
The are many pleasant sights and sounds to be found around Japan. One of the most famous is the exaggerated revving of groups of motorbike engines at all hours of the day and night. They’re often referred to as bosozoku which although often translated as “biker gangs” can be misleading as that would imply the use of at least somewhat cool bikes. Bosozoku kids, contrastingly, often ride scooters customized for peak annoyance of all those around, and some of them don’t actually ride their bikes at all.
Despite efforts by law enforcement, this trend continues all over Japan. So it comes as no surprise when people take the law into their own hands. In the case of one Nara resident, “the law” came in the form of an iron bar which he used to break the knee of an allegedly noisy biker.
The Tenri department of the Nara Prefectural Police announced the arrest of a 47-year-old ryokan manager on suspicion of assault. The suspicion seems pretty strong as police quote the man as saying he did it “without question.”
The incident took place on 11 June at around 10:00 am after police had reportedly received numerous complaints of groups of noisy motorbikes being ridden around Tenri City. As the victim, an 18-year-old handyman, was riding in front of the suspect’s ryokan, he was struck in the left knee by a man wielding 1m (3ft) iron bar, receiving a fracture which will require two months to recover from.
Police didn’t give details on the assault, which leaves it up to me to imagine. I’ve watched a couple of episodes of CSI so I think I have this whole crime scene recreation thing down.
I think the manager came out all like Neo in the Matrix and swung the bar low and hard just as the bike was roaring past. Then time stops and the camera swings around to another angle when you suddenly hear the biker scream, “Gwaaaa!” As he’s falling off the bike he’s all like: “Noooo my kneeeee!”
Meanwhile, his bike slides off into a parked oil truck which explodes into a massive fireball. Then, the manager thrusts the bar into the ground, muttering: “Is that loud enough for ya?”
Finally, as some tasty Rage Against the Machine riffs play in the background, he flies away…
…Allegedly.
(RocketNews24 Forensic Profiling Dept.)
When the ryokan manager was questioned by police, he reportedly said: “The racket from the engine noise pissed me off.” It’s pretty understandable to get that upset over such an irritating sound, but let this be a reminder not to deal with your problems by breaking kneecaps with an iron bar. As gratifying as it may seem at the time, it’s liable to end badly for you if you do.
Source:Yahoo! Japan News (Japanese)
Crowbar image: Amazon
Knee X-ray: RocketNews24

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