This isn’t about high school or college students. It isn’t about rednecks, reeling with beer, roughing up a gay guy late at night in some bar in the southwest. This is about the Secret Service and it appears to happen with some frequency. We’ve even seen an instance of it in this part of rural Texas when off-duty presidential guardians got involved in a local dispute and used their muscle on behalf of a neighbor. Give a guy a gun and an impressive job title and you’re asking for trouble, even when you’re president.
Twelve Secret Service agents assigned to this port city in advance of President Obama’s arrival for the Summit of the Americas were relieved of duty, amid accusations of misconduct that is said to have involved prostitution, a government official confirmed Friday.
The misconduct is said to have occurred before Mr. Obama arrived here on Friday afternoon for the meeting of more than 30 world leaders that begins Saturday. …NYT
Happens all the time.
… A federal agent with the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security was charged with second-degree murder last November after shooting a man in Honolulu, according to news reports at the time. The agent was off duty, but was on the island to provide advance security arrangements for Mr. Obama’s visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
In August, according to news reports, a Secret Service agent was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Iowa, where he was a part of the security team assigned to prepare for Mr. Obama’s bus tour through Midwestern states. …NYT
We have a lot to answer for. Whether it’s official bullying, unofficial bad behavior, government-paid misuse of power or private contractors mowing innocents down with military-grade weapons, it’s already public knowledge. And then there’s the list we don’t even have access too…