Kanagawa Police Bewildered by Support for Officer Assault

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Kanagawa prefectural police have been forced to hold a press conference to explain why one of their officers was arrested on suspicion of striking a high school student, after the prefectural police headquarters was inundated with complaints from people across the country backing the officer's actions.

The police believe the public have misunderstood why the 33-year-old officer from Yamato Police Station was charged after he allegedly hit a student who had been reprimanded at a train station in Yokohama by station staff Tuesday night.

At the press conference Thursday, the police explained that many of those who contacted them over the handling of the issue were under the misconception that the officer hit the student because he was not following the officer's instructions.

Most of the about 1,000 complaints the police received as of Thursday backed the officer, saying it was unnecessary to arrest the officer despite the attack, and that doing so would make it more difficult for people to reprimand antisocial young people. Only a few of those who contacted the police condemned the officer's action.

Speaking at Thursday's press conference, the head of the inspection office of the Kanagawa prefectural police said: "The student was being warned by station staff about his behavior and he had actually listened to what they said. But despite this, the officer later grabbed the student by the hair and hit him."

"It was as if he was picking a fight instead of just warning him," he added.

The police had already held a press conference about the arrest Wednesday, but held a second one after receiving a complaint from the student's mother, who said the incident had been misreported to the public.

According to the police, the student, 16, on Tuesday pointed from a train a lighter resembling a gun, and pretended to be shooting toward a platform at Futamatagawa Station on the Sotetsu Line in Asahi Ward, Yokohama. A number of people including the train conductor warned the student about his actions, and the student is said to have put the lighter inside his bag, indicating he understood he had done something wrong, the police said.

The officer, who was watching the scene from the next compartment, reportedly saw the student chatting with his friends and felt he had not shown enough contrition for what he had done.

The officer is said to have followed the student after he got off at the next station, and grabbed him by his hair and bag before hitting him in the face and demanding that he open his bag and show the officer the item. The student, who was slightly injured in the attack, is said not to have argued with the officer.

The prefectural police said the officer's actions were inexcusable for someone in his position, and that they were bewildered over public support for his actions.

(Sep. 8, 2007)