 | Bank Robber Described As Foreign Looking (1/2) A man with a knife-like object robbed a postal savings bank in Nagano Prefecture yesterday, and initial news reports from TBS affiliate SBC reported that the suspect who fled the scene looked "like a foreigner." [外国人らしい] They describe the man as somewhere between 170 and 180 centimeters tall and appeared to be Caucasian. [白人のようだった] Large numbers of police converged on the area to look for the foreign criminal, and schoolchildren were not permitted to walk home without guardians. ——— As of this morning, the suspect was still on the loose, and a newer SBC report dropped the specific racial description and went with a more vague term describing his foreign appearance. [外国人風の男] Police had also seized a car with out-of-prefecture license plates that had been suspiciously parked close to the post office. —-- The reports reminded me of how the press covered on a shooting that took place last year in Sasebo. Most networks jumped on initial reports that the shooter looked like a black man, but it turned out that the criminal was actually a Japanese man. If memory serves me right, he had been wearing some sort of mask during the shooting, which should have made it incredibly difficult for witnesses to ascertain his ethnicity. After seeing the video reports, I searched for more information about the bank robbery and found a Sankei article that revealed a major fact that was absent in SBC's reports: the suspect was wearing a ski mask and a helmet. I don't doubt that some foreigners robs banks. I suppose it's possible that he shouted "money, money," in a foreign accent, or maybe he had a big nose and a brown mustache sticking out of his ski mask, but such details are not present in press reports I've seen. It almost seems irresponsible for the media (and perhaps the police) to emphasize that the criminal was "foreign-looking" when the man was wearing a mask. If the criminal is caught and turns out to be a foreigner, I won't be shocked. But if he is caught and turns out to be Japanese, I won't be shocked either. --- From Japan Probe --- |
 | Bank Robber Described As Foreign Looking (2/2) A man with a knife-like object robbed a postal savings bank in Nagano Prefecture yesterday, and initial news reports from TBS affiliate SBC reported that the suspect who fled the scene looked "like a foreigner." [外国人らしい] They describe the man as somewhere between 170 and 180 centimeters tall and appeared to be Caucasian. [白人のようだった] Large numbers of police converged on the area to look for the foreign criminal, and schoolchildren were not permitted to walk home without guardians. ——— As of this morning, the suspect was still on the loose, and a newer SBC report dropped the specific racial description and went with a more vague term describing his foreign appearance. [外国人風の男] Police had also seized a car with out-of-prefecture license plates that had been suspiciously parked close to the post office. —-- The reports reminded me of how the press covered on a shooting that took place last year in Sasebo. Most networks jumped on initial reports that the shooter looked like a black man, but it turned out that the criminal was actually a Japanese man. If memory serves me right, he had been wearing some sort of mask during the shooting, which should have made it incredibly difficult for witnesses to ascertain his ethnicity. After seeing the video reports, I searched for more information about the bank robbery and found a Sankei article that revealed a major fact that was absent in SBC's reports: the suspect was wearing a ski mask and a helmet. I don't doubt that some foreigners robs banks. I suppose it's possible that he shouted "money, money," in a foreign accent, or maybe he had a big nose and a brown mustache sticking out of his ski mask, but such details are not present in press reports I've seen. It almost seems irresponsible for the media (and perhaps the police) to emphasize that the criminal was "foreign-looking" when the man was wearing a mask. If the criminal is caught and turns out to be a foreigner, I won't be shocked. But if he is caught and turns out to be Japanese, I won't be shocked either. --- From Japan Probe --- |
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