(The original blog in Japanese is here. 「小さな応援歌」)
Perpetrators' harassment tactics sometimes fail.
One time, a large group of young people were apparently standing motionless in a certain pose in the park. They must have been doing it for quite some time. "It was a really strange sight," said Mr. S, who lives on the same property. Mr. S had been passing by on a walk when he saw them.
Perhaps they were just waiting for me, not knowing when I would arrive. I often walk in that park.
Apparently, I passed by much later. Perhaps a neighbor who thought it was strange had called the police. When I passed by, a police interrogation was in progress. Thinking, "That's them," I deliberately slowed my bike and slowly passed by them as they were being interrogated. I heard a voice from behind the young people warning me, "Hey, hey!"
On my way home, I passed the same spot again, and even though a lot of time had passed, they were still there. As I looked at them, I heard some of them say "It's the worst." They weren't calling me the worst for watching them, but rather because their harassment, which they'd put so much effort and energy into, had ended in this way. It must have been a "worst" outcome.
Later, several instances of street theater involving police interrogation occurred around me. It seemed as if the incident in the park was part of these street theater events, and what occured in the park was the first. The young people's attempt to shock me by showing me a bizarre sight had failed, and I ended up seeing them being interrogated by the police, so they wanted to make me think that the street theater was meant to make me feel uncomfortable by showing me the sight of them being interrogated by the police.
It was quite profound, or perhaps elaborate, or perhaps just refusing to give up...
However, I later learned about the young people from Mr. S, and learned that their plot had failed.
One example of street theater—the police interrogation—later took place on the property where I live. A police car had stopped a fake suspect on the road ahead, then taken him to the premises to continue the interrogation. They had entered our property.
I was planning to pass by there later, so they must have known about it. Interestingly, however, before I got there, an acquaintance, Mr. A, who was visiting me, had informed me of what was happening on the premises. Of course, Mr. A had no idea about the harassment.
I wasn't surprised because I was already aware of the situation when I passed by. Then, I realized that they had been waiting for me for nearly an hour, conducting the interrogation, and that it must have been a lot of work.
Normally, I would have thought the harassers had made another blunder and approached to observe, thinking, "I'll have a look," but that day I didn't feel like it, so I just took a quick look and passed on. Mr. S, who was passing by later, complained that a police officer glared at him when he tried to approach the interrogation scene. Perhaps I was in danger of being glared at in the same way.
The plan was to surprise them with a formal interrogation on the premises, then have the police officers glare at me if I tried to approach, but I managed to dodge them. Usually, when a victim accidentally dodges a harassment tactic, they don't even realize it, and they never know what kind of tactic had failed against them. But this time, thanks to the chance contacts of Mr. A and Mr. S, I was able to understand the situation and discover the elaborate scheme the perpetrator had orchestrated, only to have it fail.
Sometimes, God shows us the perpetrator's mistakes in this way. I realize how difficult it is to be a perpetrator, and how I managed to slip through it. I'm grateful that God guided me skillfully to avoid this tactic.
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( original japanese draft 12/30/2014)
Not for away, I plan to change the post date to the original post date.