I heard a story last night about a guy that got picked up by the police for disorderly conduct in Jeju a week after arriving in Korea. His passport was at the immigration office and his alien registration card was not finished being made. They brought him to a room in the station and would yell at him for a while, of which he understood exactly zero of, then leave the room and repeat the process after 10 or 15 min. Eventually he got fed up with it and started yelling back at them, at which point they started to beat him up a little. Is this common practice in Korea?
Police brutality
Submitted by I on 12 October 2006 - 4:05pm.Tags:
Hmm....
I've heard that immigration officials are very strict in Korea.
As far as the way immigration detainees are handled in Korea, I'm not exactly sure if that is a common practice, but it sure does happen a lot in Los Angeles. It's technically illegal in California, but most people simply look the other way.
Hmmmmmm ........................
I don't know about the nature of the guy's alleged disorderly conduct, but my suspicion is that he was raising some kind of h***. Jeju is the island of peace, so please do not come here and disturb it, or I suspect that your peace will be disturbed in return! If you're without your passport or alien card, you need to be extremely respectful. It is a good idea to at least have a photocopy of your passport - such as when you have to take it elsewhere for alien cards, etc. If we were citizens here, we could probably expect to get away with a little more. Watch the soju, beer, and other delights. Be sure that you have a friend to help keep you out of trouble. Also, please do not drink and drive.
I hope that I do not seem too rigid, but I like this island very much and have seen absolutely no instances of police brutality. This truly is a very beautiful and peaceful island. Please visit and enjoy Jeju Island, but please take any rowdy, inappropriate behavior elsewhere. Try it in your home country and see what happens!
I greatly appreciate being able to walk around at night without even the slightest fear. I can't say that about many other places! Still, it is best not to push your luck. There are good and bad people everywhere - just as there are good and bad police officers. Try to be respectful of other people and they, in turn, will generally be respectful of you. Have a great day and enjoy the many things to see and do in Korea.
uh-huh.
it's my understanding that police brutality (or being knocked around a bit by the cops) is very much a reality here in korea. of note, the police don't carry guns (!)
this is how it was explained to me (by someone who's been here for several years): they're happy to give drunken korean men a ride home, if they ask nicely, but if someone's breaking the law, all that niceness goes out the window. South Korea's only been a democratic state for about 20 years, and the institutional memory within the police force is probably quite strong. usually foreigners who are not being charged don't have problems, but once you're charged with something, you become fair game...
Korean Police
All of us EPIKers who live near the foreign language school in Jeju-shi will be able to relate to this one.
One night an extremely drunk guy of about 50 comes into our apartment building and starts yelling about something. A guy's Korean girlfriend goes into the hall to find out what the problem is. The drunk guy runs up to her and yells as he punches the wall next to her head. The girl becomes frightened and goes into the apartment and tells her boyfriend. He becomes VERY mad and, when he finds the guy in front of the apartment building, he starts saying normal American things in this type of situation. Namely, I am going to @#*&ing kill you, you ..." well, you get the picture.
The drunk guy keeps coming back into apartment building and yelling and making a huge disterbance, to the point of going down the hall ringing everyone's doorbells. FYI this is after 11 pm on a weekday. The police are finally called and arrive sometime around 12. As soon as the car pulls up the drunk guy walk over to the back door and attempts to get in but the police are like, "no, don't get in the car." They didn't want to arrest and tried to get him to go home (he lives down the street).
I can't immagine a drunk person being more of a public disturbance than this without actually hitting someone. Even after the police came the guy was back in front of our apartment building trying to get it and making enough noise to wake everyone up. It turns out that this guy once took one of the foreign teacher's cell phone and threw it on the ground, clearly expressing his feelings for us weigukin.
I no longer sleep with my door unlocked even though I live in the middle of nowhere, and even have taken to locking it when I am in my apartment. It made me wonder what the foreigner was actually doing do get arrested?
Well... Like already
Well... Like already mentioned, there are good people and bad people, good cops and bad cops. Maybe this police officer was just having a bad day and had to deal with one too many foreigners, so it didn't take a lot to detain the person. It seems like a lot of the population of Asia doesn't particularly take kindly to foreigners... Especially Korea. So, it wouldn't surprise me if the foreigner was not commiting any major offense.