Train gropers join filthy hands to gang tackle victims Options

[andrew]

ahhh, I love reading the Japanese weekly's

from: http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0404/0425chifure.html

.....

Train gropers join filthy hands to gang tackle victims


By Ryann Connell
Staff Writer

April 25, 2004

Cops in Osaka, Japan's second city, are grappling with an alarming rise in the number of chifure, a contraction of "chikan friend," the word used to describe groups of men who gang up to molest female train commuters, Shukan Jitsuwa (5/4) says.

"Osaka has always had a large number of train molesters, but since about last year there has been an increase in the number of women fondled by multiple numbers of men," a high-ranking member of the Osaka Prefectural Police force's railroad police tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "Of course, these guys are habitual offenders, but what's most surprising about them is that they work together in cohorts with other guys they don't know and never speak to. They ride the same trains every morning, using eye gestures to designate the women they'll target and then honing in on her all at the same time. Kansai is being plagued by ever more chifure."

Arrests of chifure are on the rise. Earlier this month, two men in their 40s were arrested for breaking an Osaka Prefectural Government ordinance outlawing public nuisance after they were allegedly caught groping an OL in her 20s as they rode a JT Tokaido Line train.

"It was the perfect example of a chifure case," the railway cop says. "Neither of the guys who'd been molesting the same woman had ever met before and they worked at totally different companies. Yet, they'd still formed a fairly formidable groping tag team. The victim had been molested a number of times in the past and came to the railroad police for help, which eventually led to the arrests."

Railroad beat cops say the recent growth in chifure numbers is fairly easy to explain.

"Basically, it seems the idea of several people doing something wrong at the same time appears to diffuse the amount of guilt they feel. It's sorta like more guys are believing in the idea that ignoring a traffic signal is fine if everybody does it together," a cop who tracks down train gropers tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "It's a bit strange, but very few of the guys arrested in chifure cases have ever gone out groping on their own."

Osaka has long been regarded as Japan's chikan capital. The Kansai region city was the first in the country to introduce train carriages restricted only to female passengers in an effort to cut down on the amount of unwanted groping occurring on packed commuter trains.

Late April, as the weather gets warmer, heralds the start of the peak groping period as women shed their winter garb in favor of lighter clothing, a change that apparently sparks excitement among guys who like to cop a feel.

As in most years, this April has been a successful month for chikan-fighters.

"After the March Al-Qaeda attack on the commuter train in Madrid, the National Police Agency sent out a directive to prefectural forces nationwide urging them to take increased vigilance against possible railroad terrorism. Huge numbers of plainclothes police officers were stationed on trains, particularly in the big cities, so even the tiniest hint of groping led to many arrests. The guy who caught peeping tom Kazuhide Uekusa was part of the squad guarding against terrorists and not gropers," the chikan-buster cop tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "I'd say that for a fair while yet, trains are going to produce more arrests of ero-ists than terrorists."

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...

[Hell Toupee]

Speaking of cultural phenomenon....

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Peace
Difference between the male & female l yep... l Scroll I Bad Kitty I Devil Puppet
Meditate

[Sundered Angel]

Chalk another one up to unhealthy and outdated concepts of sexuality.

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Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy