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Japanese police officer verbally abuses veil-wearing teenager

omg a terrist!

A teenager in Tottori Prefecture who wears a veil (see above picture) due to a skin condition was stopped and questioned by a police officer who accused him of being a member of the Taliban:

The officer from Yonago Police Station stopped the boy as he was riding double on a bicycle near JR Yonago Station on Oct. 28 last year, accusing him of being “strangely-dressed” and asking him, “Are you a Taliban member?”

The chief of the prefectural police headquarters later admitted that he was stopped because the veil looked suspicious, not because he was riding double.

The police have apologized and are taking measures to educate all their officers about the existence of such skin conditions so that this kind of thing will not happen again.

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39 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 7, 2009 at 8:50 pm

Categories: Discrimination Tags:

aka

Hopefully they’ll educate them about how not to be so repulsively bigotted, too.

Seb

Yeah, well, a cop (in any country) who is not repulsively bigoted? Not likely… Educated or not!

Brannagyn

Nice view. I assume you also hold the same opinion of Jewish people who wear yamulkes and are deeply tied to their religion and culture?

No, that would be silly wouldn’t it. Its the Arabs (not Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Tibetan Buddhists, etc.) who are constantly protrayed in a negative light by the media. Lets just keep on highlighting the small extremist element among them and forget about the VAST majority who do assimilate quite well into foreign countries.

If a woman in a Burkha begins to behave aggressively or crazily, berate her for that the same way you would a whacked out Christian fundamentalist, not just because she’s held on to aspects of her culture that make her different.

There are very few Muslims living in the West who seek to convert their home countries to Islamic states. The majority accept teachings that suggest the best way to encourage people to adopt Islamic beliefs is to show them an example of a virtuous Muslim lifestyle. Those with real faith in their religion don’t feel they need violence or aggresive missionary overtures to bring about conversion.

Personally I’m agnostic but I can respect the beliefs of those who see religion as a moral system for encouraging virtuous living, as oppossed to a moral code to differentiate sinners and the holy. The fanatics who adopt the latter view are thankfully only a small section of each of the major religions. Unfortunately they can have a totally disproportionate effect and color our view of the rest. Something not at all helped by media prejudice such as the post Cold War need to replace the Russians/Communists with a new enemy for the West to focus on.

Eddie

Totally on point.

Ryry

So is it only the Taliban that wear veils now?
What kind of response did the cop think he was going to get anyway? “Yes. Yes I am a terrorist.”
Sam

Not faulting Japan in particular for this, because frankly, I could see this happening just as often (if not more so) in any western country. Doesn’t make it a good thing, of course.

Oh, As far as I’m concerned, anon, as long as muslims respect and obey the laws of the country they emigrate to, they can do whatever they want.
nescire

Why yes, police officers need to be on the lookout for burqa-wearing Taliban men prowling the streets of Japan.

Jesus Christ, what kind of world does that officer thinks he lives in, to have that mentality? And for all this, he doesn’t even know who the Talibans are or understand what they want.

The Overthinker

Yonago especially is a key area of Japan that will almost certainly be targeted by Al Qaeda, once they can find it. it is home to several examples of capitalist western commercialialization – it has at least three 7-11s, I understand. So it’s only natural that the police have been told to be on high alert.

nescire

Only if we were to assume that Al Qaeda as an organization exists, and that Japan is a viable target for this kind of indirect strike. Neither of these are a given.

Talibans certainly do not necessarily share “Al Qaeda’s” views or methods, even though with the current Afghan campaign, animosity towards the U.S. isn’t lacking.

As for likelihood, could a strike happen in this particular area for the reasons you’ve given? Yes. This kind of thing can always happen, anywhere.

Is it more likely for it to happen in the conditions discussed here? No. I don’t think so, and I don’t think it’s in any way reasonable to assume so.

Mike

You’re not particularly well attuned to sarcasm, or so it would seem…
nescire

Ugh. Of course not that you mention it…

Blame it in part on me being an idiot, and in part on dealing with way too many people who actually think that way.

http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

Poor kid. As if things weren’t hard enough for him already.
http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

Proving yet again that Stupid Cops are a worldwide epidemic.
Anonymous

This J-cop must be one of the more active members of the force. Most couldn’t even rouse themselves to harass an innocent pedestrian.

Victor

Dorothy Parker would be proud.

helical

Uh, I don’t think the police officer seriously thought this person was a member of the Taliban and was a terrorist threat.
More like a poor attempt at being clever/funny.
“hay taek off that weird hood and show me your face u taliban or sumthin lol”

lovely

well – that was pretty stupid “humor” if you ask me. what an idiot.

http://failblogiswin.blogspot.com nate

Japanese police showing that they’re still the worse police officers in the world.

The Overthinker

Yeah, it was such a relief to move to Iran. Although I preferred North Korean cops myself.
LB

I love idiots who link to their own blogs. It’s like “Hey folks, if you think this comment is assinine, come look at what I am saying over here!”

Sheesh.

The Overthinker

You are being literal with the word “idiots,” right?

LB

Yes. I thought about that afterwards – I enjoy following the links from thinking people with blogs.

Akuma

the illness is called congenital erythropoetic porphyria, if he removes his protection, he could die.
Pingback: Digest for 03/08/09 | Buddhism Info
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Charles_Nguyen Charles Nguyen

He looks more like a beekeeper IMO.

The Overthinker

Looks like Michael Jackson actually.

Jake

Are you a Taliban member?

Jesus Christ. What was he expecting him to say? “Actually, yes, thanks for noticing”? Idiot cop.

The Overthinker

Reminds me of the USA immig. entry form – “are you now or have you ever been a member of the Nazi party?”
“Why yes – want to join me in a bit of facism?”

jmadsen

Not as dumb as you think.

At the border, they can turn you away for whatever reason. So no one is going to say “yes”. The point of the questions like that on the immigration form is to get you to LIE on your immigration form, so that as a minimum they can deport you for that.

When these ex-Treblinka prison guards get deported to finally stand trial, that’s often the reason the US can send them back. Being in the Nazi party is not actually illegal, and the other facts around the case can be dubious, but if you lie on that form, it is cut and dried.

Mind you – that has nothing to do with the Japanese cop, just that your example is bad.

The Overthinker

Yeah, I know why they do it. Similar to how they took down Al Capone. And it’s also a crime to lie to the cops, of course. But please reread what I wrote. I did NOT claim that it is the SAME at any point. I said it reminded me of it, in terms of asking questions that no one is likely to say Yes to.

pmac

LMAO. Only in Japan.
http://www.usguyintokyo.com Dave Faulkmore

Moral equivalency has been rejected. Whitewashing in the West and then inciting to violence within their own groups has been exposed.

Jews don’t wear full face masks, except maybe on Purim, and body robes to hid weapons. Jews aren’t known for killing their neighbors.

Muslims are.

Who do you want as a neighbor?? hmmm…

The kippa (hebrew) or yamuka (yiddish) is hardly used for anything except maybe hiding premature balding.

> Brannagyn writes:
> Its the Arabs (not Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Tibetan Buddhists, etc.) who
> are constantly portrayed in a negative light by the media.
And in the Torah (Bible). But G’d made a mistake right…That argument will get you far…Good luck with that.

The Overthinker

Are you saying God commanded us to hate Arabs?
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

@Dave
“Jews aren’t known for killing their neighbors.”

Coulda fooled me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGFY2EXvYoQ Justin

Here’s a YouTube video showing a prime example of the incompetence of the Japanese police. A guy riding a bicycle gets stopped by a police officer for no reason, which happens a lot in Japan. As the officer is asking him questions (which the guy is under no obligation to answer), we can hear an obvious traffic accident take place in the background just at the corner, and both the police officer and the bicyclist hear it. A reasonable police officer would realize that that was a traffic accident and that people may be injured and need first aid, etc. But no, this cop continues to question the bicyclist as if nothing happened. At 0:25 into the video he even denies that it was a traffic accident. After the bicyclist convinces him to do so, he notifies dispatch of the traffic accident, and then continues to question the bicyclist rather than tending to the possibly injured! This cop neglected to tend to a possibly serious and fatal traffic accident, all so he can perform 職務質問 (voluntary questioning) on a bicyclist!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGFY2EXvYoQ

Here’s a photo of the intersection where the car accident occurred, and the 7-11 store right next to it where the bicyclist got stopped. See how close the police officer was to the accident?
http://i.imgur.com/jKW7i.jpg

The 7-11 store where it happened in front of is located at 東京都世田谷区代田3-41-8
The road where it happened is 環状七号線 and the intersection where the accident occurred is 宮前橋交差点
Either the Setagaya or the Kitazawa police station have jurisdiction over that location.
inuZ

germany too
sliders_alpha

“isn’t it very racist to assume all muslims to be terrorist”
no, cause muslim aren’t a race.
tokyojesusfist

I guess it would be racist if Muslims were a race.
http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

There are people of all kinds everywhere. I know some very nice muslim people in Germany who have no problem integrating with the community, even though they are a minority.

Having a certain faith doesn’t make you a bad person automatically.

Japanese police officer verbally abuses veil-wearing teenager

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