← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Sertorius
Thread ID: 19574 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2005-08-11
2005-08-11 16:28 | User Profile
I-Team: Air Force officer allegedly vandalized cars with pro-Bush bumper stickers written by: Chip Yost 9NEWS Investigative Reporter Created: 8/9/2005 7:13 PM MDT - Updated: 8/10/2005 7:47 AM MDT
DENVER - Denver police say a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force has admitted to vandalizing cars bearing pro-President Bush bumper stickers at Denver International Airport.
Police say he's responsible for thousands of dollars in damage on at least 12 cars. Lt. Colonel Alexis Fecteau, 42, of Colorado Springs, turned himself in to Denver police Friday.
He is director of reserve operations at the National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, in charge of more than 40 full-time and traditional reservists.
In the arrest affidavit, Denver police say Fecteau admitted to damaging several cars after police conducted a sting-operation to catch the anti-Bush vandal.
"It was pretty good police work," said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. He said his department took this case very seriously. "You still have a right to express yourself in this country and you shouldn't have your car vandalized because of it."
Jackson said one of the detectives put out a bait car in late June, complete with a Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper sticker, in the west economy lot at DIA. On July 1st, with a security camera zoomed in to watch, an SUV drove by the bait car, and a short time later a man entered the scene. The man in the video appeared to spray paint something on the back of the car and then continued to do something on the side of the car.
When officers returned to the bait car, the bumper sticker had been painted over and the words "F--- Bush" were spray-painted on the side of the car.
Police used airport exit logs to trace the license plate of the SUV believed to be seen in the bait car surveillance video to Fecteau.
When Fecteau's SUV was spotted parked in the DIA lot on a subsequent visit, police impounded it. When Fecteau approached police about the whereabouts of his SUV, a DPD detective confronted him. Court records show that at that time, Fecteau admitted to the DIA vandalism and said he started damaging vehicles around "election time" last year.
The affidavit shows Fecteau told investigators he didn't mean the graffiti to be a threat against President Bush. He went on to admit he has scratched the same kind of graffiti into "a couple of cars" with his "keys and key holder."
Inside Fecteau's 2001 Ford Excursion, police found a bin full of products, including a tube of Park Tube Polylube, a grease used for bicycle repairs, a spray can of Klean Strip Auto Strip paint thinner, and Krylon Textured Shimmer paint.
Fecteau faces one count of felony criminal mischief and at least five other misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief. Fecteau has posted a $5,000 bond and is due back in court later this month.
Air Force spokesperson Major Tina Barber-Matthew told 9News in a phone interview Tuesday the service hasn't taken action against Fecteau in regards to the vandalism. Instead, Matthew said, the Air Force plans to allow due process through local law enforcement. Calls to Fecteau's work and home were not returned.
One of the vandalized cars belongs to Jeremy Kinney, owner of Kinney Oil Co. of Denver. Kinney is a long-time friend of President George W. Bush. The two attended Yale together in the 1960s and have remained friends ever since.
"You feel violated in a sense when something like this happens, but it was more disappointment than anger," said Kinney, who worked on both of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.
Kinney had a "Bush for President" bumper sticker stuck on a tool-box located on his 1992 Ford truck. When he returned from a flight on June 19, he noticed the bumper sticker had been painted over and the words "F--- Bush" were painted on the side of the car.
It cost Kinney more than $250 to fix the damage. But, he said, there is a larger price to pay for this kind of vandalism.
"It just reinforced to me the lack of political discourse that takes place in this country, polite political discourse," Kinney said.
"There is so much anger in politics that I find it not only counter-productive but annoying and disappointing."
(Copyright by KUSA-TV, All Rights Reserved)
2005-08-11 17:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius][B]One of the vandalized cars belongs to Jeremy Kinney, owner of [SIZE=3]Kinney Oil Co.[/SIZE] of Denver. Kinney is a long-time [SIZE=3]friend of President George W. Bush[/SIZE]. The two attended Yale together in the 1960s and have remained friends ever since.[/B]
"You feel violated in a sense when something like this happens, but it was more disappointment than anger," said Kinney, who worked on both of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.[/QUOTE]
Too ironic, I'd say.
2005-08-11 18:48 | User Profile
This reminds me of my own experience.
During the Primary, I liked John McCain better than Bush. I wrote a letter to The Times of Trenton supporting John McCain and criticical of George Bush. This resulted in a visit by the Secret Service one evening. I particularly lambasted Bush's open border policy in Texas which allowed thousands of illegal Mexicans into Texas right under his nose.
I ended the letter with the sentence "Bush must be stopped".
A few days after the letter was published, as my wife and I were going down the driveway to the car to dine out, a Brick policeman with 2 civilians approached us, and the cop asked "Are you Edward Toner?"
I replied in the affirmative, and was told to go back in the house, as 2 Secret Service men wanted to question me.
We sat around the kitchen table, and one of the men produced a 9 page form which contained the information they sought from me.
They got to the point - My letter contained a threat to George Bush, a canditate for President. They percieved this threat by my closing sentence.
I assured them that this was my appeal to the Republican voters of NJ to stop Bush's attempt to become the Presidential Candidate for the Republican Party, and nothing more. This was to be done by means of the ballot box, obviously, as anyone should see.
At that point the cop left, and the 2 SS men continued to grill me for an hour and a half, after which they had me pose for Polaroid shots. I took out my black pocket comb, brushed my hair down Adolph Hitler style, and held the comb under my nose to resemble Hitler's moustache, and extended my right arm in the Heil Hitler salute fashion, and said, "OK, take your picture."
No, that's all wrong, they said, so I just stood there and they snapped the shot and left.
I never heard another worrd about this.
Ed Toner
2005-08-11 19:01 | User Profile
Crazy stuff, Ed.
Of course, if you said "John Kerry must be stopped" in your letter instead, you would've been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for your heroic stand for democracy.
2005-08-11 20:40 | User Profile
I don't approve of what this guy did, but I admit I laughed. [QUOTE] "You feel violated in a sense when something like this happens, but it was more disappointment than anger," said Kinney, who worked on both of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.[/QUOTE] Yes, I suppose he does feel violated. So do alot of other folks who have been screwed by Bush Administration policies.
2005-08-15 23:06 | User Profile
If I remember the UCMJ rightly, this LTC's activity could be ruled as expressly prohibited by the UCMJ.
FWIW
[QUOTE]ART. 88. CONTEMPT TOWARD OFFICIALS **Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.[/QUOTE] **
Wonder if the AF brass will go after him. I am guessing that "F*** Bush" could be ruled contemptuous . . . unless he was thinking about the President's daughters, in which case he'd be charged with wishful thinking or some such. I imagine a good lawyer would show that the good LTC was making a horrid pun about slang, F word, and Bush and he'd get off.:unsure: Another horrid pun. Shame on me.
For the unfamiliar, article 88 a very old rule, dating I think from the Civil War era or earlier. FWIW, a two star Air Force guy got relieved under that article back in 1993, having made public statements at (I think) a NATO dinner about Pres Clinton being "a dope smoking hippy." He was gone in a flash.
[QUOTE=Sertorius]I don't approve of what this guy did, but I admit I laughed.
Yes, I suppose he does feel violated. So do alot of other folks who have been screwed by Bush Administration policies.[/QUOTE]
2005-08-15 23:48 | User Profile
I fully understand this officer's anger, but he would have been much better off just putting anti-Bush flyers under the windshield wipers or something.