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6 dead after stabbing spree in Akihabara

Kirirao

Lost in the maze of life
18 Sep 2004
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Wow. There has been a minimum of 4~5 stabbings a week in past months. Maybe Japan should ban all private ownership of knives. There can hardly be a law and order crackdown with the convictions-to-arrests ratio now nearly 100%. And reasserting socializing practices that affirm respect for authority is a long-term, if ever feasible, proposition.

What may make some difference would be police, prosecutors, the whole criminal justice system getting more proactive with a focus on crime prevention or citizen education as opposed to spending all their time chasing down the bad guy after the fact, which is often bungled in any event.

But today, just thank God no guns were involved or there would be 25-30 people dead.
 
Seems mostly the alienated that commit these killing sprees. I'm wondering if there's a way to further minimize the alienation that people feel, and a way to give them more sense of control over their lives (which is sometimes more perspective than reality anyways).
 
Yes I saw this on the morning news....its so sad ; ;

It makes you wonder what possesses a person to do something like that...I know you dont wake up one day and decide "oh I'm going to ram Akihabara with a truck and stab several people"...
 
Read a few news today on yahoo jp. [assumption] The reason he kills is "when he went to his work place he cannot find his "work cloth"(つなぎ)", so he thought he got fired or something. (which actually he isn't)
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080609-00000011-maiall-soci

Below is what he messaged on a cellphone-based forum.
「作業場行ったらツナギが無かった 辞めろってか」(午前6時17分)▽「やっかい払いができた会社としては万々歳なんだろうな」(午前7時44分)とあり、

youtube <when the suspect got caught moment>

they need to shoot him on the spot IMO.

p/s I have no idea what つなぎ means tho. I think its some kind of wear where mechanics wear, covering all the body with zippers in the front.???
 
I guess that such actions grow slowly, not just in one day. It can even be a matter of years that anger inside a person can pile up like a vulcano.
It is really horrible when one no longer can controle one's anger. Extremely sad.
 
Japan knife killings: Alleged killer Tomohiro Kato's plans published on internet
I wonder if he didn't have the same motivation as Takuma a few years ago, since he did it on the anniversary of Takuma's infamous sick killings....
Police are questioning Tomohiro Kato, 25, a part-time worker in a car parts factory in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka. Officials quoted Kato as telling them that he had warned them of what he planned to do.

The first post that Kato pointed them to was logged at 5:21 a.m. Sunday on a mobile phone website and was titled, "I will kill people in Akihabara."

"I want to crash the vehicle and, if it is rendered useless, then I will use a knife. Goodbye everyone."

Around 8 a.m., Kato collected a two-ton truck from a rental agency near his home and began the 60-mile journey to Tokyo. He detailed his progress into the city over the next four hours, ruling out a delay in his plan as the weather was fine and taking a rest in a motorway service station.

Subsequent messages stated, "Just arrived in Akihabara" and, at 11.45 a.m., he keyed, "Today is 'pedestrian paradise,' isn't it?"

Akihabara is one of Tokyo's busiest shopping districts and attracts thousands of fans of anime, "manga" comics, electronics and gadgets every weekend. On Sundays, many streets are closed to vehicles and turned into pedestrian areas.

In his final chilling message, posted at 12:10, Kato simply stated, "It is time."

Twenty minutes later, Kato drove the lorry into three pedestrians before leaping from the cab and knifing one of the men that he had run over. Witnesses have described Kato as "shrieking" and roaring like an animal as he indiscriminately attacked passers-by with a survival knife.

Backpacks, umbrellas and items of clothing were strewn across the roads, many abandoned by people fleeing Kato's assault.

Kato was struck several times with a baton by a police officer – to little effect – and was eventually subdued when the officer drew his handgun.

The attack has led to a new bout of soul-searching in a country that prides itself on personal safety, but the Japanese government indicated Monday that it will consider tightening restrictions on access to knives with large blades.

The rampage fell on the seventh anniversary of the most notorious knife attack in recent Japanese history, when Mamoru Takuma entered the grounds of Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka and stabbed to death seven boys and one girl between the ages of 6 and 8. A further 13 students and two teachers were also injured in the attack.

Takuma had a history of mental illness and refused to apologise to the families of the victims. Instead, he told the court, "I should have used gasoline so I could have killed more than I did."

He was executed in September 2004, but several killers since Takuma's attack have described him as being "charismatic" and a role model.


The killings are the latest in a series of attacks that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan.

In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree – with two knives – outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and killed eight children. The killer was executed in 2004.
 
Restrictions on long blades? Thats entirely pointless, its not like finding a proper knife is that hard even if its banned.
The only thing they can do is to do something with the stress and frustration.
Its really completely random, you don't know when will someone lose it and frenzy, we're powerless against this phenomenon, its not like organized crime where you can "snuff" out a thing or two and catch the bad guys, this just happens.
My theory is that this happens when people discard fear and forget about self-preservation. Just as Revenant pointed it out they're probably "outcasts", you could say they're folks on the last step of the Downward Spiral.
 
I saw it on the news 2 days ago,
terrible.
Why must these people die?

It sounds cruel, but the answer is "No apparent reason, it just happens." as there's no real ideal or creed behind it I assume, other than hatred towards a social class, certain people or humanity itself.
 
Things like this are just awful anywhere. . . You would think the cop would have had a taser or something. Most people drop like a sack of potatoes when they get hit by those.
 
Theres no taser here I think. The cop hit the guy with a baton a couple of times and he won't stop. He stopped when the cop took out his handgun and say that he will shoot him if he don't drop the knife. Only then he would drop the knife and give up.

A taser or a stun gun would probably be really useful in this situation.
 
Maybe this will help shake up the lack of mental health care...or the stigma that is attached to getting help for emotional or mental problems. I feel sorry for the young man and his parents. I feel bad that they apologized. It wasn't their crime and I wonder how their lives will be. Most certainly I feel much heartfelt sympathy to the innocents who were murdered. It's sad in all directions.
 
I was shopping in Akihabara with my girlfriend the same day it happened :(

We left on the JR line for Tokyo Dome literally 2 minutes before it all kicked off - It was so surreal watching the scenes in the news that night. :(

Co-incidentally, I was in Akihabara on the Thursday too and spotted none other than George Lucas shopping at the Yellow Submarine Hobby Empo - That whole WEEK was surreal...
 
Ever thought about psychoactive prescribed pharmaceuticals? Hm?

The half-dozen other cases involving paradoxical behaviour from someone who kills strangers had this in common, and I expect this is more of the same.

The news doesn't like to print those details as it might not be good for their sponsors.

If you are taking psychoactive pharms then I can not stress strongly enough that you ought to stop immediately. Clinical psychology is a con, and the government loves drugs as it gives them reasons to make new laws to protect us all from the loonies (that they created).

Anyway. Any info on whether this chap was taking meds? I'd say the odds were that he was.
 
Theres no taser here I think. QUOTE]

Really? In that case the cops need to be shown how to stop a person with one hit from the baton. Maybe the cop should have pulled his gun at the first sight of trouble. . .
 
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