On Thu, 20 May 2004 18:36:27 +0900, "Dave Fossett"
<reply@via.newsgroup> brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:

>Has anyone seen the news footage showing the Japanese police breaking into
>the flat in Utsunomiya early this morning after the two people holed up
>inside shot themselves?
>The initial footage looked suitably impressive with the police apparently
>throwing flash-bang grenades in through the window, but close-up footage
>showed a rather different story. The first grenade hit the balcony railing
>and bounced back down, exploding in the policeman's face. Good job he was
>wearing a visor. His second attempt was even worse, as the thing exploded in
>his hand. I guess this was a "special squad".


If you ever get a chance, read this book: http://tinyurl.com/29789

It's positively fucking surreal. The tone throughout is one of the
highest praise for this ultra-elite unit....yet the stories related
are just largely a collection of incredibly cocked-up operations.

I think my all-time favorite story about the ultra-elite squad is how
they gained entrance to the building where Asahara Shoko was hiding
out.

They made a big show out of having some cops with acetylene
blowtorches out in front of the building cutting through barricades
the Aum nuts had put out. All covered on live television, of course.

Meanwhile, about 5 detectives walk around to the back, go up the
steps, and knock on the back door. Mrs. Asahara answers the door and
lets them in.

They went over the place with a fine-toothed comb and failed to find
Asahara, these ultra-elites did. Then a local uniformed flatfoot, one
of their assigned flunkies on the raid, noticed a vent where no vent
should be. Asahara was found behind it.

Then there was the plane hijacking up in Hokkaido. They practiced how
to storm the plane, and when the time came to actually do it one team
had great difficulty getting in the plane because their ladder was
several feet too short to reach the plane door. One of their first
reactions to this crisis, by the way, was to rush 500 detectives to
Haneda Airport. Not to go anywhere, mind you, just to be there to
interview passengers who get off the plane in case the hijacker
succeeded in having the plane flown to Tokyo. I think the government
had at least 10 official headquarters set up on that case.

And the detectives who were sent out to arrest a guy, minus pistols,
since the top guy thought Mr. Baddy was armed only with a knife. They
*did* wear body armor, though, since the guy might have a gun. (Turns
out he did have a gun, and killed a cop).

More fucked up hostage rescues and bungled cases than you can shake a
stick at, if you just go to your local bookstore and look in the
non-fiction section.






--

Michael Cash

"I am sorry, Mr. Cash, but we are unable to accept your rap sheet in lieu of
a high school transcript."

                                Dr. Howard Sprague
                                Dean of Admissions
                                Mount Pilot College