Bushido Devil Dog
Expert
...or:
"What Happens When the Nanny State is Allowed to Get Stuck on Full Retard in Stupidville...A Cautionary Tale"
This one's gonna be a long one, folks, so you might wanna get yourself comfortable for a really long ride*..!
*(Which is *exactly* what I said to her..!
)
...
Part 1:
As noted by my Location and as I have mentioned before in various posts, I live in Japan and train in Aikido and Iaido. One of my Iaido buds (Japanese) has his shotgun and rifle license and I am an honorary member of a group he shoots with. These guys are all big fans of the U.S. military and they gather 3 times a year to camp at the West (Mt.) Fuji Shooting Range. This weekend was the first one of the year, and because I left my license in the local Post Office on Friday (I think the clerk forgot to hand it back...) I asked to ride with my friend since I can't drive my own ride w/out my license.
Ironically, I filmed some video of me talking about Japan's guns laws and what it takes to get one's gun license in Japan. This is a project I have had several abortive starts in doing (both making the video, and going through the process myself, more on that later...) because I have not been satisfied
with the footage I've taken so far. A fun time as had by all...until we got to my friend's place. Because the cops are exactly as I will illustrate below, he stopped by his place to put his guns and ammo back in their safes (Ammo & guns must be locked up separately) before dropping me off. With no place to park right by his apartment (common in the major cities) he parking on the street, put his hazards on, and ran his toys upstairs. He came back with his wife in tow and I exchanged pleasantries before they took some of his camping gear up stairs. About 30 seconds after he went upstairs again, a cop car came from behind and pulled over in front of my friend's car.
A cop immediately jumped out and started walking toward me. He walked behind the car as my friend returned, and I gestured to the cop to talk to my friend, not me. Knowing how they are, my friend told him exactly what we were doing, that he was a legally licensed gun owner and that he was putting them up before dropping me off. This was not good enough so the cop asked to be allowed to poke around the car. My friend reluctantly said OK.
Let me head off some of the nonsense about this point before I continue. In theory, the Japanese Police cannot randomly search people without: 1) reasonable suspicion that a crime is in progress (temporarily parking to unload a vehicle is neither a crime nor an infraction); 2) a search warrant or; 3) permission/consent of the person or owner of the property to be searched. That's the theory..., in PRACTICE the cops can and WILL detain you on the spot until you get tired of their BS and give in to their "request" for a "voluntary" search. If it takes hours, so be it....they can pass you off to the next shift, and the courts will NOT suppress evidence even if it was uncovered through an illegal search. My friend has gone through this exact same thing before and knew that it is best to play along to get them on their way. Therefore, there is no point in anyone saying, "Well you shoulda
... (done something that is based on U.S. law, or even what Japanese law technically says subjects can do to protect their illusory 'rights')", because I ain't in Kansas, Toto. 
The above is the reality here/just the way it is, and it is not going to change until a hell of a lot more people demand that the Japanese Police strictly adhere to the letter as well as the spirit of the law in the performance of their duties, so there is no point in saying I/we should have demanded the police get a search warrant, etc.
My friend said OK to make them have a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but things went south when Officer Friendly came to the passenger side door to talk with me...
"What Happens When the Nanny State is Allowed to Get Stuck on Full Retard in Stupidville...A Cautionary Tale"
This one's gonna be a long one, folks, so you might wanna get yourself comfortable for a really long ride*..!
*(Which is *exactly* what I said to her..!
) ...Part 1:
As noted by my Location and as I have mentioned before in various posts, I live in Japan and train in Aikido and Iaido. One of my Iaido buds (Japanese) has his shotgun and rifle license and I am an honorary member of a group he shoots with. These guys are all big fans of the U.S. military and they gather 3 times a year to camp at the West (Mt.) Fuji Shooting Range. This weekend was the first one of the year, and because I left my license in the local Post Office on Friday (I think the clerk forgot to hand it back...) I asked to ride with my friend since I can't drive my own ride w/out my license.
Ironically, I filmed some video of me talking about Japan's guns laws and what it takes to get one's gun license in Japan. This is a project I have had several abortive starts in doing (both making the video, and going through the process myself, more on that later...) because I have not been satisfied
with the footage I've taken so far. A fun time as had by all...until we got to my friend's place. Because the cops are exactly as I will illustrate below, he stopped by his place to put his guns and ammo back in their safes (Ammo & guns must be locked up separately) before dropping me off. With no place to park right by his apartment (common in the major cities) he parking on the street, put his hazards on, and ran his toys upstairs. He came back with his wife in tow and I exchanged pleasantries before they took some of his camping gear up stairs. About 30 seconds after he went upstairs again, a cop car came from behind and pulled over in front of my friend's car. A cop immediately jumped out and started walking toward me. He walked behind the car as my friend returned, and I gestured to the cop to talk to my friend, not me. Knowing how they are, my friend told him exactly what we were doing, that he was a legally licensed gun owner and that he was putting them up before dropping me off. This was not good enough so the cop asked to be allowed to poke around the car. My friend reluctantly said OK.
Let me head off some of the nonsense about this point before I continue. In theory, the Japanese Police cannot randomly search people without: 1) reasonable suspicion that a crime is in progress (temporarily parking to unload a vehicle is neither a crime nor an infraction); 2) a search warrant or; 3) permission/consent of the person or owner of the property to be searched. That's the theory..., in PRACTICE the cops can and WILL detain you on the spot until you get tired of their BS and give in to their "request" for a "voluntary" search. If it takes hours, so be it....they can pass you off to the next shift, and the courts will NOT suppress evidence even if it was uncovered through an illegal search. My friend has gone through this exact same thing before and knew that it is best to play along to get them on their way. Therefore, there is no point in anyone saying, "Well you shoulda
... (done something that is based on U.S. law, or even what Japanese law technically says subjects can do to protect their illusory 'rights')", because I ain't in Kansas, Toto. The above is the reality here/just the way it is, and it is not going to change until a hell of a lot more people demand that the Japanese Police strictly adhere to the letter as well as the spirit of the law in the performance of their duties, so there is no point in saying I/we should have demanded the police get a search warrant, etc. My friend said OK to make them have a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but things went south when Officer Friendly came to the passenger side door to talk with me...
games". Again different country, so different rule of the games/modus operandi. We went back and forth about how "voluntary" a "voluntary" (sic) search is 'til my friend advised that I play along to get it over with. The cop asked me if I had anything dangerous in my pants (yeah baby...my love snake! 
). I played stupid/'Private don't know, Sir' 
so he asked my to empty my pockets. 
. I showed him some of what I had (keys, nail clippers, thermonuclear device, eye drops...my EDC stuff) answered his questions as best I could, and he seemed happy after my show of cooperating. I let him look at some of my stuff, gave him my Gaijin card (AKA my "green card". Foreigners MUST show upon request, no Probable Cause is necessary, looking "foreign" is sufficient PC to get carded), and said we were on our way home from camping. He seemed satisfied, and took my ID with him and had another cop call my info in. He looked around a bit in the back of my friend's car and the back seat and under the mats/center console etc. then shut the door, leaving me in the dark. I used the chance to remove a piece of..artwork from one of the pockets and slid it under a mat that had already been checked...then I placed some of the things I had already showed to him back into my front pocket. He saw my hand in my pocket from the rear passenger side and came around to pay me another visit... 
and had served on Okinawa. He even told them, "As a Marine he/they did more to protect Japan (from China, North Korea, etc.) than even our own Self Defense Forces can do!" This caused one of the younger officers to mention that he used to work around Yokosuka, and liked the U.S. military, so that helped bring down the tension of everyone, and we chatted on more friendly terms. However, around the time that seemed to please the crowd and my gaijin card was handed back, Big Brother decided that I should go to the local police station and 'splain this all over again to a detective, and possibly be strip-searched. 
... 
and a close up (hope he got my good side! 
) and made a copy of my foreigner registration card (AKA the Gaijin card I mentioned before)
)
, NO RIGHT to any truly reliable an effective means of self defense, and where the police can and do operate with virtual impunity to stop, search, question and detain anyone as they see fit with little recourse against them for violating your rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. 
