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Japanese police think they can use paintball guns to stop criminals

paintball-gun

Cops in Shizuoka Prefecture show the press their new “color ball” launchers, which shoot non-lethal paintballs at criminals:

The paint is supposed to be hard to remove, making it easy for other cops and the general public to identify criminals fleeing a crime scene.

It has a laser pointer to help with aiming, but as the video clip shows, the police officers still need to spend some time at the shooting rage. Somehow a slow-moving motorbike evades their aim, and a parked car is hit instead.

Update: Gizmodo has picked up this story, and one of their readers has provided some very insightful commentary.

monster hunter

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23 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - July 10, 2009 at 8:32 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: crime, gadgets, japan, police, tech, Technology

ponta

Call British embassy to protest, and Prevent Tokyo Olympic!
The P-balls are targeting “Non-JAP”s.
Xerovlade

Why not actually use a paint ball gun? It would be much cheaper than the R&D of a single shot pistol. If your close enough, why not use a taser? Are the Japanese Police Force equipped with tasers?

ZoneDaiatlas

Instead of using regular Paint balls why don’t they use Mace or Pepper Spray balls? It’s more effective than Paint Balls…

http://npc.talkingincircles.net/ NPC

This isn’t a bad idea actually. Unfortunately it seems those paintball guns are really wimpy and inaccurate.
Alex

Japanese police finds new ways to fail. What a stupid idea.
No wonder the Yakuza call all the shots.

http://www.squidoo.com/eamonn-fingleton Eric

“Japanese police find new ways to fail. What a stupid idea.
No wonder the Yakuza call all the shots.”

Painting the Japanes police as incompetent failures, sort of like Oriental Keystone Kops, is way off the mark (puns not entirely intended).

The Japanese take a different approach to crime prevention than do most Western countries. Whatever you think about the Japanese approach, the charge of incompetence is insubstantial because they are obviously getting better results.

Would you be happier if the Japanese police took the American approach and just shot people in the street?

The Overthinker

Depends who they shot. I would be all in favour of shooting bosouzoku punks on sight….

http://www.squidoo.com/eamonn-fingleton Eric

Good point.
butakun

That’d be an overkill, and waste of bullets. Bosozokus are wimps. They can be easily scared by paintball guns, I bet.
Rated-R

lol. they dont want to get paint on their blonde mullets.

Level3

Yes, the Japanese police’s take on crime prevention is simple. They ignore it. Low crime rates don’t actually mean there is less crime, it just means there is less OFFICIALLY REPORTED crime.

Japanese police tend to do what they can to dissuade people from formally filing criminal complaints.
When women try to report crimes such as domestic violence, they are laughed at and told to go home.
When gaijin women try to report that they were assaulted by Japanese males, they are yelled at by the cops and the blame is put on them for walking alone at night, or just being blonde.
Sure, J cops get enthusiastic when gaijin are the alleged perpetrators. but when gaijin are victims, the whole “Justice” system seems to turn a blind eye, deem suspicious violent deaths as “accidental fall” (Matthew Lacey R.I.P.) let murderers escape ( Lindsay Hawker R.I.P.), ignore multiple rapes and leave free to kill again (Carita Ridgeway,Lucie Blackman R.I.P.), or call it “self defense” and give them suspended sentences (Scott Tucker R.I.P.) give short sentences to murderers for lesser crimes so they can be free to murder again (Kamiosawa Honiefaith Ratila plus the unnamed 8-years-earlier murdered other roommate of the murderer Hiroshi Nozaki, R.I.P.)

Yeah, we LOVE the Japanese police’s “better results” >:[

The change of incompetence is less serious than the charge of deliberate negligence, dereliction of duty, and the blatant racism of the whole system.

At least American cops don’t waste their time checking people’s bicycle registrtations.

ponta

Low crime rates don’t actually mean there is less crime, it just means there is less OFFICIALLY REPORTED crime.

Interesting.　It is not surprising that there are more crimes that officially reported in any country. How do you compare the substantial crime rate of each country?

When women try to report crimes such as domestic violence, they are laughed at and told to go home.

Historically, the line between the home as private and the rest of civil and political society as public was defined by social norms as well as law. And yes, I have a feeling that Japanese police still tend to make light of domestic violence.

When gaijin women try to・・・・・

Here are quotes from the book Debito also cites.

Page 157
Though more　research is needed, it appeared that compared with American counterpart, Japanese prosecutor discriminate less, and less severely against racial and ethnic minorities.

Page 158
Neither RTI study find evidence that foreign suspects and offenders are treated worse than Japanese

The Japanese way of justice By David Ted Johnson

At least American cops don’t waste their time checking people’s bicycle registrations.

It might be true, but American cops seem a little bit too harsh.

A girl from New Mexico is recovering after being hit in the head with a Taser by police.July 7, 2009

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8026240
schwelty

I think Level3 is just butthurt, clearly. I am so sick of people pointing fingers at foreigners when they too have a dark past as well. Every country has one.

overlord

Their approach to catching criminals is so different they still haven’t caught that guy that killed Lindsay Hawker.

schwelty

Then YOU try to find him.

Klauscore

Good idea. Much better than tasering or actually shooting people. Banks have used paint packages against robbers for a long time.
RMilner

The attempt to arrest Tatsuya Ichihashi (suspected murderer of Lindsay Hawker) was not the police’s finest hour.
http://througheyesfromafar.blogspot.com/ The Envoy

Are the Japanese police getting a bit too tame?
weirdo

“Somehow a slow-moving motorbike evades their aim, and a parked car is hit instead.”

Um….that’s the reporter…
Maxim

Paintball guns are a really good idea, but those guns don’t looks too comfortable to aim and shoot.

helical

For those who are truly unfamiliar with guns and their use, this apparently is supposed to be a more intuitive fashion to “point and shoot”. Or so the theory goes.

Maybe the police just don’t want gun look-a-likes flooding the streets if they can help it.

Sushi

Cops just wanna have fun!
http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

I think the idea is not so bad. Of course you can’t use those pistols in every situation. Time will tell how well those paint weapons perform.

If I were a suspect, I’d rather be hit by a paint gun than by a taser. Quite a few people who a being tasered die, tasers are not as non-lethal as their manufacturers want you to think.

Japanese police think they can use paintball guns to stop criminals

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