8 ms·

I was in a massively busy market street in Dotonbori, Osaka, at night. A police whistle shrieked, and I turned and saw a police officer absolutely booking it t

I was in a massively busy market street in Dotonbori, Osaka, at night. A police whistle shrieked, and I turned and saw a police officer absolutely booking it through the crowd, shoving through people, shouting at some perpetrator. My American-cultured brain thought, "This is it, someone's about to die." It seriously freaked me out. I watched, and he caught up to... a guy on a bike. It was a no-biking zone. He gave the guy a ticket.

PinkMilkshake 7y ago
I was in Japan for a month not long ago and one thing that stood out for me was police walking around with large wooden sticks. Many walked around with expandable police batons, casually fully expanded.
- brokenmachine 7y ago
  I don't know where you're from but "casually fully expanded" sticks doesn't really sound so scary when police all have handguns, metal batons and tasers where I am. And I'm in relatively gun-free Australia.
- CapricornNoble 7y ago
  Back when the bosozoku were more active (even 2012 was interesting compared to now), there were certain main streets that had a near-constant police presence between midnight and 4am on Saturday nights. The police would use those big staffs to knock the bikers off of their rides sometimes.
- ezoe 7y ago
  Was that really a police? The way you describe, it sounds like private guard man protecting the cash transfer.
odiroot 7y ago
That is plain cute. I wish we had at least half as stringent enforcement of the laws here in Berlin.
- xtracto 7y ago
  I remember a walking tour in Munich some years ago, the guide told us to watch for Munich police bc they were bored and looking for crimes to take on, given the lack of crimes.
- jotm 7y ago
  No, please. I bought a "ticket" that wasn't actually a ticket (had to use the red box to "convert" it?) for a train and got an earful. Also walked into a Rewe with a bottle of water and the cashier was really displeased. In the UK and some other EU countries, you'd just pay on the spot (either the fine or the ticket price). Some things aren't worth that much policing.
  - cerebellum42 7y ago
    I suspect you bought a ticket that can be made active any time, so you could buy it in advance if you wanted. To make the ticket "active" you have to stamp it using the pillar thing with the automatic date stamp at the station. Common mistake, but understandable you got an earful because you might as well be pretending you didn't know how things worked and are actually just riding again and again using the same pretend-ticket. Similar with bringing a bottle of a brand that the store sells into the store - how are they supposed to know if you brought it in or if you just took it in the store and opened it there on the way to the cash register? (which, by the way, is not super uncommon either and generally tolerated) German police are not allowed to collect fines on the spot, it's a corruption prevention measure.
    - jotm 7y ago
      Oh, I see what you mean. Pretty sure it had a date and time on it, so it could not have been used for more than a day, if that. Yes, kind of my bad with the bottle, but it was half empty and was like 50 cents anyway. You could limit collecting fines by card I guess, the payment would go to the authorities. Just seems like such small infractions aren't worth the stress, there's operations raking in millions tax free that could be worked on.
- 7y ago
artsyca 7y ago
Dude I recently had a run-in with the police over a bicycle, dang! It was an abandoned bike that had been in a field for several days and I was watching it rust to bits as I was walking my dog So I did what any self-respecting Canadian would do, I decided to be a hero.. I wheeled it home and showed it to my wife she says 'you better do something with it' so a day passes and we show it to my mother in law and she decides to call the local police to come get it Lo and behold they show up but right away the guy starts going at me 'why did you take another person's property?' treating me like a criminal i.e. guilty until proven innocent. He makes me sit in the back of his car, separates me from my mother in law, asks for my identification, takes my passport, my employment, the works They even called the detective squad and three guys roll up in a van It was some kind of interrogation, I felt like Otto Warmbier. He asked every question under the sun, apparently he thought my mother in law was calling to report me for stealing a bike and he explained that it was no different than a bloody knife or a stolen purse. I decided to take the comical side and laughed my ass off when he told me that. It was more about him saving face to his command at that point I couldn't believe the ludicrous nature of the whole deal. My only saving grace was that I'm married to a Japanese national so that got me off the hook, along with an intervention by my father in law and the local member of city government who lives down the street, otherwise I may have gone missing and ended up deported for all I know Bicycle crime is real dude and I can totally understand why asian people suffer from such glaring groupthink and disdain for helping anyone -- no good deed goes unpunished for real
- starpilot 7y ago
  Dude! Whoa! Those crazy "Asian people"!
- Smithalicious 7y ago
  So you stole a bike and still think you're in the right for getting upset that the police acted on that? You're an odd fellow
- swebs 7y ago
  Why does taking someone's bike home make you a hero? You could have just tipped off the police that someone left their bike in the field. It really sounds like you thought you gained a free bike until your mother in law got involved.
turk73 7y ago
That's just dumb. Cops manufacturing crime, as often is the case here in the states, too. You can't be free but also live under that kind of scrutiny about every last little thing you do. That sucks. Today is 7/31, the end of the month, and the speed cops are deployed all over town writing tickets as furiously as they can even though they don't officially have "quotas" the higher ups definitely lit a fire under their asses to "go make some money." As you can tell, I'm not much of a fan of this kind of corporo-statist law and order. Most of it is just a big game, an industry that legitimizes itself with officialdom and law but most definitely exploits vulnerable citizens (e.g. those who lack badges or other power "ins" with the local government). Basically, I hate it and wish it would stop. I'm for community policing, communities coming up with their own standards, as long as those standards are reasonable. We seem to have a criminal underclass that gets away with everything and meanwhile regular middle class people have to deal with tickets for expired stickers. It's clown world. Am chuckling this morning because in the span of just a few years, the city of Baltimore, MD took in $16B, that's Billion, with a "B" in grants from the Federal government. Where exactly did all that money go to? That city is notorious not only for its ridiculously high murder rate, but also for generally being a decaying, blighted, mess. Corruption? Someone might want to look into that.

PinkMilkshake 7y ago

I was in Japan for a month not long ago and one thing that stood out for me was police walking around with large wooden sticks. Many walked around with expandable police batons, casually fully expanded.

brokenmachine 7y ago
I don't know where you're from but "casually fully expanded" sticks doesn't really sound so scary when police all have handguns, metal batons and tasers where I am. And I'm in relatively gun-free Australia.
CapricornNoble 7y ago
Back when the bosozoku were more active (even 2012 was interesting compared to now), there were certain main streets that had a near-constant police presence between midnight and 4am on Saturday nights. The police would use those big staffs to knock the bikers off of their rides sometimes.
ezoe 7y ago
Was that really a police? The way you describe, it sounds like private guard man protecting the cash transfer.

odiroot 7y ago

That is plain cute. I wish we had at least half as stringent enforcement of the laws here in Berlin.

xtracto 7y ago
I remember a walking tour in Munich some years ago, the guide told us to watch for Munich police bc they were bored and looking for crimes to take on, given the lack of crimes.
jotm 7y ago
No, please. I bought a "ticket" that wasn't actually a ticket (had to use the red box to "convert" it?) for a train and got an earful. Also walked into a Rewe with a bottle of water and the cashier was really displeased. In the UK and some other EU countries, you'd just pay on the spot (either the fine or the ticket price). Some things aren't worth that much policing.
- cerebellum42 7y ago
  I suspect you bought a ticket that can be made active any time, so you could buy it in advance if you wanted. To make the ticket "active" you have to stamp it using the pillar thing with the automatic date stamp at the station. Common mistake, but understandable you got an earful because you might as well be pretending you didn't know how things worked and are actually just riding again and again using the same pretend-ticket. Similar with bringing a bottle of a brand that the store sells into the store - how are they supposed to know if you brought it in or if you just took it in the store and opened it there on the way to the cash register? (which, by the way, is not super uncommon either and generally tolerated) German police are not allowed to collect fines on the spot, it's a corruption prevention measure.
  - jotm 7y ago
    Oh, I see what you mean. Pretty sure it had a date and time on it, so it could not have been used for more than a day, if that. Yes, kind of my bad with the bottle, but it was half empty and was like 50 cents anyway. You could limit collecting fines by card I guess, the payment would go to the authorities. Just seems like such small infractions aren't worth the stress, there's operations raking in millions tax free that could be worked on.
7y ago

artsyca 7y ago

Dude I recently had a run-in with the police over a bicycle, dang! It was an abandoned bike that had been in a field for several days and I was watching it rust to bits as I was walking my dog So I did what any self-respecting Canadian would do, I decided to be a hero.. I wheeled it home and showed it to my wife she says 'you better do something with it' so a day passes and we show it to my mother in law and she decides to call the local police to come get it Lo and behold they show up but right away the guy starts going at me 'why did you take another person's property?' treating me like a criminal i.e. guilty until proven innocent. He makes me sit in the back of his car, separates me from my mother in law, asks for my identification, takes my passport, my employment, the works They even called the detective squad and three guys roll up in a van It was some kind of interrogation, I felt like Otto Warmbier. He asked every question under the sun, apparently he thought my mother in law was calling to report me for stealing a bike and he explained that it was no different than a bloody knife or a stolen purse. I decided to take the comical side and laughed my ass off when he told me that. It was more about him saving face to his command at that point I couldn't believe the ludicrous nature of the whole deal. My only saving grace was that I'm married to a Japanese national so that got me off the hook, along with an intervention by my father in law and the local member of city government who lives down the street, otherwise I may have gone missing and ended up deported for all I know Bicycle crime is real dude and I can totally understand why asian people suffer from such glaring groupthink and disdain for helping anyone -- no good deed goes unpunished for real

starpilot 7y ago
Dude! Whoa! Those crazy "Asian people"!
Smithalicious 7y ago
So you stole a bike and still think you're in the right for getting upset that the police acted on that? You're an odd fellow
swebs 7y ago
Why does taking someone's bike home make you a hero? You could have just tipped off the police that someone left their bike in the field. It really sounds like you thought you gained a free bike until your mother in law got involved.

turk73 7y ago

That's just dumb. Cops manufacturing crime, as often is the case here in the states, too. You can't be free but also live under that kind of scrutiny about every last little thing you do. That sucks. Today is 7/31, the end of the month, and the speed cops are deployed all over town writing tickets as furiously as they can even though they don't officially have "quotas" the higher ups definitely lit a fire under their asses to "go make some money." As you can tell, I'm not much of a fan of this kind of corporo-statist law and order. Most of it is just a big game, an industry that legitimizes itself with officialdom and law but most definitely exploits vulnerable citizens (e.g. those who lack badges or other power "ins" with the local government). Basically, I hate it and wish it would stop. I'm for community policing, communities coming up with their own standards, as long as those standards are reasonable. We seem to have a criminal underclass that gets away with everything and meanwhile regular middle class people have to deal with tickets for expired stickers. It's clown world. Am chuckling this morning because in the span of just a few years, the city of Baltimore, MD took in $16B, that's Billion, with a "B" in grants from the Federal government. Where exactly did all that money go to? That city is notorious not only for its ridiculously high murder rate, but also for generally being a decaying, blighted, mess. Corruption? Someone might want to look into that.