Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.daionet.gr.jp!news.yamada.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed.icl.net!proxad.net!postnews2.google.com!not-for-mail From: ken_nicolson@hotmail.com (Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson) Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: All-Japan 24 Hour Traffic Cop Show Date: 14 Aug 2004 05:22:31 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 42 Message-ID: <6afefaef.0408140422.e742bb4@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 218.228.106.117 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1092486152 32557 127.0.0.1 (14 Aug 2004 12:22:32 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 12:22:32 +0000 (UTC) Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:16351 ...or some sort of title like that anyway... A couple of nights back I watched a two-hour special on assorted car-related crime, and the only conclusion I came to was that J driving laws, and the police enforcing them, are *extremely* weak. Here's a few examples: Guy, a bit drunk, stopped for breath test, I think, starts getting rowdy, shoving the police guys and generally ending all his sentences with -KORYAA! I would guess the average guy in the UK would also get done for assault, or breach of the peace, or something for the barging of the cops, but no, he was allowed to carry on. They had a speed trap - one guy on a moped (I thought mopeds were speed-limited to 50kph?) spots the cops up ahead with the STOP flags, so dodges down a side street, but after a few minutes chase gets caught and returns to the roadside ticket issuing spot. Result - 1 point and a 7000 yen fine for speeding, nothing for running away. Same speed trap - another larger bike riding down the gutter lane splits the two cops with the STOP flags, who have to jump out of the way. Chase ensues, guy returns to get ticket, once again 1 point and 7000 yen, nothing for nearly running over two cops. More cops catching people using the hard shoulder on the motorway - nick the driver for being unlicenced, but not a word about the two young kids (perhaps 3 to 7 years old) climbing about unrestrained. Another guy nicked for drunk driving (0.20 mg or whatever the units are) - claims to have been drinking non-alcohol beer, police suggest it might have been low-alcohol instead. Even at 0.5% alcohol, I would think it would be pretty much impossible to get accidentally drunk on the stuff, unless you get into drinking a few pints per hour? Most of these sort of police shows I saw in the UK would make at least some attempt to teach the viewer a few points about the law, but as far as I could understand there was virtually no attempt in this show. Oh, and what's with blurring out all the criminals' faces? I thought once someone commits a crime they have no right to privacy, but does the law not back-date in Japan or something? Ken