Via Fark, the Associated Press reports:

A man tried to use a stun gun to fend off a carjacker and ended up being shot five times.

...While trying to reach for his money, the man also pulled out his stun gun and shocked the carjacker. But the carjacker reacted by shooting the man at least five times, [Atlanta police Sgt. Lisa] Keyes said.

...Keyes stressed the importance of simply giving up the vehicle when confronted by a carjacker.

Bzzt, wrong. The correct answer was: "Quit messing around with Tasers and get a real gun."

Via Fark, ConsumerAffairs.com has named the so-called "Grandparents Scam" one of the top 10 scams of the year. It works like this:

An elderly person is targeted by the scammer who calls and says something like, "It's me, grandpa." The elderly person will respond, thinking it's one of their grandchildren.

The scammer then tells a tale of woe, saying they are in trouble and need some money, "and please don't tell mom." The grandparent obligingly sends a few hundred dollars, thinking they're helping a grandchild. Investigators say it works more than you might think.

It certainly works a lot in Japan, where it's called the "Ore ore" ("It's me!) scam, and is one of the most common cons.

I previously said that I didn't think the "ore ore" scam would work in America (or, at least, in New York), where people are, in theory, more cynical and less trusting. But apparently it does.

From the Associated Press, this is really unbelievable:

KARACHI, Pakistan Dec 11, 2006 (AP) — More than 20,000 supporters of an Islamic alliance rallied Sunday, demanding the government withdraw changes to a controversial rape statute that they say go against Islam.

The protesters condemned President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, many chanting "Death to Musharraf." One carried a sign reading, "No to conspiracy for indecency and obscenity."

Musharraf last week signed into law some amendments to the Hudood Ordinance, a 1979 law against rape that human rights activists said punished rape victims while providing legal safeguards for their attackers.

The ordinance required a rape victim to produce four witnesses in court to prove her assault claim. Under the new amendment, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court where the four-witness rule does not apply or under the Islamic ordinance.

So here you have 20,000 Muslims protesting, on religious grounds, their country's decision to crack down on rapists. Sick. But then, I guess they're all "extremists", so it's okay.

Via Fark, the Evening Standard reports on another Brit who probably wishes he were allowed to carry a gun.

Via Apostropher, the San Francisco Chronicle reports on an episode of road rage with a fitting outcome:

At about 9:15 a.m., Richard Brooks, 50, whom authorities said had been drinking, was driving eastbound on Highway 4 when he saw a group of motorcycle riders, many of whom were wearing Harley-Davidson attire, including leather and skull caps, California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Yox said.

For some reason, Brooks became enraged, waved a pool cue at them and swerved toward the bikers, who split into two groups to try to get away, Yox said.

As they approached Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg, Brooks aimed his car at two bikers who had pulled off the highway, Yox said.

Brooks got out of his car with the pool cue, but before he could do anything, he was knocked down by his own car, which had been left in reverse gear, Yox said.

Oh, and there's more: The hit from his own car sent Brooks tumbling into oncoming traffic — but the same bikers he had been trying to kill just moments before pulled him to safety.

Burundi, the current title-holder for Worst Place on Earth to Steal a Motorcycle, has some competition. The Jakarta Post reports:

A man was beaten to death by a mob after being caught attempting to steal a motorcycle at Tebet market in South Jakarta.

The man, identified as Herman, and his accomplice, Cikula, were trying to take a parked motorcycle when they were spotted by a parking attendant.

Herman attempted to escape the crowd that attacked him, stabbing one man with a knife, but was killed by the mob.

Maybe the motorcycle belonged to one of these guys.

No, not David Letterman. Read on.

Greg from Generic Confusion posted about an unusual crime spree in Greencastle, Indiana. Namely, it seems that someone has been stealing the R's off every sign in town. The Associated Press reports:

A consonant-loving thief has police and business owners baffled after dozens of Rs were stolen from signs throughout the community.

"We've lost our Rs. And we want them back," said Randall Jones, president of Headley Hardware.

I guess that's now Headly Ha dwa e. But anyway, it's clear who's behind this dastardly scheme — the sinister Spellbinder, arch-enemy of Letterman, a superhero from the old Electric Company TV show on PBS. Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a Youtube video of Spellbinder in action:


Incidentally, this is also another reason not to ride the subway.

The Mainichi Shimbun reports:

A 40-year-old biker who rode recklessly with a group of youths to revive the thrill of his younger days has been arrested, police said.

The motorcyclist, Norihiro Nakagawa, was arrested on suspicion of violating the Road Traffic Law through dangerous group activities. He is the oldest person in Gunma Prefecture to be arrested over the same allegations

Nakagawa belongs to a group of riders made up of former motorcycle gang members, and when police questioned him he reportedly said he couldn't forget his days as a biker.

"I couldn't forget the thrill of the past," police quoted Nakagawa as saying. "I had been thinking that I still wanted to ride again if I got the chance. I did something stupid."

Japan's bosozoku, or teenage motorcycle hooligans, are a major cause of anti-motorcycle prejudice and regulations. At age 40, Nakagawa should be able to afford some track days if ordinary riding isn't thrilling enough for him.

FOLLOW-UP:
Doesn't this story sound like a bad comedy? "Former hooligan gets midlife crisis, rejoins his old gang." I see Will Ferrell or Tim Allen in the lead role. Any screenwriters out there, call my agent.

Reuters reports:

Japanese prosecutors are expected to arrest the country's best-known activist shareholder, fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami, as early as on Monday on suspicion of insider trading in a deal involving scandal-hit Internet firm Livedoor Co., Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

...Murakami, a former official at Japan's trade ministry, has gained fame as a pioneer of Japanese shareholder activism. The aggressive pressure he puts on target companies to change the way they do business has caused waves in business circles.

I've written about the targeting of Livedoor's Takefumi Horie here. Murakami, like Horie, was shaking up the Japanese business world by introducing Western tactics.

I find it hard to believe that out of all the many possible instances of insider trading in Japan, the only two cases prosecutors could find just happened to involve businessmen known as mavericks who were challenging the old order. Insider trading is wrong, but so is selective enforcement of the law to punish people for being uppity.

We motorcycle riders hear plenty of stories about irresponsible and even homicidal car drivers. But, via Fark, this guy takes the cake. The Myrtle Beach, North Carolina Sun News reports:

An N.C. man was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after a car plowed into a motorcyclist early Sunday and dragged his bike for several miles down U.S. 17 Business.

Larry Jacobs, of Sugar Grove, N.C., was arrested in Surfside Beach after witnesses saw a car hit 27-year-old Makino Robinson from behind, then continue driving at least four miles with the motorcycle pinned beneath his car.

Amazingly, Robinson — who made it back safely from military service in Iraq last year — rolled free of the collision and is OK.

I hope Jacobs turns out to have been on drugs or in some other way not functioning normally at the time he hit Robinson. I don't want to believe that people are actually driving around trying to intentionally kill bikers with their cars.

One of the risks of riding a motorcycle is that unlike, driving a car, there's no steel cage protecting you from other vehicles. Or bullets. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

A 35-year-old woman was shot while riding a motorcycle on the West Side early Sunday morning.

...The woman was riding a motorcycle when a male offender began firing, the report said. She suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Usually, I think there's something the rider could have done to avoid a particular injury. But I'm prepared to let this woman off the hook.

The Mainichi Shimbun reports:

A man who was apparently a member of a pickpocket gang blasted two police officers with teargas spray at a JR Yamanote Line station on Thursday morning, leaving them and other passengers with injuries.

Two police officers and about 20 passengers on a platform at Nishi-Nippori Station in Tokyo's Arakawa-ku suffered sore eyes and throats. Fourteen of them, including the two officers, were taken to hospital.

You know, if you need tear gas to make your getaway, maybe picking pockets isn't for you.

FOLLOW-UP:
The Japan Times has more on the incident. Apparently, four men were involved in the suspected gang; police caught the gas sprayer, Chim Byong Gun, who was also packing a knife with an 8-inch blade. A South Korean national who was previously imprisoned in Japan on robbery and other charges, Chim was deported last year but soon re-entered the country illegally.

My thoughts:

(1) I wonder how the police can be so sure these guys were a "pickpocket gang". Do pickpockets normally carry huge knives and noxious gas cannisters?

(2) Thanks a lot, Chim. You just provided enough fuel to keep Japan's fears of a "foreign crime wave" burning for another year or so. Just what we need with new fingerprinting and ID card laws on the horizon.

I blogged previously about how Takafumi Horie, the former CEO of Japanese Internet company Livedoor, was refusing to confess to the various accounting fraud charges prosecutors brought against him.

In that post, I argued that Japan's criminal justice system, based as it is upon obtaining confessions instead of proving accusations, encourages police to be harsher with suspects and defendants than those of us raised on a steady diet of "Law and Order" spinoffs have come to expect. For example, the police can detain a suspect for over 20 days without even charging him with a crime; after the prosecutor brings charges, they can hold him some more. In Horie's case, he's been sitting in a cold, tiny jail cell since late January. And despite the fact that he's neither violent nor an obvious flight risk, a Japanese judge recently refused to let him be released on bail.

Well, surprise. After almost two months in a tiny jail cell, Horie has apparently started to confess to some of the crimes he's charged with. The Japan Times reports:

Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie has owned up to part of the accounting fraud charges against him and the Internet and financial services firm for the first time since his January arrest, according to prosecution sources.

Horie recently admitted having padded Livedoor's sales figures in 2004 by about 1.58 billion yen, which was booked as profit from a false deal with a company Livedoor was then in talks with over a possible acquisition, the sources alleged.

However, Horie continues to deny that Livedoor counted as sales the profits it gained from selling stocks issued to buy other companies through share-swaps — an action that would constitute a violation of the Securities and Exchange Law.

If prosecutors have such a strong case against Horie, they should be able to prove it in court without pressuring a confession out of him. If not, they should let him go.

The Associated Press reports that Tokyo's high court has upheld the death sentence of Tomomitsu Niimi, one of the Aum Shinrikyo cult members who perpetrated the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. With his appeal rejected, it looks like Niimi will now linger on Japan's death row until the powers that be get around to executing him.

You don't want to be on death row anywhere, but you really, really don't want to be on death row in Japan. Via Fark, the Baltimore Sun reports:

They are prohibited from talking to other prisoners. Their contact with the outside world is limited to infrequent, supervised visits from family or their lawyers. They are not allowed hobbies or television, and may own only three books, though more can be borrowed with the warden's permission as long as the content is not deemed to preach "subversion of authority." Exercise is limited to two short sessions a week outside their cells, four solid walls and one small window. Some rely on sleeping pills, bought with money provided by their families, to survive the isolation.

Many prisoners live in this purgatory for more than two decades while appeals against their sentences churn through Japan's notoriously sluggish legal system. But once appeals are exhausted, executions will come without notice, on the whim and with the stamp of the justice minister.

...The gag extends to a clampdown on public information from death row. The executed prisoner's name is never released, becoming known only if the family chooses. There are no Stanley Tookie Williams-style media frenzies in Japan, no debates about the sincerity of a prisoner's remorse or the merits of redemption. You don't see candlelight vigils outside Japanese prisons on the night of scheduled executions because only the authorities know one is coming.

Niimi may start wishing he still had a few capsules of sarin handy to finish himself off. I imagine that after long enough in what is essentially solitary confinement, death might actually come as a welcome relief.

FOLLOW-UP:
It turns out that Niimi isn't done for quite yet; the Mainichi Shimbun now reports that he's appealing the decision to reject his previous appeal. However, it seems unlikely to me that he'll be any more successful this time than he was in the past.

Comments on This blog's a-rockin', February 3rd, 2006:

Tokyo Tom:
Japanese have tough earthquake codes for new buildings...

GaijinBiker:
Of course, TT, if you've followed the Aneha scandal at all, you know that those tough codes were completely ignored in several cases that we know of. There's no telling how many similarly unscrupulous builders never got caught...

The Japan Times, March 8th, 2006:

Five Sapporo condominium complexes have been confirmed to have been built with faked earthquake-resistance data, the land ministry said Tuesday, and the city is investigating 28 more buildings the architect who compiled the data has said are not sufficiently quake-proof.

...These are the first cases of falsification that do not involve architect Hidetsugu Aneha or Kimura Construction Co., involved in the construction of dozens of buildings with substandard quake-proofing nationwide, according to the ministry.

The suspected falsifications of earthquake resistance data I blogged about here involved buildings that, although not designed by Aneha, were built by Kimura Construction. This new case, however, suggests that the problem of faked data may extend far beyond any one person or company.

Via LGF, I can barely bring myself to post about this sick, sick story. The European Jewish Press reports:

French police launched a wide-range investigation on Tuesday after a twenty three-year-old Jewish man was kidnapped and murdered.

...Ilan Halimi was found critically wounded, naked and hand-cuffed along a railway track in the suburb of Saint Genevieve des Bois, 30 kilometres south of Paris on Monday, three weeks after he was kidnapped by a gang in Paris.

The victim, who was burnt and cut on 80 percent of his body, died of his wounds as he was taken to hospital.

And Haaretz reports:

Hundreds of SWAT officers raided apartments in Bagneux and arrested 12 people. Another suspect was arrested in Belgium.

"They acted with indescribable cruelty," the judiciary police chief leading the investigation said. "They kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut him and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight."

...A police source said the gang is a group of childhood friends who grew up in Bagneux, a suburb south of Paris. The gang includes Muslims of North African descent and is headed by Youssef Fofana, who has escaped police capture so far.

Haaretz reports that the gang demanded a ransom from Halimi's family, but then killed him anyway after the family agreed to pay. According to Rafi Halimi, Ilan's uncle, "When we said we didn't have 500,000 euros to give them they told us to go to the synagogue and get it. They also recited verses from the Koran."

Making this story even worse, if that's possible, is that French authorities are denying there is any sign that anti-Semitism may have been a motive in the killing.

FOLLOW-UP:
Via LGF, Reuters reports that the French government is now investigating the suspects for "murder linked to the victim's religion."

EastSouthWestNorth shares a Xinhua story on how Beijing police combined surveilance camera footage with some old-fashioned detective work to nab a hit-and-run driver who killed a motorcyclist with his shiny-new red BMW.

What's the term for a Chinese yuppie, anyway? Chuppie?

FOLLOW-UP:
Yes, it is!

It looks like Japan's plan to fingerprint all foreigners entering the country is moving forward. The Mainichi Shimbun reports:

Japan plans to fingerprint foreigners aged 16 or over when they enter the country as an anti-terrorism measure, details of a revised immigration bill obtained by the Mainichi have shown.

...In addition to fingerprinting, the Ministry of Justice is also considering photographing visitors. Fingerprints and other data will be stored on computers, and compared with those of people who have been deported in the past. Visitors posing as others will be prevented from re-entering the country. If the data matches that held by law enforcement authorities, it will also be used in criminal investigations.

Back when I blogged about this proposal last June, it was described as a "crime prevention measure". Now it's an "anti-terrorism measure". Yet it's hard to see how fingerprinting foreigners will do much to protect Japan from either terrorist attacks or from ordinary crime. After all, the vast majority of crimes in Japan are committed by the Japanese themselves. And the only terrorist attack in Japan's recent history, the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, was carried out by Japanese people. Rather, the fingerprinting and possible photographing, combined with the integrated-circuit chip ID cards I discussed in that earlier post (and also here), seems designed to help the government build up vast stores of data on all foreigners, for who knows what nefarious purposes.

But regardless of what may happen down the road, the new fingerprinting requirement is likely to have at least one immediate and specific negative impact on foreign residents: It may mean that multiple re-entry permit holders will no longer be allowed to sail through the Japanese Passports line at Narita airport. I'm guessing we'll have to languish on the much-longer Foreign Passports line each time we re-enter the country, waiting for a whole planeload of tourists to have their prints taken.

Now that's nasty.

Comments on This blog's a-rockin', February 3rd, 2006:

Tokyo Tom:
Japanese have tough earthquake codes for new buildings...

GaijinBiker:
Of course, TT, if you've followed the Aneha scandal at all, you know that those tough codes were completely ignored in several cases that we know of. There's no telling how many similarly unscrupulous builders never got caught...

The Mainichi Shimbun, February 8th, 2006:

An architectural office in Fukuoka Prefecture has come under suspicion of falsifying structural data for three condominium blocks, the local government said Wednesday.

The Fukuoka Municipal Government is investigating three condominium blocks designed by architectural firm "Something," based in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, on suspicion that the buildings' earthquake resistance data was falsified.

It is the first time that a party other than disgraced former architect Hidetsugu Aneha has come under suspicion for falsifying earthquake-resistance data.

I previously blogged about Japanese Internet entrepreneur Takefumi Horie, discussing how his brash, aggressive tactics riled Japan's traditional business elite while winning admiration from many in the younger generation.

Well, in Japan it's often said the the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. And in one of those stories (like the Aneha construction scandal) that I never really got around to blogging about, Horie has been getting hammered hard since mid-January, when Japanese prosecutors raided the offices of his company, Livedoor, looking for evidence of securities law violations.

Horie was eventually arrested on an assortment of charges, including using misleading information to pump up the share price of a Livedoor subsidiary and falsifying some accounts.

In the past, Horie had been criticized for unconventional business tactics like acquiring shares in a takeover target in after-hours trading, or for using aggressive stock splits to "drive up" Livedoor's share price (a rather silly accusation, as I discussed here.) But none of that was illegal. This time, the powers that be finally found a crime to pin on him. Livedoor's stock has plunged 85% since the raid, and Horie, who previously lived in a luxury apartment in central Tokyo, has been sitting in a tiny jail cell. (And in perhaps the ultimate indignity, he hasn't been able to update his blog since January 22.)

Horie is neither a dangerous criminal nor an obvious flight risk, so you may be wondering why he needs to be confined under harsh conditions while awaiting a possible trial. Well, as the Economist explains, the Japanese criminal justice system works quite differently from what Americans have come to expect after years of Law and Order reruns:

Because [the Japanese police] do not like to be proved wrong, and because prosecutors press ahead only with cases that are built upon confessions, both groups take full advantage of their sweeping powers to persuade suspects to talk. They can hold suspects for up to 23 days, for example, without charging them. Research from the United States suggests that most suspects cannot hold out for anywhere near that long without offering a confession, genuine or not.

In Japan, moreover, suspects enjoy only limited access to their defence lawyers during this long confinement. Although the constitution grants defendants a right to counsel, that right means little in practice until a formal indictment occurs. The police routinely restrict access to defence lawyers during the holding period, while taking the opportunity to question suspects frequently.

These tactics work. Once a case goes to trial, it's as good as over: Japanese prosecutors have a conviction rate above 99%.

So the cops want Horie to confess. The only problem is, as the Yomiuri Shimbun reports, he's refusing to play along:

As the period of detention for former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie was extended by 10 days Friday, he continued to deny allegations that he broke the Securities and Exchange Law.

A prosecution source said: "His denial is within the scope of our assumption. It's possible to prove his conspiracy with other executives [to break the law]."

But investigation sources said the prosecutors seemed to be fighting a hard battle with Horie, 33, in the interrogation room.

Of course. By not confessing — by stubbornly maintaining his innocence — Horie is refusing to play his part in an age-old ritual. As the accused, Horie is expected to admit his guilt and apologize; only then can he be accepted, humbled and chastened, back into society. But just as Horie the businessman took the Western approach of cleverly exploiting the rules to their fullest possible extent, Horie the suspect is taking the Western approach of actually forcing the prosecution to prove its case. I tell ya, the guy has some nerve.

I don't know whether Horie is guilty. But I have a sneaking suspicion that prosecutors could dig up evidence of wrongdoing by a great many, if not most, Japanese companies if they were so inclined. And I know that a civilized justice system cannot be built on coerced confessions.