Videos of 'freeter' arrest at Aso's residence logs over 140,000 hits on YouTube

Tuesday 04th November, 08:45 AM JST

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Nessie at 05:41 PM JST - 4th November

This wasn't a demonstration - this was nothing more than dirty cops using their positions to interpret the law for their own means!

I imagine the orders are more likely to have come from higher up, given the presence of the suspicious plainclothesman.
yasukuni at 06:15 PM JST - 4th November

First of all, I didn't see any particularly rough violence on the part of the cops. Didn't see any punching, kicking, tasering, shooting. I saw about six cops grab hold of the arms and legs of a guy, and that is probably the way they do things. I would rather that then a baton over the head or a punch in the nose. If it was rougher than that I stand corrected. My understanding is that they advertised what they were going to do on the internet. Then when they turned up the police said they could go there under certain conditions but they wanted them to stop holding up placards and yelling. When the refused after many warnings the bald guy who I assume was the boss (and I admit, I wouldn't want to get on his wrong side..), gave the orders to arrest them. And if this group did succeed in what they planned there WOULD have been hundreds in front of Aso's residence. It's your call on whether that would then constitute a demonstration. But hundreds of people in front of the leader of most countries would probably be considered a demo. Just doesn't look as bad as what you are all saying it was. But, I admit I am getting older, and as I have said before, I have never had run ins with police in Japan the way some of you have. They have always been super polite, helpful, and when I have seen them dealing with belligerent people, they are way too easy on them.
nutsagain at 06:27 PM JST - 4th November

yasukuni: Nope, there was no rough stuff you're quite right. Yep, lose a wallet and they can be of assistance. As for crime? They hate it like the rest of us do. Worse, they shy away from it. Incompetence and over reaction are the problems here. Nothing more nothing less. These idiots are almost always making knee-jerk reactions and need a bollicking at every opportunity. I don't hate them but by god they scare me..
nutsagain at 06:28 PM JST - 4th November

yasukuni: Just try being a 'belligerent foreigner' and see how easy they are.
browny1 at 07:50 PM JST - 4th November

Yeah, Yeah - just doing their job because they could have had a bomb.

Jeez - someone walking down Akihabara might have a bomb.

Let's jump on them all.

Point being - was it really necessary for so many to "JUMP 'EM".

Question them, Detain them - but to make out it was a big scary threat and that we saved the pm is fairy dancing. No two ways.
LFRAgain at 09:55 PM JST - 4th November

Seems these guys were definitely making a political statement, but I doubt very sincerely three young men walking around the PM's house legally constitutes a "rally" of any sort. The cops went considerably over the top here.
yasukuni at 10:10 PM JST - 4th November

nutsagain: I make a point of NOT being a belligerent foreigner. In fact, as a guest in this country, I make a point of being better behaved then the locals. That might make me weak in the eyes of lots of people here, but I think its the right thing to do.
KitsuneYoukai at 04:39 AM JST - 5th November

You have to get a permit to Rally or protest here, WOW!
nutsagain at 06:19 AM JST - 5th November

yasukuni: It is the right thing to do. So is the right to advertise a walk through a neighborhood in a public place without police over-reaction..
bushlover at 06:40 AM JST - 5th November

It's the right thing for police to investigate any potential threat that could come to the PM of a country since it was his residence they were parading in front of. If they refused the police's orders and the police took matters into their own hands then I'd say thank you for finally doing your job correctly. Now if you could include protecting the rest of the population from beligerents then I'd really like you cops. But that isn't going to happen in my lifetime.
CavemanLawyer at 01:59 PM JST - 5th November

Then again if your father or grandfather got rich off slavery, isn't there at least an evens chance that you would have been raised to believe there was nothing wrong with that?

I don't know, I think my tendency to reject faulty programming is innate. These guys might be similar.
CavemanLawyer at 02:01 PM JST - 5th November

since it was his residence they were parading in front of.

They were not in front of his residence. In the video they say they are ten minutes away from it.
CavemanLawyer at 02:03 PM JST - 5th November

You have to get a permit to Rally or protest here, WOW!

Sort of like Soviet Russia. Only its the same in the United States and just about everywhere. Did they tell you something different in school, or just lead you to believe that? Yeah, the more I think back on school the more I think I graduated from the Matrix.
shonanbb at 02:31 PM JST - 7th November

I like the cops here because they all believe that stop signs are Art. Yes, ART! ---Cops pull over kids on bikes just to harass them, and right next to them cars are zooming straight through stop signs. DUH.

I got asked to stop while riding my bike. Foolishly I did, and I spoke Japanese too. I made a mistake. They spent a half hour calling in my bike registration number to see if I stole it. I am in my 50`s. Why the hell would I go around steeling bikes.

They finally told me I have to get that ¥500 insurance sticker in case someone stole my bike. No thanks. I have had 9 bikes in 25 years stolen. One was brand new and just got it home from the store for my wife. Went upstairs to get her and show her and it was gone when we got down to test it. 2 locks.

Cops here are strange. I really do not think they need many of them, except for the ones that carry all those card board boxes around when going to a house to arrest someone. What are in those boxes?
xpompey8 at 05:03 PM JST - 9th November

6.2 billion yen?? I don't think Bill Gates' home or Buckingham Palace is worth that much.