Captain Obvious presents: Grenade Safety Tips

Due to a recent increase in Yakuza attacks involving hand grenades, a spokesman of the Fukuoka police by the name of Captain Obvious had made this statement: Hand grenades are weapons designed to kill people by propelling shrapnel. If you discover a grenade, do not touch, tread on, or kick it.

In another Fukuoka grenade-related story (from the same article), apparently a couple of Yakuza blew themselves up in a failed grenade attack.

Where the hell are they getting grenades??!!

Okay, I know there's a black market wherever there's crime, but seriously... grenades are indiscriminate weapons. Yes, shrapnel from a grenade can reach 200 meters away, albeit in minor injury form. But given the close ranges involved in the average Japanese city, I wouldn't think to use one simply to cack the other guy. It's so much easier just to shoot him. Just as loud. Less chance for an unsightly accident.

Dumbasses.

How... American of them...

well they were going after a room full of other gang members so it does sort of make sense to use a grenade,chuck it in and hope the walls are strong enough to stop the fragments from killing you.

Funny thing about drywall... it DOESN'T stop grenade fragments... *dark chuckle*

This is a "crowbar", also known as a "wrecking bar" or "pry bar". It is a tool with a variety of applications in construction-related contexts, but it may also be used as an improvised weapons that inflicts injury by means of transferring kinetic energy to a body part and amplifying the force of impact through a reduced contact area. If you see someone carrying a crowbar do not be alarmed, for it may be for a perfectly innocuous and authorised legitimate purpose. If the bearer of the crowbar is wearing a balaclava and running towards you shouting, this may be a context cue that he does not intend to use it in a licensed manner. The police would be grateful to be relieved of an administrative burden if dutiful citizens could remind these people of their error and advise them of appropriate carriage.

*splutters* Dammit, Robert, I was DRINKING that juice, not BREATHING it. *chuckles*

The thing I find hilarious is the possibility that thanks to the non-inclusion of a picture of a stick grenade on that warning notice, nobody will know what the hell to do when one lands at their feet.

Well apparently the Camorra is fond of stashing basketfuls of 'pineapples' everywhere, but that might be because they're worried about being attacked by cyborg child assassins.

Robert Frazer wrote:

This is a "crowbar", also known as a "wrecking bar" or "pry bar". If the bearer of the crowbar is wearing a balaclava and running towards you shouting, this may be a context cue that he does not intend to use it in a licensed manner.

OR if he's a Theoretical Physicist in an Orange HEV suit.

Guns are hard to find, grenades are easy enough to improvise, and plenty are leftover from older wars. They are devastating and have a huge psychological impact... what's so hard to understand about their use? Molotov cocktails are a from of hand grenade.

Though the fact they have to warn average people not to poke a grenade lying / thrown around by Yakuza is a bit telling about their introverted culture.