Okinawa police station attack: 17-year-old boy’s classmate confesses “the depth of the incident

At first, about 20 young people were standing in front of the police station saying, “Hey!　Chief!　Don’t think you can hide it,” was all they shouted. But then more and more young people on motorcycles started gathering, and by the time the date changed, more than 400 people had surrounded the station. One of them threw a rock, and everyone started throwing raw eggs, garbage, etc., and setting off rocket fireworks at the same time. One of them even beat up a police car with an iron bar.

In the middle of the night on January 27th, 400 young people surrounded the Okinawa Police Department and became a mob. It all started with a trouble between a 17-year-old boy A and a police officer of the Okinawa Police Station earlier that day. A classmate of mine who was with A on the day of the incident told me.

I was hanging out with four or five people in front of a convenience store in Okinawa City when we saw a group of bikers being chased by the police on the main street in front of us. It was late at night, so we thought, ‘If the police find us, we’ll be arrested,’ so we broke up. As we were running away in pieces, I received a call from one of my friends saying, “A had an accident.

When I rushed to A, an ambulance had already arrived and he was bleeding from his right eye. After being rushed to the emergency room, I learned that A said, ‘The police hit me with a baton. The next day, however, the Okinawa Prefectural Police announced that he had ‘suffered serious injuries of a ruptured right eye and a fracture of the fundus of the eye in a fender bender. I was angry that the police had covered up the assault, so I asked my friends and seniors in my hometown to spread the word on social media.

A reportedly called 119 himself and called an ambulance. A local newspaper reporter said.

The local newspaper reporter said, “A called 119 and said, ‘I had an accident. He wanted the ambulance to arrive as soon as possible. If he told the policeman that he had been hit with a baton, he would have been questioned and gotten into trouble, so he confided in the ambulance that he had actually been hit with a baton. At first, the Okinawa Prefectural Police tried to treat the incident as an accident, but with the spread of the story on social media and the riots that broke out, the winds changed. Currently, the police officer in question has admitted that he was carrying a baton and that he had contact with A, but the truth is still unclear as an internal investigation is underway.

According to the classmate mentioned above, “A is a boy who loves motorcycles, who is liked by everyone.

A was riding a scooter that day. He was a better driver than anyone else, and the road where he was assaulted was one he had ridden many times. Even though he was afraid of being arrested, he wasn’t driving very fast. There was no way I was going to cause an accident. The explanation that he was hit by a police officer with a baton upon encountering him is more plausible.

This magazine checked with the Okinawa police station to find out if there was any assault, but they were curt, saying, “We are conducting an internal investigation and are not accepting any interviews.

Yasuhei Ogawa, a crime journalist and former detective for the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, interviewed A’s mother.

The mother told the police that she did not know the truth. His mother wants the police to tell her the truth. The police officer in question seems to be explaining that he made contact with A when he asked him to stop, but he should have used a lighted stop stick instead of a baton; it is reported that he jumped in front of A and asked him to stop, but that would not have slowed him down. If the baton was used to injure him, the baton would have produced a blood reaction. The Okinawa Prefectural Police should release the status of their investigation.”

The rioting and destruction of property by the youths is not something that should be tolerated. But wasn’t it the cover-up of the facts that caused it?　The Okinawa Prefectural Police has a responsibility to clarify the facts of what happened with A.

From “FRIDAY” February 18, 2022 issue