The Okinawa Times (dated Oct. 8), a newspaper of Okinawa, reported on the ruling of the Nagoya High Court, saying: ‘it is a bright legal decision given after five years since 2016 that the dispatch of mobile units by the Aichi Prefectural Police to Takae, a small village with less than 200 inhabitants in Okinawa, where clashes took place between people and the units, was clearly against the law.’
SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLE IN MAIN ISLANDS HAS BROUGHT SUCCESS
The High Court ruled that sending the riot police from the Aichi Prefecture to Okinawa violated the law; the lower court’s decision was turned down by the higher court and the appeal of local residents has been legally endorsed.
The details are:
Director of the Aichi Prefectural Police made his own decision to dispatch local mobile units to Okinawa, which is against the law
Governor of Aichi Prefecture must request Director to indemnify approximately 1.1 million Yen which had been paid to the unit’s members as overtime benefits
Removal of vehicles and tents of the protesters is totally unlawful
Calls of the Okinawa’s local police authority for help is seriously wrong
Filming at the checkpoints and of protest activities does not exhibit legitimacy and reasonability.
Operations like national police units
A group of lawyers defending the plaintiffs explains in the statement on the ruling over the exclusive decision of the police director: the Court, rightly appreciating the roles of the Public Security Commission system provided by the Police Act, says that behaviors of the Aichi Prefecture’s public security authority grossly violate the law as it practically grants entire power that the said act shall entrust to policemen solely to Director of the prefecture’s police department.
The written document continues to say about the fact that the dispatch of mobile units from six prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, was taken initiative basically by the National Police Agency, and that the court decision declares that the democratic rules stipulated by the Police Act, including the principles of political neutrality of the police and local autonomy, face a critical phase due to the autocratic political attitudes taken by the Prime Minister’s Office and the maneuver of the National Police Agency to pretend to be the national police force.
Don’t side with the state’s suppression!
The ruling adds, under the column of ‘the execution of acts for self-defense or the right to resist’, that the sit-in campaign staged by residents against the construction works of the landing area for helicopters constitutes an act to realize the right to live in peace guaranteed by the Constitution. It continues to say that the violent disperse of protesting people cannot be justified in the name of public welfare.
As the ruling says, the Takae village was a lawless area at that time: the court decision specifies that the sit-in was the ultimate, inevitable act as an expression of freedom toward the right to live in peace amid the condition in which other actions were completely restrained.
The facts say: policemen violently suppressed the protesters, officials of the Okinawa Defense Bureau brutally removed tents of civic people, and the helicopters of the Self Defense Forces transported raw materials for construction. These events do not base on the laws, which can be attributed to the despotic decision of the then-chief cabinet secretary, Suga Yoshihide, of the administration of Abe.
As many as 500 riot policemen were sent from the six prefectures in the country to the Okinawa’s mountainous rural community and the state’s power was abused there. Local people have shared in common consciousness not to side with the suppression.
Responding to the calls from Okinawa, civic groups in the main islands rose up for the legal action and this has led to the successful ruling of the Nagoya High Court after overriding the lower court’s decision.
愛知県警の機動隊高江派遣は｢違法｣、｢請求棄却｣の一審判決が変更され、住民側が逆転勝訴した内容はこうだ。
①愛知県警本部長が機動隊の高江派遣を専決したのは違法
②愛知県知事は県警本部長に機動隊員の時間外勤務手当約１１０万円の賠償を命令せよ
③車両とテントの撤去は違法の疑いが強い
④沖縄県警の援助要求には重大な瑕疵(かし)
⑤検問や抗議活動の撮影の適法性・相当性には疑問が生じうる。
国家警察的な運用
県警本部長の専決は違法とした判断について原告・弁護団声明は、「警察法の定める公安委員会制度の役割を正しく評価した上で、警察法が付与した警察官のための権限を事実上警察本部長の専決に丸投げしている愛知県公安委員会のあり方が違法であることを指摘した」と評価。
６都府県の機動隊派遣は実質的には警察庁主導だったことについて「声明」は、警察の政治的中立性の原則や地方分権の原則といった警察法の民主的原則が、官邸主導の強権政治、警察庁による国家警察的運用によって危殆（きたい）に瀕していることを高裁判決は浮彫りにしたと指摘している。
加害に加担しない
また判決は、｢自救行為又は抵抗権の行使｣の項で、ヘリパッド工事に反対する住民の座込みは憲法が保障する平和的生存権を実現するための行為と認定、｢これを暴力的態様によって排除することが公共の福祉をもって許容される余地はない｣と断じる。
判決が｢座込みは他に手段が断たれた中で平和的生存権の実現のための表現の自由の行使としてやむにやまれぬ必要な行為｣としているようにあの時、高江は無法地帯だった。
警官が抗議を暴力的に弾圧、沖縄防衛局職員が市民のテントを無理やり撤去、自衛隊ヘリが資材を運搬、これらに法的根拠はない。安倍政権、当時の菅義偉官房長官が手段を選ばず強行したものだ。
６都府県から５００人もの機動隊員を派遣させて沖縄の山奥で国家権力が行った違法・無法に対して派遣元の住民に｢弾圧に加担しない｣という意識を芽生えさせた。
沖縄からの呼びかけに連帯して訴訟に立ち上がった市民の闘いが、名古屋高裁での逆転・勝利判決を生んだのである。
英訳版↓
No. 1232 Law has Helped Okinawa’s Resistance
The Okinawa Times (dated Oct. 8), a newspaper of Okinawa, reported on the ruling of the Nagoya High Court, saying: ‘it is a bright legal decision given after five years since 2016 that the dispatch of mobile units by the Aichi Prefectural Police to Takae, a small village with less than 200 inhabitants in Okinawa, where clashes took place between people and the units, was clearly against the law.’
SOLIDARITY WITH PEOPLE IN MAIN ISLANDS HAS BROUGHT SUCCESS
The High Court ruled that sending the riot police from the Aichi Prefecture to Okinawa violated the law; the lower court’s decision was turned down by the higher court and the appeal of local residents has been legally endorsed.
The details are:
Operations like national police units
A group of lawyers defending the plaintiffs explains in the statement on the ruling over the exclusive decision of the police director: the Court, rightly appreciating the roles of the Public Security Commission system provided by the Police Act, says that behaviors of the Aichi Prefecture’s public security authority grossly violate the law as it practically grants entire power that the said act shall entrust to policemen solely to Director of the prefecture’s police department.
The written document continues to say about the fact that the dispatch of mobile units from six prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, was taken initiative basically by the National Police Agency, and that the court decision declares that the democratic rules stipulated by the Police Act, including the principles of political neutrality of the police and local autonomy, face a critical phase due to the autocratic political attitudes taken by the Prime Minister’s Office and the maneuver of the National Police Agency to pretend to be the national police force.
Don’t side with the state’s suppression!
The ruling adds, under the column of ‘the execution of acts for self-defense or the right to resist’, that the sit-in campaign staged by residents against the construction works of the landing area for helicopters constitutes an act to realize the right to live in peace guaranteed by the Constitution. It continues to say that the violent disperse of protesting people cannot be justified in the name of public welfare.
As the ruling says, the Takae village was a lawless area at that time: the court decision specifies that the sit-in was the ultimate, inevitable act as an expression of freedom toward the right to live in peace amid the condition in which other actions were completely restrained.
The facts say: policemen violently suppressed the protesters, officials of the Okinawa Defense Bureau brutally removed tents of civic people, and the helicopters of the Self Defense Forces transported raw materials for construction. These events do not base on the laws, which can be attributed to the despotic decision of the then-chief cabinet secretary, Suga Yoshihide, of the administration of Abe.
As many as 500 riot policemen were sent from the six prefectures in the country to the Okinawa’s mountainous rural community and the state’s power was abused there. Local people have shared in common consciousness not to side with the suppression.
Responding to the calls from Okinawa, civic groups in the main islands rose up for the legal action and this has led to the successful ruling of the Nagoya High Court after overriding the lower court’s decision.
November 3 2021