re on video.
If you litigate enough the police and city tend to be more respectful when they stop you. Litigation is what gets policy changed, there is a lot of video out there showing cops with zero knowledge of the ID laws…and now several groups with nothing better to do than video those encounters and litigate have been getting paid.
Be careful if you try recording an encounter with the police in a public location in NYC; Broward County, FL; or MD. Some of the police in those three jurisdictions take exception to that perfectly legal behavior and have been documented to have roughed up and/or falsely arrested individuals who did so.
Case in point: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/19/motorcyclist-arrested-for-recording-cop-brandishing-gun-with-hel/
I do kind of look forward to the day when I can get one of those driverless robot cars, and get stopped by the po-po. The look on his face should be priceless. 🙂
Shit, $500 cash in your pocket is just minimal preparation for a visit to the strip club! There’s no way the cop didn’t know that those places have the highest ATM surcharges known to man.
Yeah, if I were going to Chippendale’s, I’d certainly take more than $500.
I used to run around rual Oklahoma with $$ 1500 to $$2ooo in my pocket and my Uncle probably more in his {trading money] sometimes you had to throw some money in when trading up. Joe
Fun with LE topic …
“They wanted to seach the car for drugs” …
Did you consent?
Did they search it?
Did they bring a dog to the scene?
What did the 3 occupants do to create reasonable suspicion?
Were any citations written or arrests made?
Are you a drug dealer?
Are you a rebel rouser?
Sounds to me like this is an emblished story or you guyz deserved the special attention …
But what do I know …
Then again, even the best LE agency in America still has that one power-tripping asshole. More common in some places than others, certainly. But, like everybody else in the military and civilian worlds, no PD, Sheriff’s Office, Highway Patrol, or State Police is ever entirely free of the toxic influence of That Guy. That Guy is the reason for most, if not all, of the problems between lawmen and their constituencies, because That Guy is a douche with some form of “I AM the law” complex. My own encounters with That Guy in a black&white have been thankfully rare, but the sonofabitch is still out there, like a virus.
I believe you are 90-99% correct, Master Chief. But That Guy must always be taken into account.
Let’s see, what might make this story more understandable?
What were you pulled over for? Who was the car registered to? The Driver? You? The other passenger? Was it insured? In whose name?
Was the officer just reminding you that your license was expired? Did he or she cite you for your expired license? My guess on that is a big no.
What was your attitude? What was the attitude of the other passenger? The driver? How did the officer know that you had $500 on you? When the officer became aware that you had that much money, was your first response words to the effect of, “what do you think I am, a drug dealer”?
Does anyone seriously expect an accurate report of the sequence of events following the words, “I was drunk in the back seat of the car…”?
Yes, we want graphs, charts and some 8×10 glossy prints dammit!
“It’s best to never trust the police, they are not your friends. They make shit up to suit the situation and “teach” a lesson where none needs to be taught.”
Some people can say good morning in a way that sounds very much like–and is intended to sound like–fuck you! I bet you’re a real peach when you get stopped. I’m certain that you say everything just right and do everything just right, hoping that the P/O says or does something for your Gothca! moment.
I would like to try to diffuse this heated discussion by advising thus:
When pulled over by the police, smile and say, “No comprendo.” Then take the free EBT card and Obama phone the nice police man offers you, and move on.
OVER // Peace out. 😉
Seriously, I have always been polite upon my interactions with LE and the politeness has always been returned. I do find it oddd when I see bicyclists being pulled over and cited… it makes me wonder does the cyclists have ID on him? What if he doesn’t? Is a bicyclist required to have a valid DL on him so that he can be cited? And then my mind wanders…
My response to anyone who pulled the ¿no habla? or ¿no comprendo? was to ask “Comprendo jail”? There was always someone who did, and there were few problems.
Have you guys never heard of pseudo-German? Or conversational Latin? Or even some obscure dialect from Eastern Europe, such as Latvia?
In most jurisdictions, when on a public road, bicyclists are required to follow the same traffic rules and regulations as vehicle operators. That would lead one to think that requiring a valid form of ID would fall into that category.
Yes, so the logical conclusion to that train of thought is that one needs a motor vehicle operators license in order to ride a bicycle. I find that ironic.
Yeah, so that 12 year old on the bike is supposed to have a license? Jebeebus. Come on. This hurts.
Nonmotorized vehicle permit. That would include horses and buggies, by the way. Yes they’re supposed to know and obey the traffic laws here, just like the motorized vehicles. And they can get cited for failure to obey, just like a driver. If they didn’t wind up on someone’s bumper and dead, which is what happened to a local boy last week.
So, are you saying that Montana requires underage kids to have a permit to ride a bicycle on the street? That’s worse than most east coast People’s Republics!
“Is a bicyclist required to have a valid DL on him so that he can be cited?”
I stand partially corrected. Technically, no ID is required to ride a bike. But, if Joe Cop asks for ID (in relation to any infraction, including breaking a street law while biking) and you are unable to adequately verify your identity, you could be off to jail.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-5554.ZS.html
Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner!
(referring to the prior comment)
Does anyone seriously expect an accurate report of the sequence of events following the words, “I was drunk in the back seat of the car…”?
(I really need to hit “refresh” before I hit “post”)
It can go pear shaped in a heartbeat, so be careful out there. In my State when you renew your D/L they take the old one, punch a hole in it and hand it back to you. It still acts as valid ID while you wait for the new one. Silly. Since you were not driving, an expired license should have been an acceptable. I think you guys were having a little too much fun, and that can raise eye brows in today’s climate of fear.
I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I was in the National Guard I was on my way home from drill. Something was wrong with my stereo (which I installed myself) so I pulled over to see if I could fix it real quick (a wire had been falling out of the fuze box). When I looked up I had a couple of cop cars behind me. I got in my car and then they flipped on their lights. They asked me a few questions like why was I in camo and what was in the paper bag that contained my lunch. It turns out that where I pulled over was a hidden pot field that they were watching. After a little joking around with me that let me go.
Sorry, that noise you heard was me falling off my chair, laughing myself into the squeak mode. Laughter is definitely good for what ails you.
I thought he was in jail, or something. He didn’t go visit mommy and daddy while on leave?
Every time this guy leaves his post, he get’s captured. Slow learner.
He is not exactly a bag of brains is he?
Bag of brains? No. But IMO he’s a bag of something else.
I’ll leave determining the “something else” I have in mind as the proverbial “exercise for the reader”. But I think it will be a rather easy exercise.
Try SHIT BAG !!!!
How long until the Rose Garden presser with his parents again?
Didn’t know Leavenworth had a Rose Garden . . . .
I read when he was charged that two NCOs were accompanying him any time he went off post–not for fear of flight but for his own protection. I wonder what happened to the security detail.
I’m wondering if Mommy and Daddy Bergdahl have a pot farm in Mendocino County.
They have hearty appetites. What do you think?
Main question for me why were the LEOs asked to keep him till Big Army could pick him up.Was he out of bounds or UA or even both? Joe
I didn’t know his parents are in Leavenworth, Does the CiC actually know how to get there if they were?
It’s not like it’s on the way to a golf course in Hawaii.
Why not? Alcatraz had one.
I would have thought he would be under some sort of restricted travel distance if allowed leave at all.
Talk about giving a known flight risk a free pass while awaiting court martial.
Oh, well, he was undoubtedly “just dropping off my resume” to his new business partners in preparation for his post Army career.
Shocking news. No, not that, but he associates with dopers?
Yeah, what a surprise.
Hopefully no goats were harmed during his travels…
Well this may explain the sudden rise in goat mutilations. In Northern California, and Nevada Lol….
He’s a Baa-a-a-a-a-d man. Keep him away from me!
🙂
Shouldn’t he be flagged and thus certain favorable personal actions suspended which would include leave?
I recall Soldiers being flagged for “Commanders Investigation” and any recommendation for Article 15 or Court Martial. So is the Army not following through on the proper paperwork with this bozo like they would for the kid who gets a DUI or fails to maintain accountability of Army property?
Exactly… It’s odd isn’t it
I was thinking the same thing. Hasn’t he already shown he’s a flight risk?
….Long long time ago I remember a USAF deserter who bad turned himself in and was apparently about to be let go…when with just a few hours to freedom he got arrested for theft of government property – I.e.; the field jacket he was wearing when be went over the hill. That gave them enough time to complete an investigation that charged him with bank robbery. Wonder if young Mr. Bergdahl will suddenly be held up a bit longer than planned now….
Mike
AR 600-8-2 doesn’t prohibit ordinary leave while flagged. It does prohibit advance or excess leave without an exception to policy.
I think people are confused because every unit I ever served in simply took the extreme interpretation and just refused to grant leave to someone who was flagged. So without ever reading the Reg myself, I just assumed also, flag=no leave
I’m sure that oh, say ten years from now this “war hero” will be milking the VA for all he can with claims of PTSD, not to mention treatment for his drug abuse that came about as a result of his “captivity”. And of course he will be making coin off of interviews with Rolling Stone, Salon and the other left wing rags.
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Something is very wrong with Bowe Bergdahl’s CoC if they don’t UA him pronto, that walking bag of Phil Monkress!
At least in the ’80s, any drug use was an instant ticket to a discharge for an NCO. There was a guy in the other OCS company reputedly the stud hoss of the whole class, whose first-day Golden Flow came back positive in about week 12. He was supposedly an 18 series NCO, rumored to have been an E-7… reportedly he was in line for reduction in rank and a discharge as soon as they could process him. Shining star to loser in one toke…
To do the UA they have to have probable cause that he was using…which the story suggests they do not have. Otherwise the UA would be an illegal search and 100% useless (except for giving his lawyers a chance to grandstand).
Serious question: why wouldn’t a person’s physical presence at a commercial pot growing operation at the time that a drug raid occurred constitute sufficient probable cause to suspect possible drug use by the individual?
The story indicates that, according to LE on the spot, it was reasonable for him not to know about the plants were even there; and there’s a further jump from “knowing your hosts have contraband” to “yourself sampling the stuff.” And my understanding of the story is that this wasn’t just their pot growing operation, but their house, i.e., a place where someone might come to visit socially. (It wasn’t clear to me whether they sold retail from their living room, or wholesaled through someone who hauled it away in bulk.)
Probable cause is a very fact-intensive inquiry so changing a few facts might change the result. It would’ve been a different matter if, say, he’d smelled like weed or exhibited some symptoms, and it might have made a difference if this place was only a retail pot stand (or some kind of “den” where the denizens came only to smoke) and not a house.
It rankles in this case — because I want to see this deserter suffer hard, precisely to counteract the things Dustoff notes — but in general it’s a good thing that “visiting dirtbags” (or even being a dirtbag yourself) isn’t enough to give the cops the right to search your stuff.
The command couldn’t get around it by “suddenly deciding” that the unit needed a 100% health & welfare UA, either; that would be a “pretextual search,” and again the likely result would be grandstanding by the lawyers and wasted time.
Don’t know about Army policy, but USMC policies direct UA testing within 72 hours of returning from leave in excess of 5 days. Puts the probable cause issue to rest.
When I was AD Army in the early 90’s, coming up hot on a UA was an express ticket to “Getting Maxed” with a Field Grade Article 15 and discharged, EM’s got knocked down to E1 and NCO’s lost a stripe or two before they got their “45 and 45” and a loss of 1/2 of their base pay with a GD at best.
So the Army no longer suspends favorable actions (like leave)for those accused of wartime desertion and misbehavior before the enemy? Or are some useless shitbags more equal than other useless shitbags?
Without seeing it in eMILPO myself, I’m almost 100% certain he’s been flagged. However, flags don’t prohibit ordinary leave.
I suspect there is a lot about Bergdahl’s situation that we don’t — and won’t — know for quite some time. Unless he really messes up, I think he’s got some kind of special status in which he is being handled with kid gloves and protected, from both himself and others.
Maybe Big Army is hoping he will just slip away (again) and they will no longer have to deal with him? Sure, that would be embarrassing, but it’s likely that whatever happens with him going forward would be equally embarrassing.
OWB, that was exactly my first thought: let him run loose so he can run away again and this problem for the Obama administration goes “Poof!’
Exactly so. If he takes another ‘stroll’, this can all go back under the convenient carpet.
Or maybe they are hoping something like this will happen so they can wash their hands of him once and for all
Wow, never thought for a moment that with those parents he might be a 420 friendly sort of guy….
One would think he might be trying to avoid pissing hot with his other concerns pending….but who knows…maybe he’s aware of the fact he’s gonna skate and get over.
Bergdahl, *PTUI*
http://www.hightimes.com/read/did-pot-play-role-capture-ex-pow-bowe-bergdahl
I read that High Times article.
“Shitty”, to say the least. The writer, Bill Weinberg seems far more interested in linking the Republican Party as pulling an about face (pun intended) due to the country’s climate regarding Bowe Bergdahl, and how and why he was really captured.
“Then Republicans began to portray the deal as an Obama capitulation to the Taliban—and suddenly the former patriotic hero became a hot potato.”
“The New York Times in an editorial last year, “The Rush to Demonize Sgt. Bergdahl,” noted that Republican lawmakers went so far as to delete tweets and website statements welcoming him home after the Bergdahl-bashing party line congealed.”
I don’t know about how the general consensus of the nation felt about Bowe Bergdahl before the prisoner exchange, but I do know, there there were comments of his conduct during his unit’s deployment and questions raised that he did willingly join the Taliban. In short, long before the prisoner exchange which brought him to national attention, there were media doubts and comments, that Bergdahl did purposefully leave that FOB to willingly join the Taliban.
High Times goes to short lengths (and doesn’t try very hard at that), to make the reader infer that it has been the Republican Party only (apparently to High Times, the enemy of legalized marijuana; which it isn’t) that has raised doubts and suspicions of Bowe Bergdahl’s conduct while prisoner.
As a former NCO in some pretty chewed up Infantry units,and having been in charge of more than a few screw ups I had to stack paper on, all I could think of after reading this story was that somewhere at Ft Sam Wed morning, some NCO that has the misfortune of being tasked as this fuckups first line supervisor was walking into the office at 0900 and was drawing that first cup of coffee to start the day when someone told him the CO/1SG wanted to see him.I bet the conversation sounded like this.
CO/1SG: Sgt X, you Bergdahls first line?
Sgt X: Uh….yes?
CO/1SG: Well he just got picked up in a drug raid last nigh, we pulled his leave and he’s on his way back.
Sgt X: *silence* *deep sigh* drinks some coffee, it taste bitter
And people wonder why so many NCOs in any branch seem so pissed off all the time.
And you know the guy was thinking, “Sh!t – and I was hoping he’d just go AWOL . . . . “
C’mon though Sarge, granting leave to any other trooper and then him/her getting into trouble and their NCO getting blamed is excusable. Not every Soldier is Bowe Bergdahl though. Would you grant leave to Bowe Bergdahl? Shit; would you grant leave to ANY Soldier facing an upcoming Article 32?
Perhaps the calculation was “Will he migrate to someone else’s ‘problem’ bin?”
What a piece of shit. To bad they found him alive.
What the hell is with the US military as giving traitors leave?
why isn’t he on a no-fly list, being that he is a known flight risk? You would think the Army would keep him watched better than this!
Good point… Or they could be giving him a lot of rope.
So he may or may not Hang himself, after all he is a Hot potato
Figuratively speaking …
The Army needs to piss test him right off. IIRC one of the policies of a lot of units is to piss test people coming off of leave. Long weekends, same thing.
If he pisses hot he can get SCM, busted and confined. As soon as the results come in read him his rights.
Shit even BN NJP works. You can’t drag that out. You have a right to consult a lawyer but the BC can slam you pretty quick if he wants to exepedite it.
Maybe the Army knew where he was all along, or am I giving them to much credit?
Yep – you’d think that being rounded up in a drug raid would be more than sufficient probable cause even if it is not routine in that unit to test troopers returning from leave.
As a former infantry company commander, I dealt with similar (except for the captured by the Taliban part) situations. This is what I would have been considering when looking at his leave form:
-He is entitled to leave, and if I deny it it will look like a ‘de facto’ punishment and could jeapordize the legal proceedings
-While he is gone, the CoC gets a little break from babysitting
– if he runs or commits other crimes while gone, great for me! Nothing better than an open and shut case of AWOL or drugs. Ever heard the phrase ‘give him enough rope to hang himself?’
-While he’s gone, CID or FBI get to worry about him for a while
Exactly you Hit The Nail on the Head
Something does not sound right. Why would the Army ask the LEOs to hold Bowe till they could return him to custory. Was he out of bounds? Was he UA from extending his leave without permission? Or both? Joe