While going to college in a neighboring city, I lived in the hell hole called Lakewood Washington. I saw the heavy artillery and tanks roll out to be freighted to the middle east for the war after 9-11. The freeway exit I lived in was right between the McChord Airforce Base and the Fort Lewis Army Base. On the other side of the freeway was the Washington State National Guard Base. That stretch of freeway is a high risk accident zone. Semi-trucks and cars frequently wreck. We are talking weekly, monthly. Semi's would tail gate me and try to intimidate me. Regular trucks would run me off the freeway. I'm not defending the violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, but that ties into one of their reasoning to have the Army and Lakewood Police working together. I remember at least three taxi drivers killed and left at the front gate of the Fort Lewis Army Base. While looking for this story of the military and police liason, I came across a story of a soldier being charged for the death of 16 year old girl in his barracks after the last Valenties Day. He gave her a mixture of Xanax and oxymorphone. The First Lieutenant Watada who refused to go to Iraq was stationed at Fort Lewis Army Base. i saw John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the hood. As we now know they were the DC Snipers. I saw Muhammed cussing up a storm at a convenient store down the street where I was living. He looked at me and said, "You. You're okay. But these muthaf*ckers." I saw Malvo at the bus stop where I waited, he was dressed in full fatigues. My niece was in the ROTC and mentioned that they don't make them dress like that. As that story unfolded, I was in complete amazement of how much I was aware of the details I knew. Muhammed had killed a girlfriend before their trek over to the DC Beltway. They lived around the corner from where I stayed. Mustard gas wafted off the Army Base and an elementary school was evacuated and needed to be decontaminated. i bought breakfast cereal destined for Iraq and Afghanistan with the lettering and logo in Arabic writing at a local grocery store outlet. A military surplus store was indicted and charged for having too many American flags flying. The owner was too patriotic and was forced to remove the extra flag. The Lakewood Bank of America was robbed frequently as well. I happened to be at school one time when the police were going door to door arresting all males regarding a bank robbery. The constant drug busts should be left unsaid, but that area had a drug bust second only to New York City in the size and amount. Not Seattle, not Chicago, not Miami, not LA, but T-Town in which Lakewood is a suburb to. The Lakewood Mall shooting which corresponds with all the earmarks of the other mass murder sprees. That mall was very run down and true ghetto. David Brame, the chief of police killed his wife northwest of Lakewood. Western State Mental Hospital is right in Lakewood. The bus rides man. The bus rides were something else. I believe I heard that Mel Brooks used that facility in his High Anxiety movie. Drove by it a few times. Shootings are rampant at local bars all around the area. I was at the bar mentioned in the article covering the military local police coalition. Very sketchy vibe. All patrons were definitely main stream, which puzzled me why I had that uneasy feeling I had while I was there. A house from Lakewood was used in a movie written by Stephen King. I believe it was Rose Red. Of course someone had graffiti over the sign Welcome To Lakewood and wrote Welcome To Hell. Liking the band Venom, I thought that was superb and appropriate graffiti. i wish I could have taken a picture of that. Speaking of signs, all over the place were billboards with quotes and sayings. My favorite was, "When you keep a man down, you stay down with him." Very 1984. All this is like just a couple years there. Thank god I got out of there. The land lord would collect rent money while brandishing a gun. He told me of all the people living in that place, I don't belong there and the place is a dead end. How right he was. I had his respect and company when it was time to pay rent. He said back in the day he would sport all the beer because of the good company he received from me. That is basically my experience there where we edge ever closer to Martial Law.