Dangerous Stranger Case(声かけ事案)

[matsuki]

...because the average screwdriver is a "special unlocking tool?"

I see that you grew up in the leafier less shit parts of LA.

I had a vehicle stolen where the thief basically used one in place of a car key. Paired with a hammer or the right method, of course it can be used for nefarious purposed but that's not the intended use, and they tend to bend when used for prying....so classifying a long flathead scredriver as a "special unlocking tool" is total bullshit. I think all the ones I recently I scavenged from my pop's tools are over 15cm no matter how you measure but the diameter is such that there is no way in hell they are going to be used for prying or nefarious unlocking. Still, I'm sure that won't save me the next time the police stop me without reason and want to search the vehicle.

[Russell]

What's next?!?

Paperclips being illegal in Japan?

[Mike Oxlong]

As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do

<snip>

In fact, as the police run out of things to do, they are becoming more inventive about what constitutes a crime, says Kanako Takayama of Kyoto University. In one recent case, she says, they arrested a group of people who had shared the cost of renting a car, deeming the arrangement an illegal taxi. Some prefectures have begun prosecuting people who ride their bicycles through red lights.

In 2015 a man was arrested for scribbling Adolf Hitler moustaches onto posters of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Ms Takayama says detectives have started appearing without permission on university campuses, to monitor “troublesome” students. One reason why police are going after cyclists may be to make up for the steady fall in driving offences. (Both drivers and cyclists can avoid fines by signing up for remedial training at certified driving schools, which are often staffed by retired officers, notes Colin Jones of Doshisha University.) Fifteen years ago police in Hokkaido, in Japan’s sparsely populated north, conspired with yakuza gangsters to smuggle guns into the country so they could meet quotas for finding them.
The hunt for things to do may sometimes be beneficial. The number of reported cases of children being abused at home has almost doubled since 2010, despite the declining birth rate. That suggests the police are increasingly intervening in the domestic sphere, which they used to avoid.

Even critics of Japan’s justice system accept that it gets a lot right. Rates of recidivism are low and a great deal of effort is made to keep young offenders out of the prison system; police work with parents to keep young people on the straight and narrow. Adults are incarcerated at a far lower rate than in most rich countries: 45 per 100,000, compared with 146 in Britain and 666 in the United States.

Yet the police are oddly inefficient. Even though there are so many officers and so few crimes, they solve less than 30% of them. Confessions, often made under duress, form the basis of most criminal prosecutions. The courts dismissed the case of the beer thief in Kagoshima, despite all the work that went into it. Japan is almost crime-free not thanks to the police, says Yoshihiro Yasuda, a campaigning lawyer, but because people police themselves.

Full article: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/2172 ... olice-hunt

[Grumpy Gramps]

Maybe the J-popo could follow German SOP and then make USB chargers illegal.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

As crime dries up, Japan’s police hunt for things to do

<snip>

In fact, as the police run out of things to do, they are becoming more inventive about what constitutes a crime, says Kanako Takayama of Kyoto University. In one recent case, she says, they arrested a group of people who had shared the cost of renting a car, deeming the arrangement an illegal taxi. Some prefectures have begun prosecuting people who ride their bicycles through red lights.

In 2015 a man was arrested for scribbling Adolf Hitler moustaches onto posters of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Ms Takayama says detectives have started appearing without permission on university campuses, to monitor “troublesome” students. One reason why police are going after cyclists may be to make up for the steady fall in driving offences. (Both drivers and cyclists can avoid fines by signing up for remedial training at certified driving schools, which are often staffed by retired officers, notes Colin Jones of Doshisha University.) Fifteen years ago police in Hokkaido, in Japan’s sparsely populated north, conspired with yakuza gangsters to smuggle guns into the country so they could meet quotas for finding them.
The hunt for things to do may sometimes be beneficial. The number of reported cases of children being abused at home has almost doubled since 2010, despite the declining birth rate. That suggests the police are increasingly intervening in the domestic sphere, which they used to avoid.

Even critics of Japan’s justice system accept that it gets a lot right. Rates of recidivism are low and a great deal of effort is made to keep young offenders out of the prison system; police work with parents to keep young people on the straight and narrow. Adults are incarcerated at a far lower rate than in most rich countries: 45 per 100,000, compared with 146 in Britain and 666 in the United States.

Yet the police are oddly inefficient. Even though there are so many officers and so few crimes, they solve less than 30% of them. Confessions, often made under duress, form the basis of most criminal prosecutions. The courts dismissed the case of the beer thief in Kagoshima, despite all the work that went into it. Japan is almost crime-free not thanks to the police, says Yoshihiro Yasuda, a campaigning lawyer, but because people police themselves.

Full article: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/2172 ... olice-hunt

They are busy as hell measuring shit.
Based on what I've seen, Japanese cops do three things:
1. Man a post (usually a koban, but also outside the front of a cop shop and sometimes behind a gate pretending to be protecting against the uyoku)
2. Ride a bicycle.
3. Measure shit.

It's better than Straya, where cops shakedown criminals, get free shit off ordinary people and have a knack of mysteriously finding indigenous Strayans hanging around in their cells.

[Mike Oxlong]

A screwdriver is a screwdriver and a prybar is a prybar. A screwdriver is illegal but a prybar is not I suppose.

Prybars longer than 24cm with a head wider than 2cm are illegal too.

Aha, thanks. They've thought of everything then. I suppose my tyre wrench might just sneak in under that then. Mr C's emergency equipment might not. Provided he refrains from pulling into other people's parking at 4 in the morning without any legitimate reason I suspect it doesn't matter.

Don't get me started... I have to debrief on private thread my latest run-in with the law. It's still a situation in progress. (Long story short... i don't have a problem with the law... the law managed to get into trouble with me...)

What's the status of that report?

[Mike Oxlong]

[matsuki]

I've had a number of doorbell rings lately where the video intercom showed no-one at the door (so naturally I did not answer). Today it happened again, so I carefully checked from the bedroom window and low-and-behold some cop was standing well to the side of the door waiting for a reply. Looks like maybe one of those meet-and-greet neighborhood things they routinely do, but this is the first time to encounter such sketchy behavior in such a situation. Not about to trust my new stalker.

Without going into reasoning, I decided to contest my latest traffic citation. Officer tried all kinds of memo gymnastics to get my signature on anything to no avail. The payment date on the ticket was set within a few days (is this the new normal for these? Even the cop was like "sorry, the due date doesn't give you much time.") but I was off to Narita so that wasn't happening either way. While I was gone, they sent some sort of certified mail that got returned to them. Was too late to recover by the time I got back from overseas and the sender on the non-delivery notice simply read 警察 so fuck if I know who to contact about it. A week later, I'm in a business meeting and get a call, no message, but the number says it's the local PD. I come home to a hand written (and apparently hand delivered) note suggesting I pay the citation or risk them pursing criminal charges in court. (probably what was in the original mail?) I called to let them know I was contesting it and the deli-keisatsu had already gone home for the day. The teeth sucking I got when I asked to leave a message for him was enough to put my Dyson to shame. It's been a couple weeks since I heard a peep and have renewed my license in between but dayam, talk about mafia tactics for collection.

[Coligny]

I still have not contested mine.

If i still had my contact at the menkyo center i would have went through.

But between the lack of fuck and the intel gathered on local procedure... it still a win in my book.


The only thing I regret is not to be able to rip a new one to the retards of the city hall (who wrote the initial -illegal- (*) ticket)


(*) short reminder, the ticket is not called illegal because of my spirit/mood/fresh haircut. But because it was written referencing a law that do not apply in this situation (conclusion shared by the local koban and the menkyo center, without the referenced signage being present... you can't use it as a reason why the infraction take place...)