Did anyone else feel relieved that the three people — including a taxi driver — who’ve been arrested in connection with the recent kidnapping and murder of two women who’d been partying in the Hongik University area were NOT foreigners?
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25 Comments
wow, the description of the crime sounds quite horrific.
“… in order to raise money to open a restaurant together…” - what a lame reason to rob, rape and murder someone. there are no valid reasons for such heinous acts, but this one is particularly retarded.
May the poor ladies find rest in peace. And may all the worst things I’ve seen in all the prison movies happen to these three jackasses at frequent interval for the rest of their natural lives.
Holy crap! I was just living across from the M2 club in Hongdae for the past summer. That’s horrible. You see alot of weirdos there, but you never think it can happen until it does.
Just curious. Do you feel this kind of relief every single time you see a crime committed by Koreans?
Criminals the world over are not exactly geniuses, but some of them here take the cake (do some of you remember back around the time of the Asian crisis when a few people cut off their feet to get insurance money by claiming that it was done by gangsters?). This particular crime sounds similar to one that happened a couple of years ago in which a couple of guys had a fake taxi to pick up unsuspecting ajummah’s and murdered them for their credit cards. They found six bodies in one guy’s apartment. Stupidity knows no bounds when it comes to criminals.
No, I’m not relieved at all. I feel disturbed by the fact that 3 men could plan such a crime against women.
Danson:
They wanted to go into the restaurant business. It takes a certain level of stupidity to think they can make money doing that.
Like #3 & #5, I find it hard to use the word “relief” in connection with this incident. It really doesn’t matter what type of human perpetrated a horrible crime, it’s still horrible. Sometimes I think we make it harder by making so much effort to point out the differences, as if Koreans and the rest of us were on two opposing teams.
When it’s a violent crime committed in Korea, yes, I do. I wager that most of us who are not Koreans do.
Do you have a problem with that?
I think it is the Koreans themselves who emphasize that distinction, not us.
Judging from this post (and many others), it appears to be a two-way street, dogbertt.
Does it? I don’t think so.
I have mixed feelings about this kind of news story. I’m relieved that the perps were caught but feel uneasy knowing that there are others like them out there. I’m less concerned about foreigner backlash and far more concerned about crime itself.
Where is the candlelight vigil being held?
Where is the candlelight vigil being held?
Off-topic but interesting crime story about five Korean high schoolers in Shanghai who were arrested by Chinese police after riding around on motorbikes, beating up and relieving locals of their valuables:
http://news.hankooki.com/lpage.....975170.htm
Thank goodness the Korean teenaged boys at our school in China only spent their parents’ money on drugs and prostitutes.
I think the reasons for any relief felt about these murders are this:
1) Had the perpetrators been non-Koreans, there would be a huge uproar about it in the Koren press and amongst Korean netizens. As it is, this incident will most likely be completely forgotten by most of the media and K-netizens by dinner tonight. If non-Koreans had killed those women, then candlelight vigils would be being held already, as has already been alluded to, and we would be subjected to hearing about it on a daily basis well into next year.
2) There is a tendency amongst Koreans to think that Koreans are incapable of such atrocities, that such actions are only committed by foreigners. When it comes to light that Koreans have done something as horrible as this, especially for the alleged dumbass reasons these murders were committed, it brings to light to the mainstream press and everyday Korean that, indeed, Koreans are capable of being as murderous as the well of the uncivilised world is.
Of course, a crime is a crime and whosoever commits it does not any more or less heinous make it, but that’s just my humble, Westernised opinion.
My personal reaction to the news that Koreans did this was not necessarily relief, but I can certainly see why non-Koreans living here feel relief.
I hope you paranoid dimwits are not caught smoking marijuana in Korea, for then your delusions may come true.
Feeling relieved indeed…
Check out the picture of the man leading the murderer. It looks queer to me. The law enforcement officer of some sort is feeling the murderers arm as if they were brothers walking down the street.
https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/08/31/200708310054.asp
When I read about this morning, “relieved” wasn’t exactly the reaction I had. Admittedly, perhaps in the back of my mind somewhere there was the shared thought that this would be an absolute firestorm if the guys were foreigners.
But mostly I just recoiled at the pointless horror of it all, the thought of what these girls went through, and what their families must be going through now.
This was just horrific and tragic, and to the extent that one immediately views this through an expat prism (not an accusation directed at anyone in particular), well, seems kind of cold, cynical, and self-indulgent.
When it happens in Hongdae or Itaewon, yeah.
I find it strange that expats would be nervous about the incident. First of all, the Korean media, which feeds on sensationalism, wasn’t making a big deal out of this incident, nor linking it to foreigners.
Also, as Koreans, my wife and I never assumed for a second that the crimes were carried out by foreigners. Nor did any of the Koreans that we know. Koreans didn’t give much thought to the matter, and those that who did talk about it assumed that it was done by some sicko(Korean) sex predator.
My condolences to the families of the young women and may the souls of the young women rest in peace.
The paranoia and insecurity of many of the expatriate posters on this blog probably stems from a failure to fully understand their adopted land, and hence comfortably adapt. We see this in the continual racist stereotyping, prejudicial attitudes, condescending manner and general projections of ones unease with oneself.
If I had to visit the in-laws every weekend and have to listen to them babble on about me in a foreign language I couldn’t understand I’d probably get paranoid too.
This failure to adapt also precipitates anger toward the Kyopo, who the non-ethnically Korean expatriate presumes to enjoy a less alienated existence in Korea, leading to jealousy and bitterness.
All in all, this blog was a great larf and I can’t wait until the next sound of drums and chanting in the villages keeps this lot awake at night. The natives are restless.
임수 aren’t you stereotyping here, too? Who said all white people in Korea didn’t understand their in laws? Or even have in-laws, for that matter? And criticizing doesn’t mean not understanding either…
You’re right dda on all counts. I claim no higher perspective than others here, just my own.
However, the majority of “white” comment-whores appearing less like a stereotype and more like a coagulation — they have issues they have yet to perceive.
I still liked this line though.
The natives are restless.
Paranoid freaks.
I too am truly sorry for the innocent and their families. I too feel relieved that it was not an English teacher or soldier who committed the crime. I have been around long enough to know that the barbarians are the de-facto sink for all things distasteful too Koreans. Face it, it is fact.