Assault and street violence in Tokyo

[Emoni]

Hello all, I'm mostly wondering if anyone has run into a similar situation or knows the actual laws/examples of how assault is usually handled in Japan.

Last night, an a-hole of a 50 year old business man shoved down a young Japanese lady, then continued to walk forward, shoving another crowd of a several guys. The lady was crying and had hit the ground rather hard. The second group was fine, and probably not shoved as hard because they were guys. I grabbed the guy and took him to the police koban (JR. Iidabashi) nearby that the lady also went to.

The policeman there, in my opinion did a crap job. I had witnessed what happened, but he didn't even ask me for over ten minutes what I had saw. He was simply believing the guy's claim that it was "an accident" and the cop was claiming that all he could do is just ask that they both be more careful next time. The woman had done nothing wrong. I eventually spoke up and explained what happened, and pointed out that this was intentional, and if he allowed this, he was saying that I or anyone else could intentionally use violence on anyone and call it an accident. After that he seemed to take it a tad more seriously, but even as the guy who had been pushing spoke and consistently was slipping over and contradicting himself, ultimately admitting what he had done with intention, the cop took no notes and didn't follow up.

I had to leave for the last train and gave the victim, as well as the cop, my meishi (business card). The cap didn't even seem to be interested in information till I offered it. Oddly enough, even the guy who had pushed the lady wanted my card so I exchanged cards with him as well. The cop and others, were still talking as I left; however, it seemed that "Mr. Pushy" was now offering to pay for possible damage maybe to their computer.

It was a really pathetic display of police work in my opinion. It leads me to these questions for those who might be in the know.

1: What are the assault laws and laws against violent crimes like this?

2: How are these situations usually handled? This seems to have been handled very unprofessionally by the cop in this circumstance.

3: I'm tempted to check into writing a complaint to the police department about this, at least expressing my concerns about how I saw this was handled (from what I saw). Suddenly shoving women to the ground violently for no reason and getting this sort of response from the cop, not even viewing it as a crime, was a disgusting sight. Especially when he stated to the cop, that he felt she was in his way, and that he used his arms to do it intentionally.

Thoughts?

Thanks for any knowledgeable input on this.

(BTW: 110 works for keitai's right?)

 

[Glenski]

I take it your Japanese language ability is darned near impeccable. Is it? If not, you might have misunderstood valuable parts of the whole conversation. Be careful about reporting anything if you are unsure about anything that was spoken.

I'm going to guess you speak it well. Not much you can do, unfortunately. Foreigners are often disbelieved or ignored by the police here when they make claims about crimes. If the woman in question is not willing to get involved (my feeling), then all you can do is write that complaint letter. I hope you have the officer's badge number.

By the way, regarding this sentence in your post:
I had to leave for the last train and gave the victim, the cop who didn't seem like he was going to take down my information till I offered it, (even the guy who had pushed the lady wanted my card so I exchanged cards with him as well) they were still talking but it seemed he was now only offering to pay for possible damage maybe to their computer.
You get a failing mark for clarity and grammar from my writing class. Geez! I hope your complaint letter is far better.

 

[Emoni]

Whoa there, you are responding with the attitude of someone who just had their puppy shot out of a potato gun into WWI prop engine. What gives?! This is a bit below your usual posts Glenski, and it feels like you were more interested in negative statements rather than mentioning information. This is effectively about a case of a woman being shoved down hard into the concrete by a guy who pretty much got away with assault, and I consider that a rather lousy incident. Certainly not up there on the "world's worst" but someone getting only a slap on the wrist for that behavior isn't something to ignore.

1: Regarding the disaster grammar block. I've barely caught a few hours of sleep the last few days as I have been working non-stop helping prepare for a conference. I agree that paragraph didn't make sense at all, but there are other ways to clarify. I did fix that paragraph just now. I'm still dead tired so I expect there may a few other slip-ups, but if so... I'll fix it later.

2: My Japanese is NOT perfect, but I understood most of what was being said. The cop's behavior, as well as professionalism was seriously lacking in this case. I posted this for the PURPOSE of finding out the technicalities and process for such incidents, as I was very disappointed how this was handled. I hope you're not jumping on me for posting about not knowing every detail in a post seeking information because I don't know every detail.

3: Considering I was the guy who brought this guy IN to the Koban, witnessed the whole event, and was being thanked by the woman, the fact that the cop barely paid attention to what I had to say was mind-boggling.

Yes, I took down the cop's name, Koban location, and exact time of incident, etc.

 

[Glenski]

All I really said was that you probably have very little you can do. Did you read that or ignore it?

You are to be applauded for taking the initiative; most people would not bother,certainly not Japanese.

I have nothing to say about your language ability here. I was only checking that you understood enough. You did. Cool. That was not "negative" on my part, was it?

Kudos again. Write your letter, if you feel you must. It will not hurt, but IMO it will accomplish nothing. I hope I am wrong. Please keep us posted.