I’ve read, on a number of occasions, posts from foreigners in Japan dissing the Japanese police saying they’ve got nothing better to do than just stand outside the police post giving directions to people finding their way around.
If you watch the documentary where the camera follows the police on their patrols and cases, you’ll see them dealing with a lot of problems that occur on a daily basis, keeping the streets safe. Some of these cases can even be dangerous. Whenever I see offenders shouting at the police, I think that with their power, the police could intimidate and suppress these people easily and do not have to fear them. But what was very impressive was, instead of shouting back and intimidating the enraged offenders, the police remain calm, lower their position and talk to them in a peaceful tone to pacify them, which works more often than not. This is a very different approach than those in the US (presumably).
I’m not certain where the foreigners who call the Japanese police “useless” are from, but I feel lucky that I do not come from where they do. If anything, I think the Japanese police is doing a good job keeping the streets safe. In fact, they are doing it so well, out of our sights, it actually makes people feel that nothing is going on.
Just because you don’t see someone doing something, doesn’t mean they are not doing it. And just because they don’t do things the way you do in your country, doesn’t mean it’s the wrong way.
For Japan, one of the contributing foreigners may be the author of Tokyo on Foot – in it, he talks about the police being quite useless. It’s quite sad to know these people are downplaying the efforts of others. I think the same can be said for SG police. I have friends and family who are in police, and it’s a thankless job because everyone thinks SG is safe, so what are the police doing? When actually there are so many problems and petty crimes that occur on a daily basis that no one sees or know about.
Exactly!
Hmm, Tokyo on Foot author. The name looks French.