Police rant

Sorry I haven't posted anything on the Guam trip yet. It'll probably be up tomorrow. I've been busy since getting back.

This is to help me vent a little over the Japanese police. My temper is so much better than it used to be, but I still tend to let it slowly build over hours.

I was hit by a car tonight (a van, actually). I'm fine and it was not really a big deal. I doubt I'll even get a bruise. The guy was driving slower than I usually walk. I saw him coming. He had lots of room and I was standing next to my bike, I figured he'd go around, so I was a little surprised when he hit me in the hip. Catching a wall meant only my bike fell over. Really it was nothing...but he pissed me off. He basically looked at me and said, "You're fine right? Sorry!" It was gruff, not in polite Japanese, and I'm pretty sure he was good and drunk. He didn't even wait for my answer before taking off a lot more quickly than when he hit me (to be honest, I don't think he ever even hit his breaks).

This isn't about the drunk rude guy though...in another day and time I might of pulled him from the van to make sure he was sorry...or at least made his van look like it had actually hit something. This is about the police in the koban (police box) not 60 feet from where this happened. I wasn't hurt, but figured I should report it since the guy was likely drunk, hit me on a traffic-free road with plenty of clearance...I even had the license plate number.

My Japanese is pretty bad, but I made myself understood. They told me I should go to the hospital and call the police from there. I said I wasn't hurt. They said call the police closest to whatever hospital I go to. I said I wasn't hurt, but I had the plate number of the guy, and I was pretty sure he was drunk. They gave me a pencil and paper and told me to write it down. I did. They then gave it back to me and said to give to the police that come to whatever hospital I go to. I said I wasn't going to a hospital. They said well, then it must not be important, thank you. I left.

This is the third accident I've been in in Japan and not one accident report has been filed. Every time I hear about the safety of the roads here, I'm forced to wonder if that's because so little is officially filed. In Matsuyama I was hit by a taxi in broad daylight with seven witnesses that stuck around and no accident report was filed. The police said that because nobody got the license plate number, there's nothing they'd be able to do to catch the driver anyway. That was that. That time I did go to a hospital.

A few years ago my apt. was robbed. It happened in the space of an hour between when I left and when Taka got home. The police that came did a very thorough job (maybe because a passport theft was going to require a lot of paperwork on all sides), but they quite literally brow-beat me into admitting that there was at least some small chance that I may have left the door unlocked when I left. After an hour, I said that anything was possible (I was doubting myself at that point). It went in the report as "entry through an unlocked door". Eight weeks later, they called and said they had just caught a gang of four Chinese lock-picking B&E specialists in our neighborhood and would we come in to check if our possessions were in what was confiscated.

Wonder why the Japanese police have a 97% conviction rate? I don't! Anything that actually gets reported and is not likely to turn out in their favor, gets reported in a way that at least won't go against them.

Rant over.

Taka and some of my Japanese friends will likely be irritated at yet another gaijin complaining about Japan...but hey, I have a rant or two on just about everything. I'm an equal-opportunity rant fiend!

Tomorrow I'll put something up on Guam. The few pictures we took were all so bad, I'm not even sure there's one to post. I'll try though.