Korean police with weak authority, use of force and being disrespected
Myoung Gyu Cho
92058882
Asia 367 section 002
Dr.Saeji
December 3rd 2018
Argument essay for Asia 367
December 03, 2018 Myoung Gyu Cho
92058882
The drama Live, it shows how weak the Korean police’s powers are. Both in the drama and reality, the law enforcement in Korea are treated poorly to not only the civilians but to the Internal Affairs and Prosecutors (Higher ups). What I also find strange is the fact that many laws in Korea are favorable for civilians, especially women and minors and barely any that supports or protects the police whatever the circumstances are. The rules for utilizing weapons for the police are speechless in terms of being awful and how the rules are not in favor of the officers in a dire situation. Because of the low level of authorities in Korean police, people tend to be disrespectful to the officers. The police protect civilians and laws. Therefore, I believe that the police should have enough or more than enough power, laws, and rules that support them in order to execute their jobs. In this paper, I will be arguing about the law enforcement/authority, level of respect towards officers and the use of force in Korea and how opposite it is compared to Canadian police officials. Through the articles and drama, the fact that police officers do not have a lot of power of authorities and are disrespected will be argued.
Police are disrespected by the rich and commoners/minors
First of all, Korean police are considered as forces that only take peoples tax money and as a social workers. Therefore, people tend to look down on the officers who are protecting people from crimes and harm. It may be similar with other countries but I do not think it won’t be as worse as Korea. “Koreans are well known for possessing one of the most elaborate honorifics systems in the world’s language” (Brown 2011, 107). This article states about the honorifics in Korea and how important it is. However, some people do not show the politeness to the police officer in Korea, because of their status and wealth. For example, in the drama episode 8, when the minors were caught red-handed for obtaining cigarettes, one of the student, who is the son of chairman was talking back to the police officer in anger saying “Fuck… this is totally ruining my day, let it slide” (ep. 8, 33:38). The student also spits on the officer’s face. This shows how the hierarchy system in Korea creates classes over age and how the people with higher status does not show respect to the elders. Another example would be that in episode 6, a guy who is at fault for using violence shows inappropriate attitude and does not use any honorifics towards Ban Jong-Min who is interrogating and is older than the guy. He says to Ban Jong-Min that he is going to sue him and other cops who comes from nothing and also tells him to know his place (ep. 6, 10:02~10:08). Also in episode 11, despite Lee Sam Bo explaining that Man Yong was responsible for using severe violence on him and that Lee Sam Bo is going to take this incident to the court. However, Man Yong’s father who is in a high position at work and his secretary tries to let this incident slide by, and as soon as Lee Sam Bo forces his will to take it to court Man Yong’s father says “we’ll see you in court. Don’t you know who I am?” (ep. 11, 15:12). All these examples lead to one factor and that is the abuse of wealth and power from the people with “gold spoon”. Especially in Korea, people with wealth and power seems to overuse their power to slip through incidents that can affect their business negatively and most of the times threatening to the police and/or to the law itself. Also people with money and power tends to not use honorific, look down on officers/ verbally abusing them and only care about status of a person. For example, in Han Kook il-bo, a lady says that “did you graduate from Police University? If not, you’re not needed, get lost” (2018). Not only does the rich shows disrespect to law enforcement, but the regular civilians also does not show respects as well. “People not only ignore legitimate police orders, but they also sometimes assault and threaten police officers” (Lee and Pak 2016, 276). This shows how the citizens are not scared of police, how weak the police authority is in Korea and how this may or may not relate to the issue about the lack of political trust. “The risk of violence by suspects is regarded as an inevitable element of police work, the level of citizen violence against police officers in South Korea is beyond the typical parameters” (Lee and Pak 2016, 277). One other factor is that because the criminal laws do not affect minors that are under 14, students use this rule in their favor to commit crimes or to disrespect officers and elders. For example in the drama Live, one of the officer states to the minors that are at the scene by saying “you’re aware that you’ll be protected by the law even if you commit a crime because your under 14 [and cannot arrest or question them because they have to go back home before midnight by the law]” (episode 11, 2:13). By observing the statistics in table 4, it will give awareness to how many civilians are interrupting the police officer by using violence and “the risk of violence by suspects [that] is regarded as an inevitable element of police work” (Lee and Pak 2016, 276). However, not all civilians are disrespectful to the officer. There are people with kindness. In the Korean news article NocutNews shows how one of the civilian who is from the protesting group helps an officer who is helplessly struggling from the effect of the tear gas. The civilian takes out his water bottle and aids officer to wash away the remainder that are on the officers face. Another example is that there was a case where a civilian helped officer to catch the culprit that was doing a getaway by driving a stolen car (YouTube). There are many other cases where civilians helps officers in Korea, but I think that the number of people that detests the officers and look down on them are more than the ones that aid the officers and looks upon them. I want to argue that “police officers are no different than the civilians” (sedaily, 2018). When they take their badge away they are the same as normal people. Being an officer does not make them a superhuman that always works to people’s expectations and someone to order around, blame or to be disrespected.
Korean police with weak law enforcement and authorities
Secondly, in the previous, I have stated about minors committing crime due to the law protecting them from being arrested. I strongly believe that the other main issue to minors acting this way is because of the weak law enforcement in Korea. The reason why civilians take lightly on police officers is that Korean police is one of the lowest ranked for authority and power. “According to the KNPA, Korean police authority is ranked 27th, out of 30 OECD countries” (Lee and Pak 2016, 272). This shows how the “police officers are less confident with using their powers [and authorities], even in situations that require the proper and firm actions of law-enforcement officers” (Lee and Pak 2016, 272). In the drama Live (episode 16, 46:08), it shows the scene where the officer is scared to take the gun because of the false, propaganda information about the cops and their use of guns on harming innocent people and the people’s negative perspective on it. One example of the media hiding the truth is shown in the drama Live. In episode 17, officer Eun Kyung-Mo states how “Yeom Sang-Su is caught in the power struggle between the police and prosecution” (ep. 17, 9:11). He further explains how “the police force lost the public’s trust due to the recent incidents” (ep. 17, 9:22) and how the higher-ups wants to use Yeom Sang-Su’s case to bury all other cases through the propaganda of the media. “[The] low public confidence hinders legitimate law-enforcement activities and weakens the organizational capacity for the maintenance of security” (Lee and Pak 2016, 272). The law enforcement is a system that ensures that no one breaks the rules of their country. Therefore, it is one of the important jobs that are given to the police and the reason to why the power to take force/actions are necessary at all times. For example, because of the weak law enforcement and the law that protects minors from being charged with murder, many young students are utilizing these laws to their benefits and create violent crimes that even adults would not dare. In 2017 September in Busan, a middle school girl was severely injured from the immense beat up from 5 girls some that are in middle school and some that are in high school. By reading the news the five perpetrators looked like they are a psychopath because they do not realize how serious of a crime that they have done. In the news, it stated that despite the students creating this crime they “were acting without guilt” (Lee Gayeong, 2017). In fact, they were showing the picture that they took of the scene and shared with their friends. There were several more cases very similar to this all happening within 2017 fall. I believe that the main issue of why many minors are creating crime is due to the current juvenile law in Korea. “The juvenile law prevents minors of between 10 and 14 from facing criminal charges, even for serious crimes” (Koreajoongangdaily, 2014). In the US, “A minor convicted of murder or felony murder in a juvenile court faces a maximum sentence of 20 years or 10 years in prison” (Janoski, 2018). Compared to Korea, in the US they charge fairly about the crimes he or she has made despite being a minor or not. I strongly believe that this is how it should be with law juvenile law for Korea. “Weak law enforcement in South Korea is often cited as a critical impediment to national development. South Korea’s crime-reporting and satisfaction rates are the lowest. These low rates mean that people are much less likely to be reliant on the police authority in South Korea and that they are less satisfied with the performance of their police officers regardless of the high level of security” (Lee and Pak 2016, 274). Unlike US or Canada, I think the Korean law enforcement is not executed swiftly and properly, which impacts negatively for police authorities. One example would be a recent issue that has been going around in Korea. Early November in Gyeongnam-si Geoje city a 20 years old man has stabbed 50 years old woman and has killed her. This incident was already making many people upset, but what made it even more upset is the fact that the police is going to charge the criminal with use of violence and not with the use of murder. The reason behind is that the criminal does not remember what he did because he was drunk and the police think there is enough credibility to not charge with murder (Dispatch, 2018). After the media released this on the news, citizen’s trust in law enforcement and the law in Korea became feeble. Table 3 in (Lee and Pak 2016, 276) shows the trust in Canadian police and distrust in Korean police. Through this chart, it shows how satisfied and reliable the police force in Canada is to the perspectives of the citizens compared to police force in Korea. “The public’s distrust of their police authority in South Korea has even led to weak support for legitimate police-enforcement operations, and it eventually caused the collapse of police morale” (Lee and Pak 2016, 278). However, it is changing nowadays. For example, there were cases where the officials of law enforcement taken into custody for charges (Yeonhapnews,2015). Normally in these cases, the higher-ups would try to hide this fact through the use of media or use of black money. Despite the changes that are happening nowadays, it still has long ways to go in terms of having strong law enforcement and authorities.
Korean law vs police use of force/ little authority for pressing situations
Lastly, Korean law enforcement has little authority for using force in the pressing situations which is very frustrating in crucial situations. The title in one of my sources, “If shot excess suppression, if not failure to respond” (Chosun News, 2011), explains the little authority/power in Korean police have when pressing situations and can visualize the problem without reading the article. Compared to US or Canadian police force, Korean police have very little authority in using weapons for pressing situations and the departments or officials or affairs will not be supporting the officers. For example, “If the civilian is injured by the use of gun from the police, the officer is fully responsible and could get fired” (Chosun News, 2011). This shows how the Korean law, which is one of the officer’s weapon is being used against them. Even if the police did make the right choice to use a gun or using a gun was the only option available to protect civilians and the law, the law enforcement, and people judge them negatively. This causes problems such as police being afraid to use their tools or take action to solve crimes and help civilians. In the drama Live, one of the cops talks about how the manual not being practical enough and how the higher-ups should revise the protocol in order for it to suit the needs (ep. 15, 3:20). In Korea police using weapons will put harm to themselves rather than using it to protect them or the citizens. The other way to say is that “when a cop uses a gun, it’s not the suspect who dies, [the cop] will die from the penalty” (ep. 13, 18:55). While watching the drama, I have noticed that unlike here in Canada, if the cops in Korea use a gun or even a taser gun, that person’s situation will become troublesome rather than being encouraged or comforted by the fellow cops or to the citizens. The statement above is also illustrated in the drama live. In episode 6, the division thinks that Han Jung-O has made the right decision to shoot the Taser gun in order to prevent further crime. However, she did not give a warning and did not realize that she shot a pregnant lady in the shoulder. Therefore, because she did not follow the protocol properly, “if the husband sues Han Jung-O the whole division could be at stake” (ep. 6, 13:33). It’s very likely that Korean “citizens expect cops to fight without weapons” (ep. 13, 19:05). Which is very absurd and I would like to argue to why I think it is absurd. First of all, to prove my argument, I will be comparing the police force in Canada with Korea. “The [Canadian] Criminal Code says police officers are allowed to use as much force as is required, provided that the force is necessary for the purpose the officer is using it for, and that the officer is acting on reasonable grounds. In addition, cops are able to use up to lethal force if they need to use that force to prevent the commission of an offense” (CBC News, 2015). Because Canada has one of the strong law enforcement and is trusted by people, Canadian police are able to take actions without a doubt. I think another way to say this is that their actions in a necessary situation are the law and enforcement. Also, unlike the Korean officer being blamed for injuring civilian while using the force and could lead to the possibility of being fired. “[Canadian] Police are rarely charged and even more rarely convicted, and even more rarely still sentenced to significant time in jail” (Chosun News, 2011). The Han Kook il-bo states that “In America, if the officers are being assaulted, they could instantly use force and arrest that person. The level of disciplinary punishment for interfering is severe as well” (2018). Even Japan, Britain and Canada are similar to America, but Korea’s level of disciplinary punishment for interfering is too low. However in Korea, even if the police are being assaulted by people who are drunk, an officer could only give warnings that they could get arrested, but in reality “all they can do is to hold and hope that he or she goes home” (Han Kook il-bo, 2018). This portrays the sad reality of the level of Korean law enforcement and the limitation of actions/force from the police. Also in Korea, the guns that police uses are different from the ones used in America or Canada. “ the first round is empty, the second round is only a warning fire, and the third round has the real bullet” (Chosun News, 2011). Also, Korean police are limited to short legs and arms despite how dangerous the situation is because if the cop shoots the criminal other than legs or arms, that officer will likely to lose his or her job. One officer said “if they use the manual for firing the gun, even if they are holding the gun, the officer could be stabbed by the criminal. This also shows the law enforcement limiting the use of force and how the law could put the Korean police’s lives on stake.
All in all, though the drama Live and articles and news about Korea portrays the insufficient strength in law enforcement, use of authority, use of force in pressing situations and how the people shows disrespect and distrust to the police. And through the articles and news about American and Canadian police use of force in pressing situations, strength in law enforcement, use of authority and people’s respect to the police shows the contrary. Through this comparison or my counter argument further specifies what is lacking in Korean police authority and how it causes various problems to law enforcement. After viewing this paper, I wonder if the others will agree or disagree on my argument.
word count: 3056
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