license to ............. take your car away! | Forum

allriot 2009-07-09 21:47:44

So there were several coppers on 343 just by seicomart stopping all foreign looking drivers and asking to see there licenses today. well unfortunately for one carload of visiting tourists they were left by the side of the road.I'm not sure why, but the cops impounded their car! well thanks to my tan they didn't stop me - I mustn't have looked foreign enough. make sure you have a valid license with you when driving, it will save you a lot of trouble!

Pow!!! (2009-07-09 22:00:12)

Let's get a posse together and stop all the Japanese drivers! All you need is a vest and a light stick, they'll pull right over!

Admin (2009-07-09 22:32:22)

(among other things presumably) looks like they were trying to educate the foreign populace about the dangers of driving drunk in the middle of the day: http://lru.jp/54ef via [url=http://twitter.com/_pablo/status/2549888083]@_pablo[/url]

digglar (2009-07-13 09:11:15)

This is wrong.
Stand on the street and hand out flyers -fine.
Post flyers and hold discussions-fine.

Stopping targeted motorists , checking their licence and on occasion visas, without cause other than being gaijin, is harrasment and racial profiling.

A few locals have already contacted David Ardwinkle about this (debito.org) and more should.

digglar (2009-07-13 09:49:43)

So let me enlighten. This is the law:

Police cannot search your person, property or possessions without a warrant. Ask for one: "Reijo ga arimasu ka?"

If they threaten to take you to a police box for questioning, refuse and don't move. Police cannot force you to go anywhere without a formal arrest (taiho).

But be careful. Do not raise your voice. And never ever touch the cop, or they could arrest you for "obstruction of duty." This is why sometimes you see street standoffs between cops and questionees during which nobody moves or talks until somebody gets tired and goes home.

Chishiki (2009-07-13 13:01:35)

Common Japanese true-ism: "There is no racism in Japan"

When confronted with an act of blatant racism:
"That is not racism, that is distinction." (差別vs区別)

I think the reaction from the authorities will be something like "Why on Earth would we pull over Japanese people to hand out English flyers?" (distinction argument) coupled with a complete inability to understand why racial profiling and race-based roadblocks are discriminatory and wrong.

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