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Police swarm around Akihabara, bully man for legal possession of a swiss army knife

Following last weekend’s knife attack in Akihabara, the area was overflowing with cops yesterday. As one might have been able to predict, no copycat knife rampage took place. Instead, police officers spent the day searching for killers than did not exist, at one point bullying a man after finding a swiss army knife in his bag.

The man, who was apparently aware of his legal right to carry such a small knife, shrugged off threats of arrest from an officer. He was quickly surrounded by 18 police officers, because a dull-bladed tool knife is supposedly a very serious thing. After spending an hour and half attempting to bully and intimidate the man, the officers allowed him to leave.

[story via Danny Choo, photo via Mike's room]

20 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 16, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: abuse, akihabara, police

onceuponatime

good for him – he kept his swiss army knife. i am sure there are many other things the cops could be doing instead of bully people for swiss army knives. shame on them.
D-san

While 18 cops surrounded this guy, some wacko could’ve been rampaging through the streets.
Level3

They were obviously trying to provoke him into reacting in any way, so they could then arrest him for “interfering with the duties of a public official”

I assume most countries have a generic “crime” that police can use to arrest people that aren’t actually doing anything illegal. Japan is particularly police-state-ish in this respect.

In the States some catch-all “crimes” are “disturbing the peace” and then “resisting arrest”. But you actually have to be disturbing the peace in some way for the first, and the police have to already be arresting you for some legitimate crime before they can claim “resisting arrest” in the latter case. Plus you have a real chance of suing the police and winning in this kind of case.

No such basic human rights in Japan. The police just harass you, get in your way, surround you. If you try to move past them, you’re “interfering with the duties..” and they can then arrest you, and put you in jail for 23 days. If they really want to put the hurt on you, they’ll get some retired cops or wannabe cops to join in, and if you even get near them, they’ll fall down “injured” like an Italian soccer player, and you get arrested for assault. Guess who the judge will believe.

Seems like this guy knows the facts, knew to keep cool. God help you if you’re a gaijin. I keep a Swiss Army Knife all the time.

Is this frikkin’ China?

Kevin

Ha! I’d love to see you “move past” a cop in the US. Good luck with that.

Level3

I’m pretty sure cops in the US don’t form 18-member groups and surround random law-abiding people for an hour and a half on the street, screaming at them for carrying Swiss Army knives, they usually have better things to do; such as arresting real crooks, or eating donuts.

The point is the Japanese cops literally stand in your way, and block you so you cannot leave in any direction. Basically they know they have no grounds to arrest you or bring you to the koban, so they detain you without detaining you, using this method. You can’t move, and if you try to leave, you have to touch them, then they arrest you for “interfering with the duties of a public official”, which is what they want, for some reason.
The screaming is designed to try to make you angry and take a swing at them, so they can arrest you for that.

To see this kind of thing actually on video, check out the documentary “A” [just the letter A], about the Aum Shinrikyo cult, and the Keystone J Cops efforts to harass the remaining members after the sarin gas attack. They use these techniques to hassle and arrest some of the remaining cultists. [Fine in my book, dangerous apocalyptic cults SHOULD be targeted, not random nerds carrying Swiss Army knives in their bags] The judge threw out the arrest of the incident caught on video by the documentary, because it was so clearly a setup and BS by the J cops.

Anyway, important lesson here for all gaijin (and Nihonjin) in Japan. J cops can be complete assholes who seem to get off on entrapment, forced confessions, and avoiding actually engaging REAL criminals [that's dangerous].

http://pontasmemorandum.blogspot.com/ ponta

J cops can be completely assholes just as any cops in the world, but I don’t distrust J police that much.

http://japantoday.com peejay

japanese police needs to change and show their support to the world of democracy of wich they boast to belong.swiss army knives are sold on the japanese consumer which are registered and licenced by the same othourities.so be tough first on your local criminals and then the world will see the better part of your country.

http://pontasmemorandum.blogspot.com/ ponta

Japan doesn’t boast of belonging to democracy of the world. Japan just belongs to it. Maybe you are mistaken that this blog is about some other nations—for instance…..?
This act by J police after the incident is a symbolic act trying to give a message that J police are very much concerned about the security of the people.
I for one don’t care if Japan bans the sales of the military knifes to the consumer and I don’t see how it is related to “the world of democracy”.

sireB

no need to hassle someone about a knife unless it follows a speeding truck…

btw, i did this today in GTA4
demi-otaku.

This just reminds me of the movie Soredemo, Boku wa Yattenai (それでも、僕はやってない). Just that he gets let off after the intimidation, good for him.
http://NA Steve Jobs

If ever surrounded by pen-pushing red-faced paper-munching spittle-flecked “police”men, politely call up your lawyer on your mobile, and individually record each and every one of the clowns’ police ID and number. They’ll disperse rather smartish like.

You are quite entitled to refuse to give your fingerprint, refuse to go back to the koban with them (unless you’ve been arrested), and refuse to be bullied by calling your lawyer or the NPA directly and lodging a formal complaint, which incidentally will be absolutely worthless.

Also try to raise your eyebrows, apologise, smile, nod, un, burp, and fart as much as possible.
Charon

He should have stabbed them, they would just have come after him waving their batons.
Bruce Smith

But it was an ARMY knife ! It must be soooo dangerous !
stereo

It is a misdemeanor to carry a knife of any length without justifiable reasons. See article 1, item 2 of Code of Misdemeanor.
“Code of Misdemeanor
Article 1. A person who falls into one of the following categories shall be imprisoned (up to 30 days) or petit-fined.
Item2. A person who carries, in concealment without justifiable reasons, a knife, an iron bar or any tool that can be used to harm the life or seriously injure the body of other persons.”

It is apparent he only knew Gun and Sward Control Law and did not know Code of Misdemeanor.

The police do not usually arrest people for misdemeanor, but he should thank the police for their leniency.

phil

It was a swiss army knife. With tools like a screwdriver, scissors, and maybe a wrench if he had a good one.

“I just keep it in my bag for emergencies” would be a justifiable reason — in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/tkyosam Tkyosam

That was such BS what was going on there, luckily I walked past there and took some footage. Check out my site, I’ll be sure to put it up there:

www (dot) youtube (dot) com /tkyosam
Lei

what’s wrong with a swiss army knife? You can kill anyone with a scissor, a pen or even a sharpened chopsticks. Oh, the only thing wrong here is the japanese police. What I never liked about japan is the police are given so much power and they’re very foreigner-unfriendly. However as a foreigner the worst you can do is argue with them. Make sure you have a lawyer while in japan as the corrupt japanese police can be nasty, even worse than their chinese and korean counterparts.
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http://pontasmemorandum.blogspot.com/ ponta

Learning from England on crime rate by knife, would also explain large numbers of police on call??

Police swarm around Akihabara, bully man for legal possession of a swiss army knife

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