Forget the police... the ninjas are here to clean up the streets

Have we found the answer to all our law and order problems?

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

He looked like an easy target: a medical student sitting alone on a late-night train. The three men sidled up to the German student and told him to hand over his wallet. When he refused, they followed him off the train, trailing him as he walked past the hotel and pizza joint on Bringelly Road, Kingswood, in the city's west. When the student, who has asked not to be identified, turned down a dimly lit alley his pursuers thought their moment had come. It had, but not in quite the way they expected.

The men tripped the 27-year-old student, kicking him as he lay on the ground and grabbing his mobile phone and iPod. What the assailants did not realise was that they were standing outside Ninja Senshi Ryu - western Sydney's ninja warrior school. They also failed to notice a ninja, Nathan Smith, standing in the shadows outside the dojo. Mr Smith immediately alerted his sensei, or teacher.

Kaylan Soto, a sensei with 30 years' Ninjutsu training, and three of his students raced out of the dojo towards the startled attackers. All five crusaders were clad in the ninja's traditional, all black uniform.

''We would have been just a silhouette,'' one of the ninjas, Steve Ashley, said. ''It was probably the worst place in Sydney where they could have taken him.''

Mr Soto said it took the three assailants a few moments to realise what was going on. When they did, they shot off. ''You should have seen their faces when they saw us in ninja gear coming towards them,'' he said.

The ninjas gave chase, but the men escaped. Police yesterday said they had made arrests in relation to the attack. The medical student, who has been in Sydney for eight weeks on an exchange program, was left shaken but suffered only minor injuries.

As for the ninjas, they were back in training last night.

Nice work chaps. I must say I like the idea of a posse of ninjas saving the day and keeping the streets clean from thieving scum. Although I'm a bit disappointed that the muggers were somehow able to escape a beatdown; how fitting it would have been if the ninjas got all medieval Japan on their asses. Yet they escaped! I mean sure, if I saw a bunch of ninjas coming at me, I'd sprint like mad too. But come on you guys - you're ninjas. How are you gonna let some street hoodlums escape your clutches? Where are the throwing stars and poison darts?

But I guess they just don't make ninjas like they used to. I mean, judging from these photos I found on the Senshi Ryu website, these guys are just as fond of cooking up some BBQ as they are of handing out an ass-kicking.

I guess the modern-day shadow warrior needs a good work-life balance just like everyone else. Never saw anything like this in those old Kurosawa movies though.