5 ms·

And you're not afraid? Do arrests seem legit when you hear about one?

by aragot 12y ago

patio11 12y ago
I'm generally not afraid of the police when they're not actively questioning me on suspicion of me having committed a crime. That has happened eight times. Six of the eight times, it was on suspicion of stealing my own bicycle, the relevant evidence being that I was a) not Japanese and b) riding a bicycle. One time, after the cops had called my bicycle's anti-theft registration number into HQ and received the radio report "That bike is registered to one Patrick McKenzie", I was accused of stealing Patrick McKenzie's bicycle and identity. [+] Does this answer your questions? [+] I realize this sounds like the kind of story an Irish storyteller would make up to prove a point and feel that I must add "I swear by all the saints, by my hope of heaven and my fear of hell, this did literally happen."
- StavrosK 12y ago
  It's the perfect crime. Steal someone's bicycle, along with their identity, and ride the bicycle with impunity.
- aprescott 12y ago
  How did you convince them you were him and that you hadn't stolen your own identity?
- SilasX 12y ago
  What next? They make you prove you've never been cloned?
  - patio11 12y ago
    I showed him a particular immigration document issued to me that he is not, strictly speaking, allowed to ask for prior to starting a custodial interrogation. He then started second guessing Immigration's decision to offer me a visa. That was good news, since it convinced a colleague he was overstepping his authority. I was released 5 minutes later, with an admonition to lock up my bike properly to avoid the scourge of foreign bike thieves plaguing Ogaki.
- hudibras 12y ago
  And the other two times?
- appleflaxen 12y ago
  That seems incredibly scary to me. When something is that insane, what stops it from taking the next step of insanity? I'm sorry that it happened to you (let alone six times), and am glad you made it out ok.
kalleboo 12y ago
One part of it is that the Japanese police won't arrest someone unless they think they can nail them. A lot of murders may be ruled suicide because there's no convenient scapegoat, he-said-she-said rape cases not pursued, etc.
- tptacek 12y ago
  OK, but that's approximately true of criminal justice in the US. For instance: wiretaps are administratively expensive to pursue, and so police don't request them until they're sure they've got enough evidence to win the warrant. But civilians aren't persuaded by this logic; instead, they see it as evidence that the whole system is tilted in favor of the police. It should be as disquieting (or not disquieting) in Japan as it is in the US.
  - hawkice 12y ago
    If you look at the criminal justice system as having some amount of diagnostic sensitivity at each stage in the process (having both false positives and false negatives as all systems do), then our comparatively lower conviction rate means that (assuming end-of-the-day-justice is equal), we should be even more willing to waste people's time developing cases that have no merit (because more of the diagnostic sensitivity is in the trial/conviction stage). So it's not unreasonable to assume it's easier to get a wiretap in the US than it is in Japan -- another explanation is that Japan is substantially more likely to have false negatives (as implied elsewhere -- but the false negative rate for many crimes in the US is quite high, as roughly half of all murders go unsolved). Could also be that the diagnostic sensitivity is extremely bumpy in America or Japan (read: basically one or two steps / people get an extremely high share of the criminal justice discretion).
- powertower 12y ago
  Should be easy enough to prove or disprove by comparing the number of X-type arrests made to the number of X-type crimes committed. If it's absurdly high, or significantly higher than some comparable country, then you've got a problem - with a 99.9% conviction rate.

And you're not afraid? Do arrests seem legit when you hear about one?

by aragot 12y ago

And you're not afraid? Do arrests seem legit when you hear about one?

I'm generally not afraid of the police when they're not actively questioning me on suspicion of me having committed a crime. That has happened eight times. Six of the eight times, it was on suspicion of stealing my own bicycle, the relevant evidence being that I was a) not Japanese and b) riding a bicycle. One time, after the cops had called my bicycle's anti-theft registration number into HQ and received the radio report "That bike is registered to one Patrick McKenzie", I was accused of stealing Patrick McKenzie's bicycle and identity. [+] Does this answer your questions? [+] I realize this sounds like the kind of story an Irish storyteller would make up to prove a point and feel that I must add "I swear by all the saints, by my hope of heaven and my fear of hell, this did literally happen."

StavrosK 12y ago
It's the perfect crime. Steal someone's bicycle, along with their identity, and ride the bicycle with impunity.
aprescott 12y ago
How did you convince them you were him and that you hadn't stolen your own identity?
SilasX 12y ago
What next? They make you prove you've never been cloned?
- patio11 12y ago
  I showed him a particular immigration document issued to me that he is not, strictly speaking, allowed to ask for prior to starting a custodial interrogation. He then started second guessing Immigration's decision to offer me a visa. That was good news, since it convinced a colleague he was overstepping his authority. I was released 5 minutes later, with an admonition to lock up my bike properly to avoid the scourge of foreign bike thieves plaguing Ogaki.
hudibras 12y ago
And the other two times?
appleflaxen 12y ago
That seems incredibly scary to me. When something is that insane, what stops it from taking the next step of insanity? I'm sorry that it happened to you (let alone six times), and am glad you made it out ok.

kalleboo 12y ago

One part of it is that the Japanese police won't arrest someone unless they think they can nail them. A lot of murders may be ruled suicide because there's no convenient scapegoat, he-said-she-said rape cases not pursued, etc.

tptacek 12y ago
OK, but that's approximately true of criminal justice in the US. For instance: wiretaps are administratively expensive to pursue, and so police don't request them until they're sure they've got enough evidence to win the warrant. But civilians aren't persuaded by this logic; instead, they see it as evidence that the whole system is tilted in favor of the police. It should be as disquieting (or not disquieting) in Japan as it is in the US.
- hawkice 12y ago
  If you look at the criminal justice system as having some amount of diagnostic sensitivity at each stage in the process (having both false positives and false negatives as all systems do), then our comparatively lower conviction rate means that (assuming end-of-the-day-justice is equal), we should be even more willing to waste people's time developing cases that have no merit (because more of the diagnostic sensitivity is in the trial/conviction stage). So it's not unreasonable to assume it's easier to get a wiretap in the US than it is in Japan -- another explanation is that Japan is substantially more likely to have false negatives (as implied elsewhere -- but the false negative rate for many crimes in the US is quite high, as roughly half of all murders go unsolved). Could also be that the diagnostic sensitivity is extremely bumpy in America or Japan (read: basically one or two steps / people get an extremely high share of the criminal justice discretion).
powertower 12y ago
Should be easy enough to prove or disprove by comparing the number of X-type arrests made to the number of X-type crimes committed. If it's absurdly high, or significantly higher than some comparable country, then you've got a problem - with a 99.9% conviction rate.