Posts Tagged ‘abuse’

Police rounding up foreigners in Tokyo and making them take drug tests?

Arudou Debito has received reports from that police in Tokyo have been rounding up foreigners as they leave bars in Roppongi/Shibuya and making them take urine tests. A few posters on the Gaijin Pot forums have also mentioned the practice.

Debito apparently called the Azabu Police Department today and confirmed that the drug tests were taking place. Here is part of the transcript he has posted:

DEBITO: Do you have warrants to ask for urine samples?
OFFICER TESHIMA: I don’t have to answer that. Depends on the situation.
DEBITO: But you can’t ask for urine samples without a warrant, right?
OFFICER TESHIMA: We don’t always need a warrant. Depends on the situation.
DEBITO: What situations do you not need a warrant?
OFFICER TESHIMA: I don’t have to answer that.
DEBITO: But if they give you their permission for a sample, you don’t need a warrant?
OFFICER TESHIMA: If they cooperate, we don’t need a warrant.
DEBITO: What if they don’t cooperate?
OFFICER TESHIMA: I’m not going to answer that.

The police officer said that tests were taking place, but he denied that only foreigners were being targeted.

Even if they aren’t just targeting foreigners, it is pretty troubling to think that police are attempting to take urine samples from people on the street. Hopefully someone in the media will contact the police and try to get more information.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

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]

The Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol: Keeping Shibuya Clean Through Intimidation

A week ago, a television program aired about the Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol(SCGP), a non-police group of volunteers that patrols the main streets of Shibuya to keep the area safe and clean.

Below are a few examples of how the patrol operates:

Video Clip 1 Summary

• The patrolman yells at some young people sitting along the side of the street, telling them to stand up because they are being a nuisance.
• Another patrolman goes after a couple young men who are leaning on a guard rail, telling them what they are doing is dangerous and inappropriate. When the men insist they are doing nothing wrong, the patrolman shouts at them until they leave.
• The patrolmen force other young people who are sitting or crouching in areas of the street to stand up, yelling at them and using whistles.

Video Clip 2 Summary

• The two patrolmen angrily tell a restaurant mascot that he is not allowed to stand in front of his store and wave at customers, apparently because he is being a nuisance to pedestrians.

Video Clip 3 Summary

• The patrol targets some foreigners who are smoking in the doorway of a store.

Video Clip 4 Summary

• The patrol runs into trouble: 2 men holding bags are refusing to move when told they should not be allowed to stand in the street. The men state that they are doing nothing wrong and there are no signs saying it is illegal to stand in the street. The patrolmen react to their statement with anger, shouting insults at them and demanding that they move. The men do not move, and the patrolmen give up.
• A reporter interviews the men, asking why they refused to move. The men reply that they are committing no crime, and that they feel the patrolmen are discriminating against them based on their appearance. Does keeping the streets of Shibuya “clean” mean that anyone the patrolmen regard as “dirty” should be intimidated into moving out of sight?

Reaction

Safe and clean streets are a nice thing, but all I see in the videos is a group of volunteer bullies verballing abusing young people. It might not be polite to stand in the middle of the street with a large bag, but it seems far worse to have a group of pseudo-police walk around the streets intimidating people into being “polite?”

I may think that the young men in the last video look shady, but that’s no excuse that would justify the disgustingly belligerent behavior of the patrolmen. If standing in the street had been a crime, the patrolmen could have simply summoned the police when the men refused to move. They did not, so it seems to confirm that the men were not committing a crime. It’s good to see somebody willing to resist the intimidation and rude language employed by Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol members.

I am not alone in my views of the patrolmen. While searching for information about the SCGP, I came across this 2-channel thread containing criticism of the SCGP’s use of rude language and intimidation. One anonymous poster pointed out that the Shibuya Center-Gai website has a feedback form through which people can voice their complaints with the SCGP’s behavior. Any residents of Japan who don’t like what they see in the above videos should probably let the Shibuya Center-Gai organization know about it.