While Gerry Beavers considers what to do about his recent dismissal, here is a course of action I recommend he not take (Chosun):
A senior High Court judge is in hospital after a disgruntled litigant shot him with a crossbow on Monday. Seoul High Court Justice Park Hong-woo was shot in his left side with a crossbow by Kim Myung-ho, a former math professor in Sungkyunkwan University, at his residence in Jamsil, southern Seoul on Monday evening. Park received emergency treatment at a nearby hospital before being taken to Seoul National University Hospital.
Park sustained a 7-8 mm wide and 2 cm deep injury in his left side, some 18 cm from the navel, doctors said. But the arrow missed vital organs and he is not in critical condition
Ouch. It seems that K (I don’t think I am supposed to use names) did not like the fact that Park had dismissed an appeal that K had filed regarding K’s being fired by his university.
(BTW, I know that William Tell did not hit is son with the crossbow bolt, but he did later nail some local evil dude with one.)
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The funniest part is that, although he shot him in the stomach with a crossbow, the attacker denies he tried to kill him!
Of all things… crossbow…
“the attacker denies he tried to kill him!” What! A Korean would NEVER deny such a thing. This is pure BS. Koreans always own up and take responsibility for their actions! The story is absolute rubbish.
I was told that he was let go/not renewed back in ‘96 because he disagreed with the university’s mathematics entrance examination’s questions and complained about it. It wasn’t the 수시 exam but one of the others (정시?)
Any more “back story” out there?
@Breaktrack: I’m assuming you got beaten up by a Korean today or something…ya?
peninsular aborigine,
There is a lot more to this story. The mathematics professor found an error to the extrance exam question. He pointed out that there can be multiple answers. The university did not like him raising the issue and shafted him in the next faculty selection cycle (he must have been an assistant professor).
This guy got his PH.D in an American university. I think he got too Americanized in the States and forgot the fact that Koreans, like the Japanese, do not like an individualist. They like “one in the herd,” or, maybe he was an myopic individual. Some mathematicians are so narrow minded that they blow things out of proportion. Not very balanced in their world view.
Well, this guy sued the university. He lost in the court and lost again in the appeal. Then, it dawned on him that the university and Korean legal system are in cahoots (he should have known this well before going to Korean court). He suspects the judges are on the take. He may be right. Courts rarely helps an individual against an institution, even in the States.
So he got mad. He bought a bow and arrow set as a hobby/revenge tool. He ambushed the judge. He wanted an apology or vengeance. I guess he was deeply confused by his emotion; the end result is always the same.
He at least did not kill the judge, but just wounded him. Now, the professor has to face the ire of entire legal system. Every judge in the country will try to “get” him. He is messing with a very powerful “organized” group and he may be locked up for very, very long time.
“I fought the law and the law won” - John Cougar Mellencamp
I feel sorry for the guy.
Scientists and mathematicians are educated to “state the exact truth” no matter what the consequences. Exact opposite of politicians or business majors.
In this case, the professor HAD to point out the error, even if it had adverse effect on his career. Or, he may not have known how this insignicant detail can blow up in his face.
He did not know how to play the game. This is a big character flaw in Korean society.
One has to be a politician in Korean society, get along with everyone and never, never rock the boat.
Baduk sure has got a point…
I am going to assume this was a typo. But funny nonetheless…
Gosh, it’s said that the arrowhead is blunt and made of rubber, which I cannot verify.
Too poor guy, my sympathy with him.
Hey! Speaking of William Tell, here’s another fun fact discovery, from the miraculous land of Serendip:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell
Uri! Is there a political dimension to this story that is somehow being missed?
Perhaps the judge resembled the “local evil dude” — Hermann Gessler, the Austrian “Vogt” (English translation = “count”, if I remember correctly. Though I doubt if the real Hermann would have appreciated being called a “dude”, and he sure wasn’t a “local” either).
For “Habsburgs”, substitute “Americans”; for “old Swiss confederacy”, substitute “a reunified Korea”.
Of course, our hero should have taken his crossbow shot at Commander USFK (not the local magistrate). Deep down inside, I’ll secretly admit to you my blogging brothers that I’d sort of like to see Cdr USFK put his “scrambled eggs” service cap up on a pole in Yonsan, and demand that all the USFK personnel (and the Korean employees) bow before it.
An improbable and unlikely spectacle, admittedly. I suppose my strained political analogy needs a little more work.
Sounds like a target arrow, since a bladed or pointed arrow would have penetrated deeper and (in the case of a bladed arrow) left a wider wound. Still, it’s pretty messed up to go after a judge with a crossbow, even if the intent is only to scare rather than to actually shoot him.
If he were a “real” Korean, he would have used a Korean compound bow in lieu of a crass, plebian crossbow. By the way, Baduk, informative post. (Ouch, can’t believe I said that.)
Judges in Korea sometimes are on the take.
More often, though, they are just operating in a system that, as Baduk describes, works like a herd of wildebeasts on migration.
A friend’s company currently has a case pending against a former Korean executive who was engaged in systematically looting the company accounts for his own benefit. The company has reams of documentation to back up its case, some of the most damning of which includes detailed records of phony transactions set up by the perp and cronies of his outside the company (ostensible suppliers, trade association officials, etc) that were dummied up to launder company money that he and his pals were using to “live large” on the golf courses and in the brothels. The judge in the case is trying to persuade the company to withdraw the most conclusive (and salacious) evidence before it becomes public in the course of one of the case hearings because in his words it’s too typical of what goes on in Korea, would tarnish Korea’s reputation and would damage too many relationships.
Imagine the reaction if Bruce Cutler were to have moved to exclude the testimony of Sammy the Bull Gravano in the prosecution of John Gotti on the grounds that it would upset the Mob’s kibun.
To me the amazing thing about this story is how rarely we hear such stories (ie, attempted murder) in Korea. As emotional as Korean people often seem to be, they usually know where to draw the line. In this aspect, the rest of us should emulate them.
How about we “emulate” ROK citizens’ indifference to the fate of DPRK refugees in China? (See example, two posts above).
We could, for example, pull the USFK out of the ROK. Is that the type of “emulation” you have in mind?
If I was an ROK citizen, I’d be careful about advising on “emulation”. If you’ve got a fanciful imagination, you might start thinking you can hear the laughter of the gods.
Well yeah, but I hear the suicide rate is still through the roof, which I guess is a good thing - the maladjusted are offing themselves rather than others. Things just start getting fucked up when parents start taking their children out with them.
Paul H,
I fixed your comment but be more careful in the future or I will call the blockquote nazi on you.
I just want to point out the Joongnag Headline:
Seoul’s finest at work!
Thanks for fixing. Not quite sure what happened, I thought I had sucessfully deleted an inadvertent extra “b-quote”.
If it’s possible without bandwidth degradation, a readily acccessible set of instructions for each “gray box” would be useful. For those like me — ones who can follow instructions, but who lack that particular “computer nerd” instinct for readily figuring out arcane stuff.
Especially since this blog’s format regularly “sheds its skin” every so often.
Ugh. Bevers is not martyr. He brought this all on himself….and for spending an inordinate amount of time and energy to discuss ROCKS. And he’s STILL discussing rocks. I hope he’s happy now. Was it worth it?
Hello, there is this totally evil story on Donga newspaper about what happened in China.
http://www.donga.com/fbin/outp.....mp;top20=1
Totally unbelievable and evil. Something that could have happened in 16th century or before. Evil maximized!
How can they gangraped the girl and then tear parts of her out while poking needles into her dead body? Was it a live body?
Sick, sick, sick. Only the Chinese can do this type of evil. Strike that. The Japanese did maruta in Manchuria. Well, that was done during war time.
But, this..this is so evil.
Somebody should make movie out of this story. So sensational and evil.
It has sex, violence, destruction, conspiracy, coverup, police corruption, a sacrificial lamb, degeneracy, blood, needle, body parts, parents, mob, fire, beating, sin, past victims, riot, local politician, passion, China, foreign locale, hotel…
This story has all Hollywood themes.
Yeah, sex and crime sells…
I totally disagree! Just because Gerry Bevers is a totally moronic idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut, doesn’t mean he should shoot himself with a crossbow! Come on people, be more sensitive please.
–Remort
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyadarshini_Mattoo
This case, too.
The government which makes a monopoly of the authority to punkshment lets go of the injustice or help the injustice, so now is the time of private sanction or private retalitation.
Unlike Priyadarshini Mattoo’s case, ex-prof. Kim had had no spotlight from the mdia before the incident in spite of his endeaver.
It’s his homepage,
http://www.geocities.com/henrythegreatgod
I have known him long before this incident.
CyberBegger,
Thanks for the link to Prof. Kim’s site. I visited it and it’s quite a disturbing story of injustice.
An excerpt from Mathematical Intelligencer, which is linked to on Prof Kim’s site:
Prof. Kim was screwed over by Sungkyunkwan University, the Korean Mathematical Society, and the justice system.
While it’s easy to sympathtize with the weak and tempting to make judgements on this case, I’d suggest that you actually read over the ruling Judge Park wrote. It is true that his colleagues didn’t like the fact that he pointed out a problem on an exam. That’s just one small part of the case. (and the only part he was interested in) Court record shows that he offered at least one student an “A” in his class as long as he made his fellow students to register for his class. Kim also insulted other professors in his classes. Do universities really have a legal obligation to renew his employment contract? (Note he was never fired. His contract didn’t get renewed.)
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[...] remember former Sungkyunkwan University professor Kim Myung-ho, who shot a Seoul High Court justice with a crossbow at the judge’s residence in January? Well, in his appeal, Kim is claiming that his shooting [...]