Just reading about the “Great G.I. Knifing Massacre” now over at OhMyNews. As I was reading, a friend of mine called up from Gwangju to inform me that the Oranckay has been all over the incident. Anyway, about OhMyNew’s reporting of the incident, the Oranckay writes:
The power of citizen participatory journalism and digital technology are work again at OhMyNews, which has some pictures taken at the scene.
The power of citizen participatory journalism, indeed! More like the power of irresponsible citizen journalism, brought to you courtesy a news organization lacking anything resembling editorial standards. Let’s look at the very provocative images they chose to run. I kind of like the second one, the caption of which emphasis that the perpetrator is covered in tattoos. Great. Now, for a publication that tends to bitch and moan about the way in which the Chosun Ilbo utilizes pictures in a discriminatory fashion, I find it rather odd that they chose to run the photos they did here. I should also point out that I could use my digital pictures to take photos of drunk Koreans fucking each other up in and around the entertainment districts of most major cities — a fairly common occurrence — and use them in a blog post about Korean violence and alcoholism. After all, the crime rate among Koreans is much higher than that of U.S. troops stationed in Korea. I try to avoid that, however, because it would not only give foreigners the wrong impression of Korea, a nation with a much lower crime rate than the United States, but it could be interpreted by some as a deliberate attempt to incite feelings of ethnic or racial hatred, which is the intention of the OhMyNews piece linked above.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the stuff contained in OhMy’s piece. My favorite section, as one could imagine, was their little summary of the Korean “Netizen” response:
At the “Digital SLR Club,” where Bae Sang-beom’s photographs were released, an Internet user by the ID of “Sansonamja” wrote, “We must gather again in Gwanghwamun [the site of 2002's huge anti-American demonstrations]. This incident is something we can’t just let go.” A user with the ID of “inmoo” revealed his strong feelings, writing, “When are these bastards who piss us off going to leave our land? I really hate Western *&%S!”
I hate to tell OhMyNews this, but the use of the term in the later response doesn’t reveal “strong feelings” as much as reveals outright racism.
The furious Internet users who flocked to USFK’s website strongly protested, expressing regret about this incident and demanding atonement.
An Internet user by the ID of “etizen” expressed his regret Saturday, saying, “Can a soldier drink and brandish a deadly weapon in the middle of Seoul? USFK must not just talk of mutual interests and concern it would be best if it strictly crack down internally.”
Jo Dae-won demanded, “Our government must receive a complete apology from USFK and the USFK commander must get on his knees and bow 100 times in apology.” Kim Hui-yeong appealed, “This must be handled in the same way as are the crimes against man and God in Iraq… The U.S. military is becoming the enemy of all the world’s people. Let’s stand criminal U.S. soldiers in Korea in a Korean court!”
An individual with the ID of “Korean Citizen” wrote, “This is not just once or twice, and this time they cut his throat… The scenes of that American getting decapitated by the Iraqis have been going around on the Internet, but no matter how much you want revenge, you can’t enact it against innocent people… The U.S. soldiers must learn how important a person’s life is and how precious all our existences are — not just your own but other’s, not just your country’s people but other people from other countries.”
To the credit of OhMyNews, they chose some of the more coherent of the responses on the BBS of USFK’s Korean-language website. No, I’m not going to waste time on selecting and translating the more colorful ones. I only encourage the USFK web administrators to take better care in moderating their site.
OhMyNews also ran a full statement by the “Pan-national Committee for the Two Middle School Girls, Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, Who Were Murdered by a U.S. Armored Vehicle,” which I translate and lay before you below:
We Condemn the U.S. Soldiers Who Commit Sexual Torture in Iraq and Disturbances in Korea
A drunk U.S. soldier caused a disturbance, and put a citizen into critical condition after brandishing a deadly weapon. We cannot suppress our rage over a completely unforgivable situation in which a soldier climbs on top of a passing taxi to take a picture and stabs a citizen who tried to pull him off, putting him in critical condition.
The reality, in which it has been revealed that Korean society is defenseless against the wayward acts and violence committed by U.S. soldiers in Korea because the unequal U.S.-R.O.K. SOFA agreement cannot be amended, has once again created a terrible situation. No matter how drunk he was, we cannot help but be shocked over his cruelty, and it’s an incident that will fundamentally disproves USFK’s understanding of Korean society. We question whether USFK has measures to prevent such incidents in which a soldiers swaggers along the street carrying a military-use weapon.
They openly commit sexual torture in Iraq, and in Korea, drunken U.S. soldiers acting outrageously are seriously threatening the safety of the people. This incident is in a continuous line with other crimes by U.S. soldiers, and the only way to fundamentally stop these crimes is to amend the unfair SOFA treaty.
We cannot understand at all how USFK could take the assaulting G.I. into custody, even though this was not even an incident that took place on duty. USFK must immediately turn over the assaulting G.I. over, and we must severely punish the assaulter in accordance with our law.
Yep… torture in Iraq and some dumbass getting plastered and starting a knife-fight in Shinchon — same-same. And yes, the SOFA is the reason why these terrible crimes occur; Korea’s strict laws are why Yahoo! Korea news isn’t full of terrible crimes committed by Koreans everyday [sarcasm off].
Look, I’m not trying to excuse what happened in Shinchon. I can only hope that USFK turns this asshole over to the Koreans as soon as humanly possible (assuming this incident is as clear cut as it seems). If the guy simply got drunk and made a scene, I could let that go — we see shit like that all the time. But to brandish a weapon — let alone to use it — requires a serious legal smackdown. So far, USFK has handled this well, taking care of the medical fees and his unit has apparently issued an apology. Obviously, that’s not enough — the Korean prosecutors need to ask for the perpetrator, after which he needs to be tried for assault with a deadly weapon — but that doesn’t justify this kind of crap reporting from OhMyNews. Given the way in which they respond to much more serious crimes committed by locals on a daily basis (was OhMyNews this bloody-minded after a Korean killed 200 people in the Daegu subway arson?), there’s no excuse for the way in which OhMy is behaving here. Here’s a little advice for you guys up there at your little news agency cum civic group in case you’re reading — if you want USFK to cooperate in a speedy manner, it’s best not to incite hate mobs before the guy’s been turned over. After all, USFK has a responsibility to ensure he gets a fair trial (hence, the SOFA), and if you guys try to manipulate public opinion in such a way that a fair trial becomes doubtful, well, you figure out what’ll happen.
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Just for the record, I was talking about the pictures, not the story, as might have been apparent both from mention of the pictures and “digital technology.” Someone just happened to be there with a camera, and Ohmy has its system down pat for quick uploads of contributions from the common man.
The story does seem to have a racist slant to it here and there, caption included. It looks like I will be traveling with one of its authors, Gwon U Seong, to Istanbul at the end of the month for something… and intend to take him to task for the entire duration.
For those other non-Korean speakers who may be interested, I checked all the links above and found no story in great detail on this in English other than Oranckey’s web site. The Korean OhMyNews has two other pictures besides the one shown on Oranckey. Have yet to search US internet outlets.
I’d never checked the USFK site before so went there out of curiosity. They have an English language version, with about a 4 month backlisting of press releases; the most current one is April 30 so they presumably haven’t released one in English yet on this incident. (Will they ever?) There appears to be no English language bulletin board for commenters, to parallel the one for Korean language posters.
Seems like it would be smart for them to at least acknowledge the incident immediately and say what steps US authorities are undertaking, since I imagine it’s playing like wildfire amongst the Korean media and right now the Korean posters are free to post whatever version they wish to.
I’ll also mention here (from my personal knowledge of the US Army recruiting standards in the appropriate regulation) that had this soldier had a serious criminal record in civilian life he would not have been allowed to enlist in the US Army (I presume he’s a young Army soldier). Regardless of whether’s he tried by a Korean or a US military court, if he’s found guilty he will certainly end up being dishonorably discharged from the military on top of whatever jail time he gets.
Marmot and other Korean language media readers,
How often do you see stories of Korean citizens grabbing Korean criminals in the street and holding them until the police come? I’ve seen it happen in the US on the news, but we think those guys are nuts.
But the good citizen Koreans jumping in is common.
Taxis are also common. A citizen stepping in to stop the GI outrage then getting attacked is also common.
The knife is not.
And the knife basically kills any counter argument the GI might want to attempt unless there is something about the Koreans whipping out steel pipes or bats like in the Korean movies.
I hope those of you in Korea will give us an idea of how the average Korean is taking the story. I’m not there anymore, so I can’t tell.
I’ve seen murders that leave no question about guilt hardly make a dent, but then I’ve watched the 2000 water dumping case go so bat crazy it was truly stunning.
Usually, I think the reaction is based more on other things in the environment like the NK-SK summit or the World Cup.
Maybe the Iraq troop dispatch question Korea has been dragging out will be the fuel that the spark of this fight will ignite.
I really can’t tell…..
This was a crime of an individual, it must be treated as such.
This from the Joongang daily:
The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her.
The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors.
The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used “not enough violence to constitute rape.”
The prosecution said it would take the matter to the Supreme Court. The U.S. servicewoman returned to the United States in February; the defendant’s appeal was decided without her presence.
What exactly constitutes for enough biolence in a rape anyhow? hmmm, protest anyone?
The charges that this newspiece has a racist bent are true. However, I strongly believe this kind of reporting is what many Korean readers want to see. My understanding of “Korean-Foreigner relations in Korea” is that Koreans mostly view things from a completely subjective viewpoint (Korea and Koreans above all else and everybody else), and that the “fairness” that the posters here describe, simply does not apply. Koreans don’t really want fairness, particularily in regards to a tattooed cartoon-characature of a US soldier.
The fact that the soldier was carrying that kind of knife in Korea during a night out on the town tells me that he is probably a dangerous punk that is no stranger to trouble. By the way, I, personally, think the tatoos are also very telling.
A bunch of drunk soldiers act like jerks. A dozen or more Koreans see an opportunity to confront some obnoxious Americans and take it. The Americans are scared by the number of Koreans confronting them, which prompts one of them to pull a knife and grab a hostage to try to keep them at bay. The hostage is accidently cut in the process by the drunk American. The Americans run, are chased down, and are kicked and punched by two dozen angry Koreans.
The guy who pulled the knife and cut the Korean definitely needs to go to jail, but the reporters at Ohmynews also need to get a few punches to the head for trying to imply that the incident was some kind of act of revenge for the American who got his head cut off in Iraq.
Much more serious crimes than a fight that results in someone being cut happen in Korea everyday, yet are rarely mentioned in that rag of a newspaper, which, in its defence, is simply telling the anti-American, Korean public what they want to hear.
A bunch of drunk soldiers act like jerks. A dozen or more Koreans see an opportunity to confront some obnoxious Americans and take it. The Americans are scared by the number of Koreans confronting them, which prompts one of them to pull a knife and grab a hostage to try to keep them at bay. The hostage is accidently cut in the process by the drunk American. The Americans run, are chased down, and are kicked and punched by two dozen angry Koreans. - Gerry Bevers
Have you been there, Gerry? Hostage-taking with a military knife against a bunch of Korean passers-by? Has Seoul become a urban warfare area and a free-stabbing zone? Accidentally? How about a mindless, alcohol-powered stabbing of a weaponless (maybe also drunk) Korean, who’s interference was badly unwelcomed and unwanted. Mr. Park, stabbing victim, might have been a pompous fellow at this moment in Shincheon, but nobody deserves a cut at his throat. Didn’t the drunk GIs had hand-to-hand combat training to defend themselves against real “enemies” on a battlefield? How about the exchange of little punches and some kicks and that’s it… clean, old traditional street brawl after a night of heavy drinking.
KimcheeGI, as a professional military serviceman, commented at Oranckay’s comments section, that the group of US soldiers and one KATUSA had already violated the internal USFK rules of night curfew and off-limit areas before the unfortunate incident. And one of them jumped deliberately on a taxi cab top, before some passers-by tried to stop the drunk idiot and his friends.
Again, OhMynews is not operated in a professional, journalistic manner. It’s basically everything decried in this (long) opinion piece in the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....8393.story
“if (Oh My News) try to manipulate public opinion in such a way that a fair trial becomes doubtful, well, you figure out what’ll happen.”
.. which might be a good reason for them to try to manipulate public opinion. Let’s say USFK refuses to give the guy up because the anti-Americans stir up a mini-2002, following your thinking.
Does OMN lose? Of course not! What a fantastic excuse to bring back the anti-SOFA bleating!
Pointless, especially when it seems a significant portion of the USFK force is leaving anyway.
Dave, you can be very sure that the incident described in the OhMyLies piece will not lead to a huge big-nose hate-in. As much as Koreans like to hate their big-nosed protectors and tell them to leave the Minjok, when it comes to the nitty-gritty, they really do not want them to go. At this point, Uncle Sam is cutting Korea loose and the Koreans realise that this will have some pretty serious consequences.
I always loved the looks on my students’ faces when I told them “If you do not want the US Army in Korea, tell them to go.” I could always see a kind of difficult though process going on becuase they were so indoctrinated with dogma regarding the issue. I had a class last summer that, after my prodding, realised the Americans were on the way out. A whole value system of hatred and xenophobia was in question and a new scapegoat was a difficult thing to find for them. They also realised their hatred and protests, while fun at the time, were the cause of USFK’s departure….and thier unemployment.
There also appears to have been some kind of a learning curve because the powers that be in Korea have realised that the 2002 Race Riots led directly to the departure of USFK.
One can be sure that the “negoiations” going on between Korea and the USA in Hawaii are very much a “America talks, Korean listens” kind of thing.
Korea will never be a mature nation until every single US soldier is gone. But then again, Korea will blame all its problems on departed US soldiers.