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| Source: Nippon News Network |
Police in the city of Omitama in Ibaraki Prefecture are
searching for a member of an organized crime group who was in a wheelchair when
he successfully managed to escape from police and avoid arrest.
According to police, at a little after 1:00 PM on December 16th, 3 police
officers were preparing to arrest Yushiyuki Yuhara, a 41-year old member of the
organized crime group Matsuba-kai, as he was being discharged from an Omitama
city hospital in Ibaraki Prefecutre. However, before being taken into custody, Yuhara,
who was in a wheelchair, said to the officers “I want to go for a smoke.” The 3
officers then let Yuhara wheel himself over to the nearby smoking area. As
police were waiting, a car approached Yuhara, he stood up, jumped in the car
and it drove away before police were able to stop it. Police are currently still
looking for Yuhara.
In June of 2015 police put out a warrant for Yuhara’s arrest
for alleged possession of stimulant drugs. Earlier this month, on the 6th,
police went to Yuhara’s residence in order to arrest him but he injured his leg
when he jumped to the ground floor from his second floor residence in an
attempt to escape from police. It was due to these injuries that Yuhara was
hospitalized and police postponed his arrest.
for alleged possession of stimulant drugs. Earlier this month, on the 6th,
police went to Yuhara’s residence in order to arrest him but he injured his leg
when he jumped to the ground floor from his second floor residence in an
attempt to escape from police. It was due to these injuries that Yuhara was
hospitalized and police postponed his arrest.
Although on the surface this seems like a case of dumb cops
I have my suspicions that it’s actually a case of the police giving special
treatment to someone with organized crime connections. It doesn’t matter if the
man was in a wheelchair I simply can’t imagine that it is routine to allow
someone with a history of attempting to escape from police to “go for a smoke”
before their arrest. Plus, there is a rather long history of police, for
various reasons, giving special treatment to yakuza. Unfortunately, that is a
very complicated topic but if you would like to know more about it I recommend
reading Jake Adelstein’s excellent book, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on
the Police Beat in Japan.
I have my suspicions that it’s actually a case of the police giving special
treatment to someone with organized crime connections. It doesn’t matter if the
man was in a wheelchair I simply can’t imagine that it is routine to allow
someone with a history of attempting to escape from police to “go for a smoke”
before their arrest. Plus, there is a rather long history of police, for
various reasons, giving special treatment to yakuza. Unfortunately, that is a
very complicated topic but if you would like to know more about it I recommend
reading Jake Adelstein’s excellent book, Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on
the Police Beat in Japan.
