[Tokyo]"Lets go and see Prime minister's House!" 3 arrested at the 'reality tour'

5 posts / 0 new
Login or register to post comments
Last post
#1
Top
zami
Offline
Joined: 5-03-08
Oct 29 2008 12:12
[Tokyo]"Lets go and see Prime minister's House!" 3 arrested at the 'reality tour'
Quote:
3 comrades were arrested yesterday 26th Oct in a walking-tour just to see Prime minister's house

This 'reality tour' in which people intend to see the reality of the super-lich housing just by walking around themansion owned by the current prime minister Tarou Asou who is a son of conglomerate family, was a preliminary event for the comming Anti-war and Resistance Festa will be held in 29th & 30th Nov.

Last Sunday 26th, after a small protest gathering in front of the railway station, 50 people took a walking way to the mansion without any signs or banners raising, even any loudspeakers. 3 were arrested allegedly because of their 'violent' or 'brutal' interfering with policemen in the execution of their duties in the every mainstream media last night, however, every reports were based on the 'official' announcement made by the police. True brutality was crimed by the police just after the walking started. Whole situations recorded by 3 or more our still and video cameras.

Show ur face Aso,solidarity for 'reality tour' arrest
http://asoudetekoiq.blog8.fc2.com/

I'll add more context and updates later.

you can see the arrest situation with English subtitle(turn on the caption by clicking button on bottom-right of player)
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=GvEttprIE70

there are few more videos and will make subtitles for these,too.

"ABSOLUTLY FURIOUS for the unlawfu larrest of the 3 at the reality tour!"

#2
Top
zami
Offline
Joined: 5-03-08
Oct 30 2008 21:35

Another video(with sub)
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=4B8DCEE3RsI

This video shows a conversation between Police and 'reality tour' organizer. You can see police stating there are no problem going to see Prime minister house.

news in English
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=6873

#3
Top
zami
Offline
Joined: 5-03-08
Oct 31 2008 09:58

Statement denouncing unlawful arrest
Show your face,Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group

October 26th,"'reality tour2' what is 6200,000,000 Yen like?
Let's go and see the Prime minister Aso's House" was held
as a pre-event to Anti-war and Resistence Festa happeninng at 29th & 30th Nov.
During this event,3 of the tour participant were arrested and are now still hold in policw custody.
We are making it clear that these arrests are unlawful and denouncing Public Safety Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Shibuya police for taking away our comrades.

*Why a 'reality tour'
We did aa reality tour to the'rip off mansion' of a temping angency president and this was another version of it where we decided to go and see the Aso Taro's mansion which is said to costs 6200,000,000 just for the land.There has been some press coverage on Prime minister's money sense
recently,and we wondered what kind of life he has as he is responsible for resolve the poverty and wealth gap.However this tour had to be broken up by police.

*How the unlawful arrest happened
3pm,Chief of security department of Shibuya police said to us "If you wt wasant to go the Prime minister's house by walk,that7s fine" and"you can go and see the house in group of 5to6 people each in turn" when we were gatheing in front of Shibuya train station.We did some anouncement of the tour for 30or40minutes,then about 50 of us started to walk.We held our signs and baloons,and we never used our speaker just as police told us to do.
Only 5 minutes later,when we were reaching Dogen Zaka Street one of our comrades who were holding a sign to show the way to other participant was held his arm and wrestled to the ground by police.Police officers stared to get a full nelson on other 2 participant with the cue saying"go!go!It's KOBO(Short term for "interfering with policemen in the execution of their duties")It's KOBO!" and then took away the 3. On the news report they say police gave us warning many times but there weren't any except when we started walking.The reason for the arrest of the 3 given by police are "breaching public safety ordinance" and "interfering with policemen in the execution of their duties"but it's all clear in recorded film that there were no such act.There are no fact that tour participants conducted violence.

* Custody Visiting blocked and unlawful 10 days detention
Later on same day, we went to Shibuya Police station to denounce te unlawful arrest and demand custody visiting and take necessities (food,cloth,toothbrush etc) to the 3 .But police did not let us the 3. Also even when the soliciter/lawyer arrived at 5pm police didn't let him visit the arrestees and blocked the visiting of the soliciter for 2 hours. I was only after 7pm the soliciter could go iin to visit the arrestees and the necessities were handed to our comrades.Later on 28th,the 3 were decided to be held for another 10 days and custody visiting by non-soliciters were banned.Police didn't only unjustly reppressed us but also openly infringed on arrestee's legal rights by blocking the custody visiting and keeps holding the 3 unlawfully.

We can never condone this outrageousness.Since when we have no right to walk the pavement?
Who made the police guard us in large excess when we were only walking the pavement?
Who told the press false information and trying to put a crime on the innocent 3?
Police always do this,make their move first and make us take the blame.
The police fearing people are going to "see"the prime minister's house, never hesitate to trample on
our comrades' freedom and lives.
Police protects Aso.
Then we will protect ourselves.

We say this with rage!
Release our 3 comaredes immediately!
Apologize for the unlawful arrest!
Taro Aso take the responsiility for your merrymen's misconduct!

October 29th
Show your face,Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group
note) Tokyo Public safety ordinance is unconstitutional as the constitution says in Article 21
"Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed."But even this ordinance it should not give police or other public servant power to ban or cencor any political publications or signs or gatherings other than march or demonstration.

As Arrest Solidarity group,we strongly protest to this repression and demand the immidiate
release of the 3 arrestees. Please support our statement.

If you or your organization decided to support,email to "asouq(at)sanpal.co.jp" as following (or just post a comment)

******************************

*I Support the statement of Show your face,Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group*

Individual
Name ()
title (if you have one and don't mind letting us know. It can be work industry,organization name, or anything you do.)
Place you are living(county,city or other)

Organization
Name of organization()
Where it is based()

*Please give us solidarity messages*

************************************

#4
Top
zami
Offline
Joined: 5-03-08
Nov 2 2008 00:39

http://www42.atwiki.jp/asoudetekoiq/pages/247.html

Quote:
Solidarity with arrested Japanese protesters

The International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international independent labor union, pledges its solidarity with the three Reality Tour activists who were unjustly arrested by plainclothes police as they peacefully walked down a public sidewalk in Tokyo October 26th. The activists were on their way toward the mansion of Prime Minister Tarou Asou, where they planned to lawfully express their freedom of speech and highlight the growing gap between the rich and poor in Japan. Many of the participants in the publicly announced march were precarious workers and members of independent labor unions such as the General Freeters Union.

As independent video footage demonstrates, the demonstrators were not breaking any laws and the police's action was violent, unnecessary, and entirely unprovoked. The ISC condemns that action of the police and demands the immediate release and exoneration of the three arrestees, as well as a full apology from the police accompanied by appropriate compensation. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are universal rights that all people are entitled to.

The ISC urges the government of Japan to take serious steps to ensure that citizens' rights are protected. In light of this incident, along with the widespread abuses of police power that took place during this year's anti-G8 demonstrations in Japan, we recommend that the government make fundamental changes to its police force, including, but not limited to, implementing more civilian oversight and re-training police officers to teach them how to respect the rights of demonstrators.

The ISC gives its full support to the independent unions and grassroots activists who are involved with the Reality Tour. We stand firmly with the arrested protesters and will continue to monitor the situation and take any action necessary to ensure their release and exoneration.

#5
Top
zami
Offline
Joined: 5-03-08
Nov 11 2008 14:39

We are very sorry to be late on passing information

We think all the people who spreaded the word through Web or emails about this unlawful arrest both internationally and domestically,
and who supported the Solidarity group made the 3 coming out.We thank you very much.

On 6th, We had an gathering about this arrest and 250 people came.The three showed themselves to the crowd and we all shared happy moments.

At the gatheing,the arrestee told us about their situation on the day of the arrest and the days inside.
And we all saw the video of the arrest scene which shows the unlawful behavior of police.So we decided to do something to fight back.Also we demanded correction to the press who made the news uncritically from police statements.

The Solidarity group will still work until the 3 are comfirmed to not being charged.

Show your face, Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group

notes;
Police Harrasment and Violence during detention
One of the 3 arrestee faced extra diffiult time inside with police torturous harrasment.
This includes reading out his personal diaries police got from his house ,unsulting him
on his mentall illness(like "You are not really sick,just pretending") and being on welfare("How could you live by state money"), police pushing the desk roughly to him.
We demanded the police to stop these acts in front of the police station, but they denied the
facts and refused to give the name of the responsible chief of the police station.

*We have non-Japanese resource Page
please see
http://www42.atwiki.jp/asoudetekoiq/?page=nonjapanese

*For information on the use of detention cell as legal substitutes for detention centers, or prisons in Japan, please see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daiyo_kangoku