"Man punches officer for using mobile phone camera at crime scene"

From today's Japan Today:

Police on Sunday arrested a 37-year-old man for obstruction of duty after he punched a police officer in the face at the scene of a warehouse fire in Akaiwa, Okayama Prefecture. The 27-year-old police sergeant was taking photos of the scene with his mobile phone when Yuji Iwamoto reportedly yelled, “This isn’t the time to be taking photos!” and punched the officer in the face.

Since last year, Okayama police have distributed 500 authorized mobile phone handsets to police boxes around the prefecture to be used to take photos of crime scenes and other incidents when officers make their initial investigations.

Visual anthropologists beware... I have been using my cell phone camera a lot more recently because it is smaller to carry (plus I have my keitai with me always) and the photo quality is better than my Xacti. Seems that in addition to ethics of taking photos in Japan, there are some manner issues as well.

Read the story and readers comments:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/man-punches-officer-for-using-mobile-phone-camera-at-crime-scene