Missing FG

[GomiGirl]

Passing this around in case anybody has any news:

I've just been alerted to the fact that one of our fellow Brits, long-term and well-known Tokyo resident Garin Dart, has been missing since last Wednesday (May 22) at 1100. Anyone who knows Garin - either as a friend or businessperson - will appreciate that this is really out of character. Garin runs a highly successful events company, Bluesilver, and has a young family here in Japan. I've been asked to support with the search; if anyone has any information, please call Bruno Damizzio: 080-9573-8846

Am guessing that he is either in lock-up or is dead - but as he has been missing since Wednesday with no news, no body, no hospital records and no movement in his bank accounts or credit cards I assume it is lock-up.

Chokko - when you were locked up did you get a phone call? Any ability to contact anybody? Or did you just drop into a black-spot for communication for 22 days?

[Coligny]

So, for people who might actually be able to spot him, one fucking thing that help is a picture of the missing person...

Here is one from 2009:

weekender-00817.jpg

Not great, but not knowing the guyr I had to narrow down to what appeared to be really trusted sources for his ID.
comes from here:

http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2009/04/garin-dart/

[GomiGirl]

Thanks Coligny - I have never met him so I can only assume this is the same guy. There was no photo in the original FG post that I copied into here otherwise I would have posted one.

[Coligny]

Taro or anyone halfway competent with photoshop might be able to sanitize the picshure...

[Yokohammer]

Wouldn't it make sense to, oh, I dunno, ask the police?
File a missing person report, maybe? Seems like the surest way to know if he's been detained, or is actually missing and a search is in order.

[GomiGirl]

Wouldn't it make sense to, oh, I dunno, ask the police?
File a missing person report, maybe? Seems like the surest way to know if he's been detained, or is actually missing and a search is in order.

I believe that has been done but no information has been forthcoming. Not sure if it is that he is not actually in lockup or that he is and they are just not saying.

Missing persons report has been filed AFAIK. It was filed within 10 hours of his going missing but they do not take the report until after 48 hours. Which has been done. Apparently his J-wife (pregnant with #2 child) is trying to get more information but as yet unsuccessful.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Wouldn't it make sense to, oh, I dunno, ask the police?
File a missing person report, maybe? Seems like the surest way to know if he's been detained, or is actually missing and a search is in order.

I believe that has been done but no information has been forthcoming. Not sure if it is that he is not actually in lockup or that he is and they are just not saying.

Missing persons report has been filed AFAIK. It was filed within 10 hours of his going missing but they do not take the report until after 48 hours. Which has been done. Apparently his J-wife (pregnant with #2 child) is trying to get more information but as yet unsuccessful.

I'd be curious to know whether the police here have to tell family, friends, or employers if they've detained someone.

[Yokohammer]

Wouldn't it make sense to, oh, I dunno, ask the police?
File a missing person report, maybe? Seems like the surest way to know if he's been detained, or is actually missing and a search is in order.

I believe that has been done but no information has been forthcoming. Not sure if it is that he is not actually in lockup or that he is and they are just not saying.

Missing persons report has been filed AFAIK. It was filed within 10 hours of his going missing but they do not take the report until after 48 hours. Which has been done. Apparently his J-wife (pregnant with #2 child) is trying to get more information but as yet unsuccessful.

I'd be curious to know whether the police here have to tell family, friends, or employers if they've detained someone.

I'm pretty sure they'd have to tell family, and perhaps employer, otherwise there would be a huge conflict between detaining the person and having to deal with missing person reports for the same person. Of course TIJ, so nothing's certain, but it would make sense.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Wouldn't it make sense to, oh, I dunno, ask the police?
File a missing person report, maybe? Seems like the surest way to know if he's been detained, or is actually missing and a search is in order.

I believe that has been done but no information has been forthcoming. Not sure if it is that he is not actually in lockup or that he is and they are just not saying.

Missing persons report has been filed AFAIK. It was filed within 10 hours of his going missing but they do not take the report until after 48 hours. Which has been done. Apparently his J-wife (pregnant with #2 child) is trying to get more information but as yet unsuccessful.

I'd be curious to know whether the police here have to tell family, friends, or employers if they've detained someone.

I'm pretty sure they'd have to tell family, and perhaps employer, otherwise there would be a huge conflict between detaining the person and having to deal with missing person reports for the same person. Of course TIJ, so nothing's certain, but it would make sense.

My guess is they would have to tell family but a lot of us FG don't have any here so that could make it tough to get any info.

[GomiGirl]

I'd be curious to know whether the police here have to tell family, friends, or employers if they've detained someone.

Me too. That is why I asked Chokko about his recent 22 day vacation at the Hotel Plod. If you get picked up when you are alone, how else are your family informed?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

They have no legal obligation to do so of their own volition.
Even filing a writ of habeus corpus requires a court ruling...

[matsuki]

Phone call? What do you think this is GG, a civilized country? No phone call. Noone contacts your friends, family, or work for you. You literally disappear. Contacting the different police offices won't yield you much either as they won't give out info like that over the phone...TIJ

No phone either...it's 2013 so unless you have important addresses memorized, count on being in communication black hole as writing/mailing letters is the only way to alert anyone. If he can't write Japanese, count on it being a long time before anything he writes to reach anyone either...they take their sweet time getting the guards and a shitty translator together to censor your English language mail. He would have the right to contact the UK embassy but if they're anything like the US, they aren't very helpful when they do make contact. My work got a letter in the mail with zero details....it wasn't til I got an attorney that I had any real contact with the outside world. At 6 days, you'd think he'd have had his attorney at least contact his wife by now.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Phone call? What do you think this is GG, a civilized country? No phone call. Noone contacts your friends, family, or work for you. You literally disappear. Contacting the different police offices won't yield you much either as they won't give out info like that over the phone...TIJ

No phone either...it's 2013 so unless you have important addresses memorized, count on being in communication black hole as writing/mailing letters is the only way to alert anyone. If he can't write Japanese, count on it being a long time before anything he writes to reach anyone either...they take their sweet time getting the guards and a shitty translator together to censor your English language mail. He would have the right to contact the UK embassy but if they're anything like the US, they aren't very helpful when they do make contact. My work got a letter in the mail with zero details....it wasn't til I got an attorney that I had any real contact with the outside world. At 6 days, you'd think he'd have had his attorney at least contact his wife by now.

That's what I was afraid of.

[Taro Toporific]

Phone call? What do you think this is GG, a civilized country? No phone call.

It's interesting to think that kidnapping by the Japanese police is the main worry when a gaijin "disappears"---That is, regular criminal kidnapping or plain murder are the last thing you have to be concerned with in Japan.

Let's hope that Mr. Dart only has been "enjoying" himself too much and is just avoiding going home (or possibly has taken a runner from all his responsibilities).

[matsuki]

Phone call? What do you think this is GG, a civilized country? No phone call.

It's interesting to think that kidnapping by the Japanese police is the main worry when a gaijin "disappears"---That is, regular criminal kidnapping or plain murder are the last thing you have to be concerned with in Japan.

The Yaks who refused to cooperate with the J-PD were held the full 22 days, idiots like me that were fully cooperative still had a 22 day abduction....TIJ

Let's hope that Mr. Dart only has been "enjoying" himself too much and is just avoiding going home (or possibly has taken a runner from all his responsibilities).

That was my thought as well. If he got caught doing something wifey might not like to hear, he'd probably want to handle it without involving her.

[GomiGirl]

He was on his way to a meeting. He had parked his car (it is still there BTW) and was catching the train to Shinjuku to a meeting.

He never made it to the meeting. It was 11am last Wednesday morning.

Bank accounts and credit cards are untouched. So either he is dead or in lock-up - most likely the latter.

[matsuki]

He was on his way to a meeting. He had parked his car (it is still there BTW) and was catching the train to Shinjuku to a meeting.

He never made it to the meeting. It was 11am last Wednesday morning.

Bank accounts and credit cards are untouched. So either he is dead or in lock-up - most likely the latter.

The J-popo's staked out my apartment well in advance of their pointless raid in the AM .

One of the Yaks in my cell was also stalked and arrested in the morning when out and about. His car was stuck in one of those pay parking lots until he was released.

Honestly sounds like he's locked up. Could be anything, disgruntled employee or whatnot. Hospital would have figured out who to contact by now. Feel bad for his wife...worst time ever to be stressed like that.

[Kegsy]

From what I understand the British Embassy have been in touch with the police and they have no knowledge of his whereabouts.
Hopefully he's in hospital because he's not the type to just go missing.

He recently posted on FB that he was looking forward to a busy June.

He's a really good guy who did a lot to help after the tsunami of 2011.

[Taro Toporific]

He's a really good guy who did a lot to help after the tsunami of 2011.

Garin Dart co-founder of Foreign Volunteers Japan

[Russell]

The J-popo's staked out my apartment well in advance of their pointless raid in the AM .

Sorry to hear that. I was not aware of your bad experience.

Why did they raid your apartment?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

This bloke seems like a class act. I hope and pray he's all right.

[Russell]

So, did someone check out all the stations he passed on his train ride and ask the personnel whether they had seen him?

Hoping he will be fine.

[J.A.F.O]

They have no legal obligation to do so of their own volition.
Even filing a writ of habeus corpus requires a court ruling...

Wow they have habeus corpus in japan? Japan is a civil law country I thought HB was exclusive to common law...

Which always made me wonder why japan adopted the civil law system over common law when they surrendered to the U.S. As history repeats itself it would only make sense that the conquered nation take on the...... TIJ.

[J.A.F.O]

Phone call? What do you think this is GG, a civilized country? No phone call. Noone contacts your friends, family, or work for you. You literally disappear. Contacting the different police offices won't yield you much either as they won't give out info like that over the phone...TIJ

Sorry to here about your situation.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

They have no legal obligation to do so of their own volition.
Even filing a writ of habeus corpus requires a court ruling...

Wow they have habeus corpus in japan? Japan is a civil law country I thought HB was exclusive to common law...

Which always made me wonder why japan adopted the civil law system over common law when they surrendered to the U.S. As history repeats itself it would only make sense that the conquered nation take on the...... TIJ.

Civil law is probably more, er, common than common law, which is largely the English-speaking world, and there're shitloads of cuntries that use a combination of both civil and common laws.

[matsuki]

The J-popo's staked out my apartment well in advance of their pointless raid in the AM .

Sorry to hear that. I was not aware of your bad experience.

Why did they raid your apartment?

Long story short, crazy bitch I once dated filed a false chikan police report months after the last time I had seen her. Happened in my apt so they raided my place with 6 doods looking for "evidence" In other words, bitch using the local police and biased system to take a swing at me.

They have no legal obligation to do so of their own volition.
Even filing a writ of habeus corpus requires a court ruling...

Wow they have habeus corpus in japan? Japan is a civil law country I thought HB was exclusive to common law...

Sorry to here about your situation.

Yeah, but TIJ...the prosecutor hands the paperwork to the judge, the judge approves it without any questions. Going through the motions defeats the whole purpose If you ask why, the judges say it's a matter of shinyo (trust)...I mean why wouldn't they believe the honerable prosecutors and police over the arrested and being investigated scum?

[GomiGirl]

I have spoken to lots of Japanese friends about this and most of them have no idea that people can be detained like this. They are as shocked as people from other countries.

The only way to have the system changed is for more Japanese people to know about this and that it isn't just FG's who are treated in this way - it is everybody. Guilty until proven innocent or 22 days have elapsed.

[matsuki]

I have spoken to lots of Japanese friends about this and most of them have no idea that people can be detained like this. They are as shocked as people from other countries.

The only way to have the system changed is for more Japanese people to know about this and that it isn't just FG's who are treated in this way - it is everybody. Guilty until proven innocent or 22 days have elapsed.

22 days is horrible....I understand that sometimes evidence needs time to be collected and/or sorted but it doesn't take over 3 weeks...and in my case where there was simply no evidence against me (there was plenty that showed she was nuts and threatening to do just this), the prosecutor simply abused the detention time by encouraging me to pay off the complaint or waste away in a cell. I called him out on this shit and asked him why he would continue to hold me if there is no evidence and he had all but said he know the complaint was a BS attempt to just mess with me. "Because I can...now you can pay her off or wait out the rest of the 22 days" was the jist of the answer I got.

The Japanese I talked to about my situation were surprised as well but they shoganai it away and just assume that my situation was a fluke. They just auto-side with the police and assume most people that are arrested are actually criminals. The idea that there are corrupt police or that the system can be easily abused doesn't seem to register. They don't even understand the cops are only there to collect evidence AGAINST you and will IGNORE any evidence that would prove your innocence.

[GomiGirl]

The Japanese I talked to about my situation were surprised as well but they shoganai it away and just assume that my situation was a fluke. They just auto-side with the police and assume most people that are arrested are actually criminals. The idea that there are corrupt police or that the system can be easily abused doesn't seem to register.

Exactly!!! On one hand it makes for a pleasant existence that anarchy is not the order of the day in Japan, however, there needs to be some healthy skepticism in order to keep the bastards honest... surely?

[Coligny]

It's not lack of honesty... it's excess of masochism...
Have little power in a world of lemmings... let's joyride that...
Just lucky that it's only a small scale U731...