Incomprehensible Motive Must Be First Clarified in Murder of 19 Disabled

Incomprehensible Motive Must Be First Clarified in Murder of 19 Disabled

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英文読解★時事英会話 【上級】 2016年7～9月期 第7回 課題Topic
News Discussion Topic7【Advanced】 July-Sep, 2016

The Japan News July 27, 2016

Incomprehensible motive must be first clarified in murder of 19 disabled

  1. This is an appalling incident / that will go down in the history of crime.
  2. A man armed with knives / intruded into Tsukui Yamayuri-en, / a welfare facility for intellectually disabled people / in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, / attacking residents and others one after another. / Nineteen men and women aged from 19 to 70 were killed, / and 26 were seriously or slightly injured.
  3. It was a heinous predawn crime / in which the residents were attacked in their sleep. / How terrible and painful it must have been / when knives were suddenly thrust into their bodies.
  4. A former employee at the facility turned himself in / to Tsukui Police Station of the Kanagawa prefectural police / and was arrested on the spot / on suspicion of attempted murder and other charges. / The suspect admitted the charges, / and the prefectural police are investigating the incident, / changing the attempted murder charge to one of murder. / There was blood on knives he had with himself.
  5. There is a possibility / that the suspect smashed a window with a hammer / to intrude into the facility / and then tied up employees on the night shift with zip ties / before committing the murders. / Deliberate planning can be seen in the incident.
  6. The puzzling thing is the motive. / The man gave a statement to police / to the effect that he wanted disabled people to disappear / according to investigative sources.
  7. There were indications the crime would be committed. / On Feb. 14 and 15, / the man took a letter / to the official residence of the speaker of the House of Representatives in Tokyo, / in which he apparently warned / that he would commit the crime at night. / The Metropolitan Police Department transferred the case / to Tsukui Police Station.
  8. The man told officers at the police station / that he would kill severely disabled people at any time, / and the police station notified the Sagamihara city government.
  9. On Feb. 19, the city ordered the man to be hospitalized / as an emergency measure / because he was in danger of harming himself or other people. / On the same day, the man voluntarily quit his job at the facility, / where he had worked for more than three years. / It has been learned / that he made disparaging remarks about people with disabilities / when he was working there. / Knowing how and why he quit the job / will be key to clarifying the motive.
  10. The man tested positive for cannabis in a drug test / when he was hospitalized, / but the city discharged him from the hospital on March 2 / based on the hospital’s diagnosis / that he had no symptoms. / It is indispensable to examine the decision made by the city / to discharge him from the hospital / and city’s handling of him after his discharge.
  11. It is a matter of great regret for society / that it could not prevent such a terrible rampage. / In response to the incident, / Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said emphatically, / “The government will put all its efforts into finding out the truth.”
  12. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga indicated / preventive measures would be discussed among related ministries and agencies, / with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry at the center. / To that end, it is a prerequisite/ that the Kanagawa prefectural police clarify the entire picture of the incident.
  13. Efforts should also be made to review / how prepared welfare facilities are to prevent crimes. / Do some facilities have a user-friendly open structure / that can become a blind spot in terms of crime prevention? / We urge facility administrators to strive / to swiftly check their security measures and improve them.
  14. Without the understanding of people in local communities, / welfare facilities cannot operate. In order for these facilities not to be isolated from their communities, / thorough measures must be taken / to prevent another such crime in the future.

–Questions for Reading Comprehension and Discussion –

  1. What do you think of the motive the man told police after the incident?
  2. Could police have arrested the man somehow before the crime?
  3. What should we do to prevent similar crimes in the future?

【単語と語句】9.disparaging（形）中傷的な 10.cannabis（名）大麻11.emphatically（副）きっぱりと 12.prerequisite（形）前もって必要な

-参考【日本語対訳】- 読売新聞 社説 2016年07月27日

障害者１９人殺害 まずは不可解な動機の解明だ

  1. 犯罪史に残る凄惨せいさんな事件である。
  2. 神奈川県相模原市の知的障害者福祉施設「津久井やまゆり園」に刃物を持った男が侵入し、入所者らを次々と襲った。１９～７０歳の男女１９人が死亡し、重軽傷者も２６人に上った。
  3. 就寝中の入所者を狙った未明の凶行だった。突然、刃物を突き立てられた入所者の恐怖と苦痛は、いかばかりだったか。
  4. 施設の元職員の男が、県警津久井署に出頭し、殺人未遂容疑などで緊急逮捕された。男は容疑を認め、県警は殺人容疑に切り替えて取り調べる。所持する複数の刃物に血が付着していた。
  5. ハンマーで窓ガラスを割って侵入し、夜勤職員を結束バンドで縛って犯行に及んだ可能性がある。周到な計画性がうかがえる。
  6. 不可解なのは、動機である。男は取り調べに、「障害者なんていなくなればいい」という趣旨の供述をしているという。
  7. 予兆はあった。男は２月１４日と１５日、夜間の犯行を予告するような手紙を東京の衆院議長公邸に持参し、警視庁が津久井署に対応を引き継いでいた。
  8. 男が「重度障害者の殺人はいつでも実行する」と話したため、津久井署は相模原市に通報した。
  9. 市は「自傷他害の恐れがある」として２月１９日、緊急措置入院を命じ、男はこの日、３年余り勤めた施設を自主退職した。在職時にも、障害者を冒涜ぼうとくするような発言があったという。退職に至った経緯が動機解明のカギとなろう。
  10. 入院時の検査では、大麻の薬物反応も確認されたが、市は３月２日、「症状がなくなった」とする病院の診断に基づき、男を退院させた。この判断と、その後の対応について検証が不可欠だ。
  11. これほどの重大な殺傷事件を許したことは、社会にとって痛恨事である。事件を受け、安倍首相は「真相究明に政府としても全力を挙げていく」と強調した。
  12. 菅官房長官は、厚生労働省を中心に、関係省庁間で再発防止策を検討する方針を示した。そのためには、神奈川県警が事件の全容を解明することが前提となる。
  13. 福祉施設の防犯態勢の再点検も進めるべきだ。利用者にとって使いやすい開放的な構造が、防犯上の盲点となっているケースなどはないか。施設管理者は確認を急ぎ、改善に努めてもらいたい。
  14. 地域住民の理解なしに、福祉施設は成り立たない。施設が地域から孤立しないためにも、事件の再発防止を徹底せねばならない。

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