Should Japanese police use their guns?
Yomiuri’s English edition has an article about the police response to the Akihabara stabbings [emphasis added]:
An assistant police inspector, 53, from the traffic division of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Manseibashi Police Station was tending to a man who had been hit by the truck when the suspect came up from behind him and stabbed him in the lower back.
Looking calm, the knife-wielding man glanced over the scene of pandemonium he had created.
Kato fled when another police officer carrying a baton approached him, running, waving the knife from side to side, counterclockwise half way round the crossroads. As shoppers bolted, the suspect stabbed one after another from behind before running off to the south.
[...]
A sergeant from the station’s Akihabara police box caught up with the suspect about 50 meters from the crossroad and thrust his baton at him, but Kato then ran into an alley.
The sergeant, 41, seeing that the man was holding the knife in his right hand and offering resistance, edged closer with his baton raised. He drew his pistol and ordered the man to drop his weapon, at which point the fight seemed to go out of the suspect. He dropped his knife.
The Telegraph offers a bit more detail on the use of police batons:
Kato was struck several times with a baton by a police officer – to little effect – and was eventually subdued when the officer drew his handgun.
Based on these reports, the situation seems to have been ended by the police officer’s gun. Batons were practically useless, and in the case of the first officer who chased Kato, a failure to pull a gun on the murderer allowed further slashing and stabbing to take place.
Nobody wants Japan’s police to become trigger happy and start killing off criminals every chance they get. However, in cases where use of a firearm could prevent violent criminals from causing injury and death to bystanders, Japanese police should be encouraged to use their guns. When police see a man with a knife stabbing people, the first thing they reach for should be their gun – not a baton.
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Truth.
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This was my exact sentiment when reading all the news about it. Just why are Japanese police so hesitant to use their weapons, even non-lethally?
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The moment a police officer draws a gun, all the “human-rights activists” scream bloody police brutality, excessive use of force, etc., etc. and the police are afraid of any bad publicity.
This partially stems back to a 1970 ship hijacking incident where, the police sniper who killed the suspect who was blasting away with his rifle ignoring calls for his surrender by his relatives, was indicted for murder by some activist groups (The case was dropped by the courts) This has a chilling effect on any decision to allow the use guns by the police even in dire situations.
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I think Helical has it pretty well covered. There is almost a “national allergy” to the cops using force. I have asked policemen about this, and they said part of it is that the excesses of the police and kenpeitai during the war have so soured the public on the idea of force wielded by the authorities that it becomes difficult for the police to use it now. Various left-of-center “civic groups” and political parties raise such a fuss whenever the police use force that, unfortunately, the cops’ first thought often becomes “protect yourselves from claims of brutality” rather than “bring the situation to an end quickly”. And if there is any question of whether the perpetrator is a minor or not – forget about it. It doesn’t matter what the kid is doing, if the cops injure him/her at all in the arrest process, all hell breaks loose.
The one exception seems to be the SAT or SIT units (anti-terror/SWAT teams). They are very, very good at what they do and don’t seem to be afraid to put their lives on the line to take down a criminal when they are called upon to do so. The problem is, they aren’t called very often, or when they are they are subservient to “normal” cops who are worried about CYA. SIT can only be called in by the prefectural police office, wheras IIRC SAT can only be called in by the National Police Agency. By the time either unit gets the call, it usually means things have already gone bad. But there again – if you create a system so these special units can be activated quicker, you get people screaming about “heavy-handed” police tactics.
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Tasers?
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In America you stab someone on street, and a cop sees you your totally getting blown away. Ask questions later, sorry thats just the policy here. I live near Detroit in Michigan…
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i know guns are a last option weapon but when the guy’s stabbed 17 people you ain’t got much of an option left but to shoot him
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I disagree. What happens if the bullet misses the perpetrator and hits people near-by?
Shooting a criminal in a crowd is practically impossible.
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ever heard of a warning shot?
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“Stop! Or I will fire into the crowd!”
For this case, the mere sight of a drawn gun was enough to make the guy stop, so maybe the police should be allowed to draw their guns, even if actually firing is out of the question.
Although, it would require higher discipline to keep the itchy trigger finger under control when the gun is already drawn…
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The bullets gotta come down sometime, even then it can cause serious injury.
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mythbusters proved that the terminal velocity of a bullet returning to earth is not fast enough to kill. maybe take an eye out though.
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That’s only if it’s shot straight up exactly, if there is even a slight tilt to the shot (which there would be in this situation) it could kill. I watched the same episode too and they said this at the end.
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The only point people haven’t thought of yet: isn’t Akihabara jam packed on Sundays?!
Its not as easy as simply firing a gun and killing the guy. First they have to isolate him from the crowds and then fire. I don’t think anyone blaming the Japanese police has the first clue of how cops handle these things in their home countries in the first place.
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There may have been no need to fire the gun. The mere threat of being shot was enough to get the man to surrender.
But if the officer really felt the need to fire, he could have drawn his gun and chased the criminal until he was close enough to get a clear shot. If an officer is close enough to swing a baton at the guy, he should be close enough to fire a gun and hit his target.
>The mere threat of being shot was enough to get the man to surrender.
In retrospect, true. But why could you tell mere threat was enough at the moment? Everyone thought the guy was insane, and if he was indeed insane, threat would not work. As one can guess from the style of the crime and as it turned out, he wanted to die because he is tired of life. How can threat of death work for a man who wants to die?
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Another point that no one has mentioned yet is that a gun might cause panic among surrounding people. The last thing you want to do is have people panicking when a man who has already proven he is going to stab someone else. It could have turned into a horrible, horrible situation.
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I agree 100%, what is the point of drawing his gun if both the criminal and the police officer know pretty well there is little chance he will fire? Anyone with a brain would ignore the “stop or I’ll shoot” threats in that situation(inside the crowd, on the street, the police officer would have a hard time getting a clear shot, and even then, it would only take one miss to hit an innocent), and someone mentioned warning shots, that would have turned things for the worst, there is even a chance he could escape inside the panicked crowd. The man only surrended when he was out of the crowd in an open area where the warnings would obviously feel more “real”.
I’m sad though that the obsession with trying to find guilt in something or someone is what turns events like this more sad than it is.
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Im sorry, a friend of mine saw this event while doing business in Japan.
Frankly you people are a bit naive about gun tactics. It is totally possible to shoot someone while minimizing the potential to hurt an innocent. Simply put, you lung to one knee and shoot up.
It is a fairly common tactic.
There is no comment regarding the immorality of preventing these innocent people from being able to defend themselves. Someone trying to stab me will possibly get shot, but then again we can carry handguns in the U.S. legally.
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I’m sure Japanese police hardly use their guns. Come to think of it when did they get guns?
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They almost always have guns. Tied to their belts with a string – it looks like their mothers’ dressed them (but does make it a lot harder for someone to take their gun from them). I think you are thinking of British Bobbies (who carry guns more and more now anyways).
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I can’t help but think this is a cultural difference and that the article was presuambly written by an american (correct me if I’m wrong).
Being British our officers do not routinely carry guns – only special units of officers are allowed to do this.
In the UK we tend to believe that this is a good thing since it reduces the need for an arms race between the law and criminals. Weapon use however is very regulated in britain – unlike america.
Despite the other crimes we have heard of in recent months in Japan, these things are still rare events.
I for one feel safer with officers carrying only batons since Japan really has no need for firearms.
I’m not sure if the gun brought the man to his senses? Who knows what he was thinking or how the events went. Perhaps if he could have easily got his hands on a gun he may have used that.
Besides the officer was in a crowded area in the mist of panic – perhaps not the best place to be firing off rounds.
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I might be misreading you here, but Japanese cops already carry guns, not only batons.
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Whoever said tazers, amen to that.
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Don’t tase me, bro?
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“In America you stab someone on street, and a cop sees you your totally getting blown away. Ask questions later, sorry thats just the policy here. I live near Detroit in Michigan…”
And because the police use their guns there, the crime rate is so low, right?
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I appreciate the speculation that gunpoint could have prevented a number of casualties/injuries…
But this is just rhetoric that loosely says the real person to blame for all the deaths is the police officer. As if the officer should be demoted, discharged, or even jailed for failing to draw his firearm first.
In reality, the police may be as ill equipped as paramedics by way of experience to deal with such a situation, and they certainly deserve some amount of criticism. But when we as a community begin to search for answers in order to understand why this happened, we really should focus on what drove the killer to such extreme. It is impossible to say that a better police force would have prevented this from happening in the first place.
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You’re right, fh. Prevention would be the best way approach this and prevention should almost certainly include adding more mental health care options to what’s covered by national health insurance. Let people get the help they need, without that necessarily being drugs and encouragement to buck up, when they need it, not just when they need serious intervention. Who knows what could be avoided if people like Kato and Kanagawa (the Tsuchiura killer) hadn’t been stuck stewing in despression and frustration with no realistic or readily available form of help.
That said, the police response once a crime has begun is another matter. If an officer was close enough to hit Kato with a baton, he was close enough to shoot him non-fatally and end his rampage. Yes, there’s a risk of injuring bystanders, but the near-certainty of the killer continuing his stabbing rampage would be the rather obviously bigger danger.
While the police couldn’t have known that the sight of a gun would cause Kato to stop, they could have tried the old “stop or I’ll shoot.” What good reason is there for not trying? Panic, one could reasonably assume, had already set in.
How many people were stabbed after Kato was hit with a baton? After the police were there? For all of those, decisions by the police at least partially led to the outcome, whether that be better or worse than it could have been.
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a power of a pistol
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Victim of Akihabara stabbing spree infected with hepatitis B
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/victim-of-akihabara-stabbing-spree-found-to-be-infected-with-hepatitis-b
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The Metropolitan Police has issued an alert to those who have involved in the initial rescue effort of the victims at the Akihabara case. They have discovered one of the victims is a B-hepatitis carrier so that the police requests those volunteered to have themselves checked out A.S.A.P.
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Late last year there was a long siege with a guy inside a house, I cant remember if he had a hostage, but he shot a policeman who approached the house. Still they didnt react, and the cop died in front of the house because they didnt move in and couldnt rescue him. Even with one of their own down, they didnt fire back.
Im all for no-guns but when it gets to this stage its a bit ridiculous to stand by..
I think its a bit of a catch 22 that because crime in Japan is generally so low, that when an incident like this does happen the cops don’t really have any experience to deal with it.
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Incorrect: the officer down in front of the house was conscious and talking to the other police officers on the radio, telling them not to come in, and that he was alright. After several hours, he passed out and at that point the SIT team was sent in to rescue him. While they were not shooting real bullets, from what I saw on the news they were using smoke grenades and possibly flash-bangs to mask themselves. The gunman in the house opened fire on them. They successfully rescued the downed officer, however unfortunately during their egress one of the SIT team members (who was shielding their downed comrade) was shot in the neck just above his flak vest and died.
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Please, no guns! I lived in Japan for 8 years, but am back in the States now and am SICK of GUNS!! That is the beauty of Japan. NO GUNS!!! Please.
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Dear gun-loving guys: Solution is not to shoot more frequently, but to avoid people killing other people. That’s it, to improve our society so people doesn’t become so alienated, depressed and lonely, that freak out in the middle of the street and start stabbing indiscriminately.
And guess what? In that (utopic i’m afraid) society, nobody would need guns. Nobody. Ever.
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Yeah I saw a video of this and the SIT members looked like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off trying to perform a rescue. They really need to get some Americans to go to Japan and teach police tactics.
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