crime

Three teens arrested for setting homeless man's shack on fire

22 Comments

Police arrested three 15-year-old high school students Friday on suspicion of arson after they allegedly set fire to a homeless man's riverside shack in Kurume City. The 51-year-old homeless man was not there at the time, police said.

According to police, the homeless man had previously cautioned the boys after they began playing with fireworks. One of the boys was quoted by police as saying: "He pissed us off, so we did it to get even."

Another homeless man living in a shack next to the one that was burned witnessed the incident, and called police from a nearby convenience store. Fifteen minutes later, officers discovered one of the boys riding his bicycle about 1.5 kilometers away from the fire. The other two were subsequently arrested.

© News reports

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22 Comments
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most of the kids here are messed up... these are the people who will run the country in the future!

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Punks. Getting mad at the guy for telling them to be more careful? These guys need to be hit more often by their own parents.

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Their parents don't hit them, they give them whatever they want. Japanese parents here raise their kids (boy's) to be selfish little brats, and if they think that attitude does not carry over into high school, they are greatly mistaken.

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Noypikantoku - It's not just the kids in Japan that are messed up. A couple of years ago,some teenagers lit a homeless man on fire in the States.

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what spoiled kids they are.... doing everything on a whim.

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seriously, there are so many better reasons to try and get homeless people off the rivers. Namely, so I dont have to look at them as I try to enjoy a leisurely stroll on the paid for by my taxes neighborhood river road.

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He pissed us off, so we did it to get even.

ahh Japan the land of revengeeeee!

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i think we should send some japanese homeless to my native australia to teach our homeless how to live and have some respect for themselves and others.

japanese homeless have more pride and class than most australians. they have my respect and i have no problem seeing them on my walks along the river.

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So they burned the home of the homeless. What does homeless mean anyway?

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They must have been scanning YouTube and come across the homeless bashings and fire setting in the US.

Yes, Japan is the land of revenge, but you can be assured it will come in the form of a cowardly attack on the defenseless or from behind.
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These young punks should be tried as adults and tossed into the clink. This kind of bs happens all the time in Japan nowadays. 7 years ago, 3 "minors" similarly beat to death with metal bats a 69 year-old man, Mr. Seitaro Komode, who peacefully lived under the Sobu Line train track near my home. He was a kind old man who never hurt anyone. When asked why they killed him at 2 am, these delinquents answered, " We were stressed and beating the old guy made us feel better."

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In other countries (happend in America, Germany etc.) kids set homeless on fire. It seems to be at least still a kind of borderline beyond Japan kiddos in what kind of criminal act they are doing. But I'm afraid this will change as well within short time...

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I saw this on the Japanese news last night, and the first thing I thought was that they are students from the school where I teach (since it was reported that it was a private school). There are only 4 private schools in Kurumre, so I think this. I will find out on Monday at the teachers' meeting, but I'm just glad that the name of my school hasn't come out in the news (yet). But I can say that we have some bad kids at our school (bosozoku and yakuza). The teachers can only do so much, especially during summer vacation, so please don't direct negative comment toward the school.

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I've been away from my country for a while, and I'm not American but Japanese youth are different. I can't put my finger on how, they just are.

I mean drugs are more common in my country, as is theft and bar brawls are not unheard of, so to say Japan is more dangerous is absurd.

But it is different. I live in Kawasaki and you see this shit all the time. I don't mean that it's bad, it's just has no point. Mugging a guy for cash I understand, of course I don't support. But burning a homeless guys shack because he told you off.

It's not that these kids are bad, it's that they're bad for a reason I don't understand. And that makes me worried.

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These 3 teens have some real problems, but just because these 3 loosers have problems, you can not say all kids in Japan are messed up, but these 3 sure are. Just last week or so a 6th grader gave his father heart massage CPR until the paramedics arrived! A real young hero! So we can not say all kids are bad, plenty of good kids out there too!

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japanese homeless have more pride and class than most australians. they have my respect and i have no problem seeing them on my walks along the river.

Bobcatfish, I've just arrived back in the land of the slow and overfed after five weeks saying with various Japanese families. I agree with your sentiments; I've also noticed, with compassion, the noble faces of the homeless during my walks.

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It does not surprise me that Japanese teenage boys did this.

I agree with other posters, homeless people here have pride in themselves and what little they have, so this cowardly, gutless act is all the more sickening. Many Japanese even deny that there are any homeless in Japan, or pretend not to see any. Good luck to this poor bloke, wish I could help him out a bit.

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totally no respect!

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"He pissed us off"

He must have looked at them sideways.

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@JayJayE- I couldn't agree more with your comment. I myself have been looking for a way to explain some of the things I've seen here and I think you just summed it up for me.

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@JayJayE - It is odd to me too. There have been a number of cases of homeless being abused in San Diego. There was a few cases of high school kids beating a homeless to death. Then you have the illegals. There was a case not too long ago where some teen kids, and I may have the story a bit off, took pellet guns and started shooting at illegals.

Anyway - this is nothing new to me, coming from the US.

Sadly, though, this is not new in Japan either. Well, the burning down of the shack is new, but the low regard towards the homeless isn't.

I haven't put much thought into this, but I speculate this is similar to those wealthy kids who have everything they could ever needs, and then some, going into a store and shoplifting.

They may not be bad kids, however, for certain things, they have low regard.

Parents may be partially to blame - if kids (in any country, culture, background) are not taught to value life, respect people, etc etc. Still, there are always cases of great parents who's kids do bad things....

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