Japanese police seek arrest of US teenagers
It now seems almost certain that Japanese police will arrest the four US military brats who were spotted near the scene of a nearly fatal accident:
According to police, the four suspects — aged 15-18 and all children of U.S. military personnel — have been questioned by U.S. military police and have denied involvement. However, the Metropolitan Police Department concluded that the teens were involved after reviewing footage from a nearby security camera, among other sources, and are aiming to have the four turned over by Yokota Air Base authorities.
According to police, the 23-year-old victim came off her scooter when she was caught on the neck by the rope strung about 1.4 meters above the road. The incident left the woman with a broken neck, and she spent three months recovering from the injury.
According to an Asahi Shimbun report, witnesses saw the teens standing over the victim immediately after the accident. They gave false names when questioned by the police that night.
[hat tip to jikku and Ajapa]
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This is sick. They should get a fair trial and get what’s coming to them.
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I disagree, they should ducktape these scumbags to scooters and make them slam into a rope doing 40
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And I disagree with you Kevin. If they can go through the court process for a Japanese man they’re pretty sure killed an English woman, then they can go through the same process for American kids they’re pretty sure almost killed a Japanese woman. They may not get what they really deserve, but they shouldn’t be treated any differently.
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this i can agree on.
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They should be punished accordingly.
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They are lucky this woman wasn’t killed. I wonder what crime they will be charged with because they had to have known doing something like this could lead to serious injury or death?
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Yea, I’d like to know what they get charged with. In the states I bet it would be something like reckless endangerment. I hope the Japanese legal system has some more severe charges for them.
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According to Japanese news, “attempted murder”.
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Attempted murder! 2-7yrs
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Its time to close the American bases in Japan
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because of 4 shitty kids? good reasoning.
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how dare we interrupt the harmony of the japanese people. white devils like us deserve the punishment we get.
i saw ‘japanese’ (i ‘know’ they were probably foreigners, right, japanese people and apologists? Japanese people would never do anything like this) people in shin imamz doing the exact same thing two weeks ago, just like I saw them doing two years ago. I mean, come on, people. Clothesline-style tripping is a huge problem in America… this is, without a doubt, the source of the problem.
p.s. When my book comes out you can check the facts. It’s called ‘The Overthinker’ and it’s totally gay.
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L, where did you get the idea that they’re being prosecuted because they’re “white devils” and not because they nearly killed a woman?
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“p.s. When my book comes out you can check the facts. It’s called ‘The Overthinker’ and it’s totally gay.”
- I just choked on air trying to breath after laughing so hard.
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“p.s. When my book comes out you can check the facts. It’s called ‘The Overthinker’ and it’s totally gay.”
Looks like L for Loser has issues….
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If they did it, and it seems like they did, then they should get what is coming to them. I just want to say that these kids are monumentally stupid, and criminals if convicted, not because they are “evil americans” but because they decided to do the deed. So race has nothing to do with this but I bet some of you will disagree.
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These kids should be beaten no matter where they’re from, or where this happened. Period.
However I can get it ire of the locals. Back home, an illegal alien killed a 16 year old girl in a drunk driving hit and run. It makes the blood boil in anyone.
Facts is facts. Beat these kids senseless, or duct tape them to scooters as suggested above. This is a horrible, horrible incident.
@ Kevin: LOL
@ Long Live Canada: Thanks for proving the stereotype. Ya hoser.
@ Weirdo: I second that.
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This is unbelievable! American or whatever, it doesn’t matter! The point is, someone could have been killed, pure and simple. These guys need to squat in jail on 23 hours on lockdown for a year to teach these idiots a lesson!
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Call me jaded, but my first thought on hearing about this was: “surely there will be some idiots on the Internet who will try to tie this into Japanese xenophobia.” This has been proven true courtesy of L. Thank you.
As for the suspects, if they are indeed guilty (which it does kind of look like they are), I hope they get jailed. Idiots.
I do kind of feel bad for their parents though. Surely their military career is ruined? Yeah I know, parental responsibilities and all, but man.
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Actually, it was proven true yesterday by Jonsan in the previous entry on this incident, but point taken.
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Wow, you’re right.
“My initial reaction is this is typical Japanese xenophobia — you must admit they love blaming someone else for the wrongs of the world and society.”
A foreign national seriously injures a Japanese person, and (some) people’s reaction to this is: “the Japanese are xenophobic.” Amazing.
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Send all the kids home.
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What if it was a pure and simple accident and they never intended to hurt anyone? We all do stupid things that could hurt people but this time something went wrong. Its easy to judge sitting there at your computers no knowing much about the situation.
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You mean like the time I really needed to dry my laundry but there was nowhere else, so I strung up my line across the road? Yeah, happens all the time.
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Not many of us can profess to being there in person, but if you’re one of the select few who were, do tell us the details we’re missing. I’m sure we (and the police) would love to hear all about it.
But in the meantime, I’ll pass judgements based on the facts given in the news. A rope was spanned across a road, a lady was seriously injured by it, the kids initially lied to the police, and now a police known for gathering enough evidence to convict before pressing charges is now moving in on them.
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I once happened to leave a heavy cement block on a rail, never intended to hurt even a single person.
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And so when they were questioned that night, they gave fake names… why?
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Because they were probably scared.
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I think they asked others to help rescuing the victim. If I were one of them, I would have given no name. I am not a one worth remembering nor mentioning. Modesty is a virtue. Cool.
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Throw these scumbags in jail, and throw away the key. They make foreigners look bad. Pieces of crap.
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Get off your high horse, im sure you have at some point done something that could have hurt someone never thinking about it, What about speeding? im sure you have sped in a car before but what if you hit someone and they got seriously injured, it would be an accident and its not like you were gunning to go after them. things happen and people make mistakes. Im not saying they should escape scott free but If we threw away the key every time someone messed up them there wouldnt be too many free people in the world.
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The difference is you can speed without hurting anyone, but it is very hard to string a rope across a road without hurting someone. A better analogy would be running a red light at a busy intersection.
Speeding: not inherently dangerous as it does not involve others
Rope across a road: Designed by its nature to involve others, and impact them negatively.
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Me: Would you make the same argument in defense of reckless drunk drivers who end up killing or seriously injuring people?
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With drunk driving your intentionally putting people at risk, granted putting a rope across a road can be intended to cause harm but what if they didnt have the intent for that to happen? Whether they did or not i agree something should be done but you shouldnt assume that they intended for harm to come to anyone.
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“With drunk driving your intentionally putting people at risk, granted putting a rope across a road can be intended to cause harm but what if they didnt have the intent for that to happen? Whether they did or not i agree something should be done but you shouldnt assume that they intended for harm to come to anyone.”
You seem to be somewhat confused. Most drunk drivers do not intend to cause harm – in fact, people drive drunk precisely because they think they can do it without hurting anyone. And if these kids tied a rope across the road without the intent to hurt anyone, how does that make them better than drunk drivers?
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How can you not tie a rope across a street and expect it NOT to cause harm?
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So by your logic if someone throws a rock into the air and it hits someone on the head and causes them to get a fractured skull even though the people who threw it had no intention of harming anyone they’re still just as bad as a drunk driver.
There are different degrees danger that can come from doing something and not intending to cause harm. For example running around shooting bullets at things in a crowded city but not intending to cause harm is different from putting a rope across a rode and something bad happening with no intent to cause harm. Obviously someone who were to accidentally shoot someone vs hurt someone with the rope situation should be treated differently just like if someone were to drive drunk and hurt someone.
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I made the top stair very slippery and other’s skull happened to be fractured. It was undoubtedly unintentional but the aftereffect made that one completely dumb, you know.
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what? that makes no sense.
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Rock in the air while people are around = reckless.
But I do agree with Ajapa that someone greasing up stairs is more like what happened. A line was strung across a road, where you could be sure someone would cross that path. In fact the most obvious reason they strung it up is that they expected someone to cross it.
A rock in the air is a little more random, it may or may not cross your path.
But a rope mid-air across the road at night and a stair that has been tampered with–both pretty difficult to avoid.
There’s a difference between normal mistakes and bad judgment and ones that you really should know will hurt people. Those kids really should have realized the danger involved. Someone almost paid for the kids’ ‘mistake’ with their life. And no doubt that person’s life will not be the same anymore.
Just because it may have been done without malice does not mean they should not be punished. They really should have known someone could get hurt. Their ignorance does not give them a license to harm others.
Some people are comparing this to speeding, or running a red light, etc. I’d say this is more like pulling a stunt like driving on the freeway with a blindfold and expecting no consequences.
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Me,
You are still believing that a rope across a road can have reasonable or understandable reason or can be regarded as a custom or a tradition, right?
They might just wanted to dry their jeans in the moon. It’s quite reasonable with assumption that there are no traffic at all in the midnight.
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“So by your logic if someone throws a rock into the air and it hits someone on the head and causes them to get a fractured skull even though the people who threw it had no intention of harming anyone they’re still just as bad as a drunk driver.”
I would agree with hl that if you throw a rock in the air, especially one that is large enough to fracture someone’s skull, while people are around, then you are really reckless and probably no better than a drunk driver.
Let’s break this down again. Most people would say that if you drive drunk, you run a very serious risk of hurting someone, regardless of your intent. Similarly, most people would say that if you tie a rope across a road, you run a very serious risk of hurting someone, regardless of intent (actually, I could argue the chances of causing harm is even bigger). So again, tell me: how are these teenagers any different from drunk drivers?
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you also run a very serious risk of killing someone without being drunk while driving so does that mean someone who hurt someone driving without being drunk is just as guilty as someone who is drunk?
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I don’t know if you’re just being difficult on purpose, but do you really not see the difference in the level of risk between sober and drunk driving?
Society considers the risk of a sober driver following the rules on the road acceptable.
Society considers the risk of a drunk driver incapable of following the rules on the road as an unacceptable hazard.
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Time to see the troll for what he is, helical.
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Could be a troll or could be someone who likes these kind of pranks and has somehow never thought of the harm they could cause and is trying to rationalize things.
I could buy this not understanding harm could be done thing if we were talking about five year olds, not teenagers.
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Maybe “Me” is a five-year old, or of similar mental capacity.
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Me,
That argument is a massive fail and you know it, but I will rephrase for your benefit. If you drive drunk, there is a high probability that you could seriously hurt someone. It’s a reckless act. If you tie a rope across a road, there is a high probability that you could seriously hurt someone. It’s a reckless act. If you drive sober, the probability of seriously hurting someone is pretty low. It’s not a reckless act.
So again, how aren’t these kids at least as bad as drunk drivers?
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@me: Vanna White is holding a clue for you. I would strongly advise you to take it from her, for you obviously need one.
“Things happen and people make mistakes” – and if one gets to be a teenager without being able to recognize that stringing a rope across a road will almost certainly lead to an accident, then they clearly have such a fundamental inability to grasp “cause” and “effect” that they should not be let outside to play amongst normal people until they have learned to make that connection. Right now you are digging yourself into the same hole. A rational person would realize that and stop digging. But it is your call.
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It is possible to do something like that with honestly not thinking that someone would get hurt, it may not seem logical to some but we all have done something without thinking or realizing what could happen but this time someone just happen to get hurt…
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In other words, negligence.
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yes negligence.
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Me,
You said,
What if it was a pure and simple accident and they never intended to hurt anyone?
and
Its easy to judge sitting there at your computers no knowing much about the situation.
It indicates that you might be indeed one of the least plausible person who could make a reasonable judgement here. If you have ability to gather enough information and guess the situation, you might have noticed that there are no witness nor clear evidence that these suspects actually touched the rope. At least, it is not obvious from news reports. Your “no intention of hurting others” or “just an accident” logic is completely inadequate, apparently.
Get off your high horse,…
It was actually you who should have taken an action to make the debate meaningful.
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Im just saying look at both sides.
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I’m saying about your self-inconsistency and immaturity. Why not just say clearly so first, if you really just wanted to ask everyone to look both sides? Ignorant but honest person just ask questions in plain words to gain enough knowledge. Honestly, your attitude can hardly be considered something that should be taken seriously.
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I should point out one thing, an excerpt from Mainichi’s article:
According to police, the four suspects — aged 15-18 and all children of U.S. military personnel — have been questioned by U.S. military police and have denied involvement.
Me, if you are confident that you are indeed right, please enumerate all people who had actually neglected “the other side” here. And then please clarify your stance and opinion again.
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im talking about intent not the fact whether they actually did it or not.
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Until we develop telepathic abilities, we’ll never know what actually went through their minds. But we can use facts in establishing whether we can consider them to have had the intent.
If the kids in question have the mental facilities of an average teenager, it should have been very obvious to them that what they were doing with the rope would cause injury or death to motorists. Thus it can me established that we can consider them to have had the intent to cause, or make absolutely no effort to avoid harm, possibly death inflicted on another person.
If they couldn’t figure that out, then they should not be able to participate in society until they learn to do so as LB said above.
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sometimes people dont think about what can happen, just because you think that they should have known that doesnt mean they did. People do make mistakes and dont always think about what they do, im sure they learned a lesson but in a horrible way..
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There’s still a liability and accountability there.
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i agree with that…
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Me,
Get off your high horse. What we all can do is perhaps to try to guess the situation and intent from facts supplied by others. Are you one of those suspects or a close friend?
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There are various types of crimes in which strict intent is not necessary for a conviction.
Manslaughter and causing death by reckless driving are examples.
This affair of stringing a neckbreaker across the road is certainly one of those types.
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It being one of those types is strictly your opinion it isnt certain as you so put it.
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I’m not a lawyer, but in Japaense criminal law, I believe there is the charge of 過失 (Negigence) also called 軽過失 (Slight Negilgence) which denotes an incident that could not have been reasonably foreseen, and 重過失 (Gross Negligence) which denotes something that could have been reasonalby foreseen and avoided.
If you accidentally run over someone while driving a car, it would be considered ordinary negligence as often you could not have foreseen the accident. But if you were driving drunk, it should have been obvious that driving intoxicated would cause accidents, and thus that is gross negligence.
In this case, it’s pretty damn obvious that putting a rope across the road would cause an accident, so I believe this would fall under gross negligence at the very minimum.
What we think went through the kids’ minds is not really that relevant at this point. They could be have been thinking they were summoning fairies for all we know, but common sense dictates regardless that putting a rope across a street is still a very dangerous thing to do.
In fact, it’s not something you would normally do out of carelessness, but is more like a booby trap with the specific intent to cause harm, so the attempted murder charge is very appropriate.
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Attempted murder is the intent to kill out the premeditated act of attempting to kill someone. I dont think they had the intent of murdering someone.
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In the both-sides vein, you could just as easily say one could expect that they had the intent to murder. (especially considering someone almost died)
You are only guessing what they were thinking.
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but its still wrong to assume they mean to cause harm
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Strictly in terms of what we assume vs what actually happened, it is more wrong to assume they meant to cause no harm.
You have no evidence that suggests they meant no harm. They in fact did cause harm.
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How is it wrong. There is actually evidence harm was caused and that any reasonable person should have expected harm to be caused.
All of your ‘lack of intent’ attributions have no evidence to support them.
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you have no proof that they HAD intent to cause harm either.
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A rope strung across the road is the proof, obviously.
Any reasonable person would realize that would harm someone.
So the only proof we are lacking is proof they had no intent.
There is reasonable proof of intent.
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no you assume that they knew it could cause harm, your assumption is not proof
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You compare it against common sense, not them specifically.
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still doesnt change the fact thats not proof.
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It is proof in the context of a regular, reasonable person.
The fact is assuming they should have known it would cause harm is more likely than your assumption that somehow they did not know.
And even if your personal and unlikely assumption is somehow true, there is still legal liability for these people.
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legal liability yes, but it is not fact nor is there proof that they knew it would cause harm.
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The proof is that most people do know.
It’s not definitive proof, but it is more likely than them not knowing!
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There’s no proof that there isn’t a small pink teapot orbiting the fifth moon of Jupiter either, but it’s not likely.
Legal discussions often use “reasonable” as an indicator – whether a reasonable assumption would be that they knew it would cause harm, for example. Maybe these people are total nutjobs who think God told them to do it and anyone hitting the rope would be instantly transported to the seventh level of Paradise – but that is not a reasonable assumption, and you’re not likely to get away with trying to claim it. It is emminently reasonable to assume that kids that age had a damn good idea it would cause harm. The burden of proof is thus to show that, for mental or cultural reasons perhaps, they genuinely thought it would not. Perhaps they thought the road was made of soft rubber…
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theres no such thing as not definitive proof. If is a guarantee.
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If you are so concerned about proof, why do you keep saying they had no intent without any proof of that?
There is no evidence whatsoever they had no intent.
There is more evidence they did have intent in that they did string up a rope, and the average person does know that is dangerous.
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theres no proof on either side whether they had intent or didnt.
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There is more proof of intent.
Because we can’t deny that a rope was strung.
And most people know that is dangerous.
But there is absolutely nothing that says they didn’t know it would be harmful.
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This is a pretty well known and effective boobie trap used since WW1. They must take responsibility.
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I once heard this trap is still in use in the U.S., the mafia and drug dealers use it to revenge on and/or scare policemen… I don’t know if it is true.
In the case of Japan, a similar incident happened, causing a death and unresolved in that case, in 25 years ago. It is said that someone living in a nearby area of the scene of the incident got angry with reckless and outrageous bikers and tried to scare off them.
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Yes I’ve heard of that incident, and another one where a biker accidently had his head sliced off with a wire.
During the war, jeeps had wire cutters welded onto their bumpers so the men riding it won’t have their heads sliced off when driving with the windshield down.
http://www.luxembourg.co.uk/NMMH/show.html
You can google several recent cases of ropes and wires strung across a road or trail.
Prank or no prank, it is extremely dangerous to put a rope across a road. And as you stated somewhere it is as bad as, or even worse than making the stairs of the Yamanote station slippery with oil.
http://urbanvelo.org/albuquerque-cyclists-beware-trip-wires-on-bike-paths/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036930/First-picture-trail-bike-boy-17-killed-trip-wire-track.html
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It’s scary… I must be careful when riding on a bicycle especially in a dark winter evening.
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From the link you posted:
“A police source said: ‘At this stage there is nothing to suggest this wire has been maliciously placed there in order to injure someone.
‘Early investigations reveal the wire may have been used to support a sign reading “Private Road” on it but somehow this has fallen off.”
Probably not a good example to prove your point, just saying.
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“It’s scary… I must be careful when riding on a bicycle especially in a dark winter evening.”
Bicycle safety is always important but it’s probably best to avoid areas where gaijin might hang out since it’s common practice for them randomly place ropes across a road.
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pixel_bomber
What is the intention of your comment above?
The only point I made with my comment is that it is extremely dangerous to tie a rope across a road. The victim of this case near Yokota could have been YOU. Quit this Japanese vs. gaijin nonsense.
If you are just trolling I will never ever take any of your comments seriously from now on.
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Nope not trolling, and not anti-Japanese or pro-gaijin. But the story you posted was about an accident as opposed to an intentional case like this one. I just didn’t feel it was similar to the case in this discussion. Someone hurting themselves in an area they are not supposed to be in on a rope that is there to hold up a sign is a lot different than hitting one while driving down a public road.
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fg,
I don’t know if it was actually pixel_bomber though… I think the target was me since I was sometimes in confrontation with pixel_bomber, don’t worry!
pixel_bomber,
My intention in my second comment was simply,
It’s scary when I think of my head being cut off.
I am not an all-gaijin-drug-dealer theorist so, maybe, I may not get the point precisely. Actually, I mentioned on a mere rumor which could make Americans unpleasant (sorry!) but I think I took a balance by writing about facts and rumors regarding the incident happened in Japan too.
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I found pixel_bomber here!
But the story you posted was about an accident as opposed to an intentional case…
But the article from Urban Vello is quite relevant in a context of reply to my first comment.
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It’s quite a challenge to communicate through this comment section. On top of that many of my comments take a long time to show up for some reason. I do wish Japanprobe had a proper forum. But anyway…
Ajapa: My reply to you was intended as humor of sorts. The point I was trying to subtly get at was that this is not something you should be scared of. In fact it’s very uncommon to find trip wires on public roads. So of course I was kidding when I said it’s common for gaijin to string up trip wires in the road. While this particular incident is tragic and scary in itself you really don’t need to worry about this happening in my opinion. So please be careful on your bike, but I doubt you will have to worry about tripwires.
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Ummmmm, it’s really difficult for me to guess other’s intention properly. I sometimes enjoy thinking of scary situations such as a bridge starting to collapse from the one end and me running for my life!
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My goodness. It was a prank that has gone very wrong.
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thank you…. thats all im trying to say
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Is it? So what do you assume this prank was designed to do?
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Maybe they just wanted to have cars stop and watch them try to turn around on the tiny road or cause traffic back up
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It might be hard enough to see a rope during the daytime, much less at night!
There is a much more obvious explanation.
And even if they had a different intent, it is reasonable to expect they should have foreseen other possible consequences.
It is true that a pickpocket might just have wanted to dust your wallet off for you, but not likely…
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just because you say they should doesnt mean they did.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/3436645.stm
Here’s a case of people throwing bricks on a roadway. Even without the police being able to read the ‘pranksters” minds, they still put out the warning that people caught could be charged with attempted murder.
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These people were throwing bricks at cars thats a little more obvious then this case.
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How? At least you have half a chance of avoiding a brick.
Can’t avoid a rope strung across a dark road!
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how do you know the road was dark?
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Me, you have passed from anything resembling serious discussion into the realm of trolling.
“These people were throwing bricks at cars thats a little more obvious then this case.”
Not at all. Maybe they thought the bricks would bounce off. Maybe they thought that cars came with Star Trek force fields. Maybe they thought the bricks would dissolve into dust on impact. Maybe they thought God told them to. Maybe they were trying to donate spare bricks to random strangers.
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Look at the video of the scene at night.
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On August 13th at around 11:30PM, a woman riding a moped collided with a rope that had been strung across a road.
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there are street lights in japan
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The lighting was obviously not sufficient as the person did hit the rope!
The lighting was probably sufficient for normal driving, but not for such an act of sabotage.
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so does that mean if someone hits a semi head on on the highway there wasnt sufficient lighting?
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If the truck was driving with its lights off in the wrong lane, you bet your trollish arse the truck driver would get done. However since trucks normally have lights and ropes don’t, your analogy is ridiculous.
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Sufficient lighting… Sufficient enough so that I can ride on a bicycle without turning on a light? I was fooled by policemen several time!
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Totally not trying to be a troll here but I think it is possible they might somehow believed their prank would not end in someone being terribly injured or killed. It’s hard to imagine the reasoning behind doing something so absurd but it is possible they did not expect a cyclist to be their victim. I mean if a car hit a rope it would just break the rope or cause the driver to stop I guess. Still the question would be why do that in the first place.
The main factor in this case that sways me away from something like attempted murder is the fact that they remained on the scene and tried to get help for the victim. I guess if murder was the desire they would not have stayed on site, or could have easily finished the job after the accident occurred. I do think the people responsible should be punished to the fullest extent of the law but I’m just saying I can see how attempted murder might be extreme. I was actually worried they would be charged with something too light but murder could be too much. Either way I won’t lose any sleep for them, but I can see a side of the case that would not call for an attempted murder charge.
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pixel_bomber,
I think it is possible they might somehow believed their prank would not end in someone being terribly injured or killed.
I think most people actually do not completely deny the possibility but in that case their ability of reasonable judgement is highly suspected or they might be in a terrible family environment.
I guess if murder was the desire they would not have stayed on site, or could have easily finished the job after the accident occurred.
The pyromaniacs come back to the scene but they never try to prevent the rescue activity. They might be the same kind of people… They need a treatment either way.
I was actually worried they would be charged with something too light but murder could be too much.
I have an impression that the Japanese police is not very certain on what charge is really adequate for this case. Are they already heard something from the suspects? I personally think they made a bit stronger claim to put a pressure to the military police at the time of these reports.
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Agreed. This should be manslaughter, not murder.
However, Me’s insistence that these kids aren’t at least as bad as drunk drivers is ridiculous.
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And an additional point for the prank case. This kind of prank could have provoked a social unrest. Understand the impact of this… before starting your prank. I made the top stair of Yamanote line station very very slippery just for a prank.
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On the issue of lighting. From Asahi Shinbun (Nov. 21):
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1121/TKY200911200529.html
Me, please stop changing the focus arbitrary and meaninglessly without knowing anything nor inspecting by yourself.
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I made it very slippery just for a prank. It just happened to be the top stair and the consequence was… you know.
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Me,
thank you…. thats all im trying to say
You made a question which could be suggestive of different intent in the very first place:
What if it was a pure and simple accident and they never intended to hurt anyone?
If you were really trying to say that the incident was originally just for a prank, then there could be probably intent to, at least, mentally hurt someone (remenber your reply to someone) since it was a prank to frighten and/or embarrass others!
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I’m terrified at the number of Americans in here engaging in these ridiculous calls for vengeance.
Four words: Innocent until proven guilty.
Save your screeching and hooting until after the trial.
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I think I saw only one or two comments out of the whole thing calling for vengeance.
The rest talk about jail time.
For the trial I’m sure it will go based on evidence. If it can be proven that the kids taken in are the ones that did this, then justice should be served.
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Why is it surprising? If this had happened in the US Americans would be just as outraged. Also it seems most people are calling for justice, not vengeance.
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Found a similar news about a traffic prank seriously injuring a women driving a car. This teen was throwing bricks at oncoming cars and is facing trial after failing the polygraph test.
http://www.click2houston.com/news/16788521/detail.html
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Me, You are a tard, I was just reading this for peoples comments to see how others feel about a situation like this happening and then I come across your arguments. I am hoping that you are just some dumb kid who does not know any better and not a full grown adult. An adult with your reasoning is very dangerous.
Even if they did not MEAN to kill someone, does not mean their actions couldn’t have caused it. And your argument with not intending to cause harm. A whole point of a PRANK is to cause HARM. It might not be physical, but it is definitely meant to cause some form of harm. And any REASONABLE mind would know that stringing a rope on a dark road is meant to cause some form of harm. A biker might not have been their intent, but it happened. They are every bit as responsible despite that not being their intention.
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A follow-up from the Asahi Shunbun (in Japanese, 2 Dec.):
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1201/TKY200912010519.html
The Metropolitan Police Department could not get cooperation of the U.S. military and the suspects were still not handed over to Japanese police.
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I wonder how many Americans dared to say, “it was a prank that has gone very wrong,” right after 9/11. Of course, the incidents hugely differ in their significance, but that’s presumably not the only reason why some posters here said those stuffs.
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