Scott Burgeson was at Saturday night’s peaceful defense of South Korean democracy against the Lee Myung-bak dictatorship, and apparently didn’t like what he saw.
Read the whole thing in its entirety, and then consider doing what Scott suggests in his conclusion:
I have sent four emails to Amnesty International detailing exactly the kinds of incidents that I have described here, since their recent report on “police abuse of human rights” during these demonstrations was clearly biased and was obviously manipulated by the protesters to their own advantage. Amnesty International, however, has ignored me so far, because apparently they are unconcerned with the truth. Perhaps they have given it an amnesty for now?
If you are as offended by their unconscionable attitude as I am, feel free to copy the eye-witness report I have written here and send it to AI in triplicate:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/contact
These dead-enders have clearly gone off the deep-end, knocking police unconscious, attacking ordinary citizens and making violent threats to local residents like me simply because I do not agree with them.
When will this madness ever end?
For comparison’s sake, here’s the Amnesty International press release on the police response to the US beef protests… the English version, at least.
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Scott Burgeson’s long-delayed brush with reality is in full swing, it seems. How long before he’s over here quoting the Weekly Standard?
I wonder whether he’ll put two and two together and recognize the same lies and distortions as he’s witnessing with his own two eyes in these street protests may have been foisted on him in his cherished Save Pimatgol campaign?
Your first link, (”apparently didn’t like what he saw”) to King Beaksu.com leads to a 403 forbidden page.
I used to respect AI, but the fucked up with this one
#2: The link works in IE, not Firefox.
All of a sudden the lefties are shocked that Amnesty is a biased organization. It always has been, only your ideological blinders haven’t let you see that until now.
wow. this pisses me off. even though the general population has some idea, they don’t know the full truth due to lack of dilligence by the “media.”
At Berkeley during protests in the early 80s against apartheid, the hardcore left used to stand at the back of protesting crowds and hurl rocks over the heads of the other protesters to hit the police.
Why?
Why, to foment revolution, of course.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I don’t have much respect for the bleeding heart liberals of the world, but without them for balance to the nutbag right wing freaks, what kind of dictatorial world of shit would we live in?
Mr. Burgeson had this letter to the editor in the IHT much earlier.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....etters.php
Was on my home in a cab last night around 12:30am moving from Chongro 4 to Chongro 1 and I passed by this bullshit. Around Chongro 2-3 there were people out in the street just blocking traffic. That was their only objective. They were standing in both lanes heading toward Dongdaemun. Some were even leaning on the hoods of cars they had stopped. Apparently every one travelling that route in a car at that time was a US beef loving Lee Myung Bak flunkie. Or is there another explanation for this kind of ‘democratic’ expression? I saw in the news that a drunk guy decided to just plow into them. Heh, heh.
I personally witnessed these peaceful protesters trying to break down the doors of the Koreana hotel. There was one brute police officer inside. Did he hurt a protester, sought refuge in the hotel and the peaceful protesters were trying to get to him and have a talk? (I am still trying to figure out where breaking into the hotel to do god knows what has anything to do with protesting beef, either peacefully or violently)
I had to take my vendor through the hotel’s parking lot after they kindly lifted up the parking gate a mere meter out of fear that the peaceful protesters might bum rush another entrance.
It was my first protest limbo.
The Koreana Hotel shares its building with the Chosun Ilbo and I believe the hotel is owned by the newspaper’s publisher. The Chosun Ilbo is Enemy of People™.
I wonder whether he’ll put two and two together and recognize the same lies and distortions as he’s witnessing with his own two eyes in these street protests may have been foisted on him in his cherished Save Pimatgol campaign?
What are the same lies and distortions Brenden?
# 12
Don’t worry, he is blogging to himself or it’s directed to the Swell Fella Club.
# 11
“The Korean Hotel shares its building with the Chosun Ilbo and I believe the hotel is owned by the newspaper’s publisher. The Chosun Ilbo is Enemy of People.”
Yeah, I know. And?
Re: #4
“#2: The link works in IE, not Firefox.
All of a sudden the lefties are shocked that Amnesty is a biased organization. It always has been, only your ideological blinders haven’t let you see that until now.”
The difference is the respectable (American) lefties will call a spade a spade, regardless of spectrum, whereas most (American) righties tend to look the other way when “one of their own” does something glaringly wrong.
@7, you dont balance the system by having another maniac.
Careful about comments linking Korea’s lefties with America’s left. Both can be annoying, but the similarities end there.
What’s “leftist” in Korea is antithetical to most American leftists. It’s no surprise Korea’s Amnesty is so biased and so dishonest, but I don’t think it reflects on the organization as a whole.
@13, it seems he’s pretending he’s gone to bed. I’ll have to wait til tomorow for him to regale me of his wisdom.
Completely agree with #16. The Korean left and the American left are incredibly different, though many bloggers/commentators don’t pick up on this (rokdrop, which I read regularly and appreciate, is a fine example). I am on the ‘left’ in the U.S., but I find that I often agree with the Korean right rather than the Korean left.
For the umpteenth time: South Korea doesn’t have a left, per se. They are xenophobic enthnocentrists. Nothing more, nothing less. Please use more precision when labeling these people.
From the link:
In a world that revolves around yourself, that can be the only reason.
Can’t be that that address get probably hundreds of emails a day (a lot of them from people with an ax to grind)… Why should they believe what all you say? The power of your words proves it? The strength of your conviction makes it true?
Next Saturday get it on video. Riskier, but if you are willing to grab thugs by the backpack and pull them back, you may be the man for the job.
#18, I can’t agree with you more, and I also have to sometimes do the same when reading GI Korea’s blog. But at least he isnt as bad as onefreekorea’s constant “Fox news Alert” politics.
Why has this link been censored?
The mob was at it again last night, as they attacked and kidnapped two young riot cops. They beat them up and stripped them down naked to humiliate them.
무법천지
http://image.chosun.com/siteda.....0095_0.jpg
In the West such kidnappings like this would be considered a grave crime against the authority. In Korea, it’s not so serious – just hazards of duty.
The cops can’t do anything and whatever they do anyway. Or else they’ll have Korean civic organizations, the media, the US Embassy human rights report, and the Amnesty International come down on them as violators of human rights.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
If I was the police chief, I would just disband the riot cops. There will be no law and order as long as the riot cops stand there as punching bags and have to absorb the anger of the radicals.
With the riot cops gone, what will the rioters do? They’ll probably arbitrarily and randomly and frequently shut down the roads, businesses whenever they feel like it. That will piss off a lot of Koreans. Then the Police chief can say “hey the protesters have the right to protest and we shouldn’t violate their human rights – so protest all you like”.
It’s funny how reactive so many people are. Korean nationalists reacting to Dokdo, so many expats reacting to the Korean nationalists, almost everyone reacting to the candlelight village people who are reacting to MBC who reacted to whatever.
The Korean police do fine, cm. Back in the old days, they would have taken these people and beaten them senseless in a sign-less building with no windows. If they weren’t sure who was behind it, they would have rounded anyone they remotely suspected.
They don’t do this anymore. They are now a fence to keep the wild herd from roaming outside, but they don’t shoot at or abuse the wild herd.
That’s not a satisfying response if you think the wild herd is a bunch of North-led simpletons, so REACTION might seem the best course of action.
But it’s not. Sit back and savor the growing anger that the general Korean populace feels as they get inconvenienced day after day after day by these vigil people, enjoy the real change in attitude as the general public listens to their nonsense each day and realizes that they are violent thug-wannabes full of garbage.
But do write to Amnesty International and point them in the direction of whatever photo or video evidence can be gathered.
Ohmynews has a good run down of how the pigs abuse innocent candle light protesters. The article has a story of a former draftee who felt so guilty of unjustly beating up people, so he quit. There’s now civic group working to abolish the system that drafts riot pigs.
http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_We.....mp;NEW_GB=
What a crock of shit. It would be swell if the cops would finally go medieval on these pissants, and justify all of the whiny crap they are absorbing from the press an AI.
When I was at Yeonsei back in the 80’s, I always fantasized about filling my Dad’s 6-ton manure spreader up with semi-liquid chicken shit and driving it through the main gate of the campus and up the hill during a ‘demo’.
Have the Korean cops run out of teargas or something? The good stuff, I mean.
Chicken shit is pretty potent, as well as persistent, and it actually helps out the landscaping. And would-be revolutionaries wouldn’t feel so much like they’re part of the vanguard if they’re covered head-to-toe with the literal version of what they like to dish out, figuratively…
I never realized that there was such a large, powerful, and well-funded communist contingent here in Seoul. What’s even more surprising is that people continue to call them “lefties”, “liberals”, and my personal favorite distortion “Democrats”.
The fact that the current administration is so tolerant of them is more than just a little unsettling…it it complicity or are they just refusing to just them their just desserts to avoid being called “fascists”?
“refusing to give them their just desserts to avoid being called fascists.”
Michigander, the “left” here are “xenophobic enthnocentrists” as basilides said above, not communists in any meaningful sense, and they’re neither powerful or large compared to the total population. They’re long on rhetoric and short on coherent ideology.
They have allies in the National Assembly who are using the protests as a proxy to cripple Pres. Lee’s government, and I think he should call them out on it, but he’s already given so much ground that his authority seems very weak now.
#23,
http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/10/07/
#25–cm, is that satire? The violence is instigated by the protesters and hundreds of kids doing their military service are injured by it. They’re used as human punching bags, as we see night after night on TV.
The “civic” group that wants to stop draftees from being riot police should be careful what they wish for–the kids could be replaced by older, professional police who won’t take this shit.
@ 21 & 18,
I am struggling to think of any time I have compared the American left to the Korean left? Could you please point this out.
Re: Comparing the American left to the Korean left. I do it all the time. Both groups have an unnerving totalitarian streak, and lie all the time about matters which are simple to verify — they don’t care about truth so much as Truthiness.
And you think the right has a monopoly on said ‘truth’? Gimmeafugginbreak, they are as bad as each other.
Anyway Brendon, going back to my question @ 12…
I don’t see any contradiction in opposing both police brutality and violent demonstrators in Korea. Nor do I see any problem in being critical of both Korean “conservative” and “progressives.” Feeling obliged to choose one side or the other is something that both the so-called left and right in Korea would be more than happy for you to do. So for those of you who want to buy into the labels, pick a side, and dumb yourselves down, go ahead!
Nobody will understand the actions of these violent protestors except for the protestors themselves. Thank goodness they only account for the minority of the population. The number of people participating in these events is going down by the weeks and I believe that using such violent & senseless tactics are a last resort to a dieing movement.
Oh dear, he seems to be ignoring me. Must have been a Libertarian jape I made – either that ort he can’t argue a point – not very good form for a lawyer!
Re the Korean left v the Western left, I don’t think they’re actually that different when it boils down to it.
“Xenophobic ethnocentrism” is not an exclusive leftist idea here – you’ll find it crosses almost all political spectrums in Korea. Anti-Americanism is a shared leftist theme in the ROK and West, so are union movements, particularly education unions. Anti-FTA and anti-WTO protests (tied in with the beef bruhaha) are also leftist causes worldwide.
Still, its a bit silly trying to draw comparisons between a hardcore minority of extreme nutbag cop bashers in an anti-beef protest with, say, someone who wants to preserve some historical buildings in their neighbourhood – or any other cause for that matter. As ther subject of this post has quite clearly demonstrated – despite a few snarky comments to the contrary – many “lefties” are actualy quite good at calling a spade a spade when they see one. kudos to scott.
19/basilides “For the umpteenth time: South Korea doesn’t have a left, per se. They are xenophobic enthnocentrists.”
Umpteenth time? I don’t recall seeing your username before – but I do recall this comment – which means you’re a sock, but I can’t remember which troll you obviously belong to.
33/Brendon – “Unnerving totalitarian streak running through them” – ah, yes, Western leftists do believe government should be run by intellectuals. I guess that excludes most of the Right, huh?
#33 – Do you see the irony of using the term “truthiness” to deride leftists, when it was originally made in reference to Fox News and the O’Reilly/Hannity/Coulter Triumvirate of Bullcrap?
Really, is there a liberal equivalent of Fox News?
“Nobody will understand the actions of these violent protestors except for the protestors themselves…”
That’s crap. Petulant 5-year-olds raised without sufficient respect for someone other than themselves.
They’re not lefties, they’re spoiled, whiny, hedonistic college brats who think they are entitled to everything. It’s some funny shit, too. They’re the same loud mouths who scream out “Korean Pride” every chance they get, then they turn around and assault the nation’s finest without provokation. Due to their continuing unproked attacks and biased media coverage they made a mockery of the Combat Police Corp for the world to see.
Yeah, that would really help Korea’s image as a country of calm people and effecient police force. Idiots.
And for what? For nothing. We don’t live under an authoritarian goverment anymore.
“Really, is there a liberal equivalent of Fox News?”
The rest of mainstream media?
Give me an O!
O!
Give me a B!
B!
Give me an A!
(you get the idea)
Hey #43:
http://www.latimes.com/news/po.....2999.story
“The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.”
#44,
Former CNN employees have spoken of a deliberate shift in its coverage in order to compete for viewers with Fox News.
#44, The negative comments that broke 28% for McCain and 43% for Obama are only a small amount of the overall coverage, which Obama enjoys at a lead of 2-to-1. All three network anchors joined him on his coronation tour campaign trip to Europe and the Middle East, which is something they have not done for McCain.
He is Neo, the anointed one.
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