crime

Workplace harassment possible cause in police officer's suicide

11 Comments

Police said Tuesday that workplace harassment may have been a contributing factor in the suicide of a 44-year-old police officer who shot himself in the head inside a toilet at a police station in Tokyo's Ota Ward on Feb 15.

Investigators were quoted as saying that the officer suffered harassment at the hands of the station's 52 year-old assistant inspector, TV Asahi reported.

According to police, before the incident, the assistant inspector had called in a few of the station's officers to complain about poor results following police questioning of suspects. The inspector is said to have yelled "You all are worthless! I suggest you talk to your families about what you plan on doing to support them," implying that they would be fired if their work didn't improve.

The deceased officer left a note detailing his stress.

Police said the department has reprimanded the assistant inspector and cut his salary as punishment for his actions.

© (c) 2014 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

11 Comments
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'The department has reprimanded the assistant inspectoe and cut his salary as punishment for his actions'...

Jeez...that's a bit harsh considering all he did was drive a co-worker to kill himself...

Which begs the frightening question: 'If that's the punsihment for driving a co-worker to suicide, what's the punishment for doing the same to a hapless Joe Public who gets taken in for questioniing? No lunch vouchers?

9 ( +11 / -2 )

Cultural difference between Japan and US. In US he more likely would have shot his tormentor (and a few colleagues to boot) before shooting himself.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

Police said the department has reprimanded the assistant inspector and cut his salary as punishment for his actions.

Why not fire the bastard? His actions were pretty close to criminal

9 ( +9 / -0 )

bullied at work!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

"You all are worthless! I suggest you talk to your families about what you plan on doing to support them."

Yeah... about that. I hope he had life insurance. :(

1 ( +1 / -0 )

According to police, before the incident, the assistant inspector had called in a few of the station’s officers to complain about poor results following police questioning of suspects.

So in other words he was berating them for not forcing the suspects into making confesions. He should be fired and prosecuted for that alone. The Japanese "justice system" truly is third world.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

No doubt the supervisor is a jerk, but the way this is written it seems like an isolated incident. Fire my @ss if you don't like my work. I'll move on and find another job. I've been fired before, and hindsight always proved that it was the best thing for me at those times.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The guy took the easy way out and let his boss get the best of him. I would long quit before suicide, he must have had problems before.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Happens every few years and nothing happens.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

We don't know enough about this to judge the supervisor or the guy killing himself. It could be the super is the one decent cop in town who was fed up with a department hooked on PJ parties in Kobans and wanted them to do their job.

However unlikely that is, suggesting half the department reconsider their future plans is hardly an overly harsh way of communicating dissatisfaction with their job performance.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"You all are worthless! I suggest you talk to your families about what you plan on doing to support them." Yeah... about that. I hope he had life insurance. :(

If this can be considered as dying in action, maybe they would get some compensation... hopefully.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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