I was completely underwhelmed by the March 19 article " 'Wanted' video to go up on Web site," which stated that the Japanese police have just posted a video on their Web site relating to the suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker -- a whole year after the murder.
The police obviously spent quite some time doing fancy editing, adding music and even giving us a whole bunch of irrelevant information such as the number of foreigners working in Japan. Meanwhile, the suspect has had a whole year's head-start out of the public eye. Bravo!
I do not imagine that the suspect would still be out there if the victim had been Japanese. And can you imagine how quick the police would have reacted if the suspect were a foreigner. They stop us now if we dare ride our bicycles, for god's sake!
As it was, up to nine of Japan's finest cops went to the suspect's residence to apprehend him, yet they let him outrun them in bare feet! Please stop for a moment to picture just how pathetic that is. Then, with the reactions of a bilious tortoise, the police put images of him out a couple of months later, and now, a full year on, we have the video.
Why so few pictures of him? Have the police not asked the parents of the suspect for more photos? And what are they actually doing to find him -- besides going to video-editing school? Personally, I really do not believe the police are actually looking for this guy at all. Their actions at this point seem to be nothing more than an attempt to show that they are trying.
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