When you think about it, there really aren’t that many situations in which it’s OK to smash food into someone else’s face. I racked my brain, and could only come up with the following two:

1. You’re a pie-throwing extra in a Three Stooges movie.

2. You and your spouse share the same slapstick sense of humor, and want to smush a slice of wedding cake into each other’s’ faces at your reception.

You know what doesn’t make the list? Scalding someone’s mug with piping-hot tofu, especially if you’re a high-ranking police officer.

In many ways, Shizuoka Prefecutre is a calming place. It’s sparsely populated, known for green tea cultivation, and its name even means “quiet hill” when directly translated.

These soothing characteristics were lost, though, on certain members of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police Department, who now face disciplinary action over a series of hazing and power harassment charges.

The victim of the abuse was a patrolman in his 20s. In the most serious incident, the man suffered minor burns when at a social gathering with other policemen, the group of harassing senior officers scalded his face with tofu plucked from the hot-pot they had been cooking at their table. When questioned as to why they would treat a brother cop in such a way, they simply responded, “We did it because we thought his reaction would be funny.”

In total, nine officers face disciplinary action stemming from continued harassment from April to August of last year. The group, which among other misconduct forced the victim to do pushups at the workplace, said their actions were in part motivated by the junior officer’s refusal to join their circle of contacts on the free smartphone communication application LINE.

Two members of the group have resigned since the investigation by Internal Affairs, and four of their superiors have been officially warned to increase their vigilance in rooting out and preventing such occurrences in the future. Members of the harassing group included a sergeant in his 30s, who now faces a 10 percent pay cut for the next half-year, and a lieutenant in his 40s how has been suspended for one month.

Never mind, with its low price, tofu is ironically one of the best way to cope with their reduced pay-checks.

Source: Blogspot