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73 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
73 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
HOW DOES JAPAN GET THAT LOW CRIME RATE, ANYWAY?
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Today's \Los Angeles Times\ has an article that
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illuminates the difficulty of citing Japan's low crime rate
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as evidence that gun-control is a factor.
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In a Column One story titled "Victims of a Safe
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Society," the \Los Angeles Times\ details how the relatively
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low rate of private criminality in Japan is achieved by
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massive police criminality: beating suspects so severely
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that they are permanently crippled in order to obtain
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confessions, a massively high rate of false executions and
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imprisonment, and virtually no penalties for police who
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commit these crimes.
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"Many foreign people think Japan is a highly
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developed, advanced, democratic country, and it is," says
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Hideyuki Kayanuma, an attorney for an American entertainer
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who was permanently crippled by Japanese police who
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suspected him of drug possession. "But especially in the
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field of criminal justice, it's a Third World country.
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There are no human rights."
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Civil-rights attorney Kensuke Onuki says, "It's almost
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like 'Midnight Express.'"
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In addition to beating of suspects, sleep deprivation
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to achieve confessions, and common torture of arrestees,
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the article describes a Japanese criminal justice system
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with virtually no bail, strip searches for traffic
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violations, and a conviction rate of 98% -- about that of
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Stalinist USSR. In contrast, of 12,615 complaints of
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torture and abuse filed against police over the last 40
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years, only 15 cases were tried, and only \half\ of that 15
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resulted in punishment for police officers.
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Citing "a typical example," of Japanese justice, the
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article tells of a day laborer released after 16 years in
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prison. The laborer was coerced into a false confession
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during six months of detention in three different police
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stations outside Tokyo. During that time, the laborer
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says, "officers beat him on the head with fists, trampled
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his thighs, and ordered him to 'apologize' to a photo of
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the dead woman as they burned incense for her spirit in the
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interrogation room. They interrogated him for a total of
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172 days as much as 13 hours a day."
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Other methods of interrogation, according to the
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\Times\ article, involve telling suspects that their
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families will suffer if they don't confess or that an
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interrogation won't end without a confession. The article
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cites human rights attorneys who have estimated forced
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confessions to be as high as 50%. Suspects may be held in
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custody for up to 23 days with no charges, bail, right to
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an attorney, or court supervision.
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Nor is there much objection to this brutality by the
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Japanese public. The Japanese Civil Liberties Union has
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only 600 members, as compared to 280,000 ACLU members.
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Instead, says the \Times\ article, "most Japanese place a
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high degree of confidence and trust in police and assume
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that suspects under arrest probably committed the crime."
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Those who wish to cite Japan's low murder rate as
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proof that gun control works, had better think again.
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And if after reconsidering the issue they still advocate
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the Japanese approach, those Americans who value the
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concepts of fairness and justice would do well to
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understand what the goal of those who advocate gun control
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actually is: the importation of fascism to America.
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##
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