Despite having an apparent expert in the field as head of state, police are cracking down on the massage parlors of Jangan-dong, leading to a backlash from local pimps — one of whom killed himself in protest.
The chief of Dongdaemun Police Station is standing his ground:
Despite the backlash, Lee Jung-goo, chief of the Dongdaemun Police Station, reaffirmed he would not ease up on the crackdown until his district is recognized as “prostitution-free zone.”
“I will put all my energy into eradicating the red-light district during my term since it has become a hotbed of tax evasion and other heinous crimes,” Lee said.
To the question over alleged undue suppression, he stressed “It’s an absurd claim. They ask us to guarantee their rights to live while perpetrating illegalities. It doesn’t make sense.”
Frankly, of all the social ills to put all your energy into eradicating, paid handjobs ranks rather low on my list — especially when it’s perfectly legal to get them for free.
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That is a wonderfully amusing title Robert. Lennon would have smiled.
OK I take back my earlier slams of the KT, it’s pure comedy gold and everyone should read it:
“a pimp identified as a Choi hung himself in his underground parking lot” So he was “a Choi” was he? And he had his own underground parking lot? Awesome.
Says the bank robber: “I need money to live. Please understand my
situation.”
Says the embezzeler: “Times are tough. I must do this. Please
understand.”
Says the kiddie porn photographer: “Please understand my situation.
I need to live.”
Says the car thief: “I must make money somehow. My situation is so
difficult. Understand my mind.”
Says the Korean government, media, and public: “Awwwww . . .We must
understand their poor situations here. They aren’t predators and
con artists, they are VICTIMS.”
Says anyone else with a brain: [nothing, too astounded at such
absurdity, gullibleness, and stupidity to put it into words]
It’s great to see they are so concerned about tax evasion in these districts. But wait:
“We ruled against an actual jail sentence as the degree of illegality was not significant enough,” said Judge Min Byong-hoon [Lee Kun-Hee's judge]. Evading taxes on the order of over $100 million is setting the bar a bit high for these pimps, isn’t it?
Prostitution and tax evasion are certainly the first two things that come to mind when I think of “heinous” crimes. I guess Mr. Lee and his men have already solved all the real crime in his district.
Yeah. I mean, Jesus, doesn’t even sound as bad as your average day on the Korean stock exchange.
And heck, the hyugaetel don’t even provide “sex,” at least in the Clintonian sense of the word.
“I will put all my energy into eradicating the red-light district during my term since it has become a hotbed of tax evasion and other heinous crimes,” Lee said.
Great, but the ‘red-light’ district’s actually lit up in pink, Chief Lee. (You know, this might explain their years-long inability to eradicate it.)
To be fair, the police chief is right that red light districts and illegal prostitution does lead to a whole bunch of other, more serious, problems. Whether to legalize or simply ignore illegality are two very different solutions, though.
Yeah, Notlob is exactly right. If you think red light districts aren’t hotbeds of heinous crime, go spend a night or two hanging around the ER in a hospital near a red-light district. From the stories I’ve heard from my fiancee and a few other doctor acquaintances, the red light district ER has to deal with crap you almost never see at a “normal” hospital.
I’m talking warzone-level, inner-city ghetto-quality crap: stabbings, numerous rape cases, strung-out people who act out violently while being treated in the ER, and even things that pose risks for the staff, like morons acting out violently who happen to be HIV positive and don’t want their bloodwork done.
Ever known anyone who caught HIV at work? (Ah, here comes a hooker joke.) Ever known what a sinking feeling it is to be talking to the third rape victim that week and realize, yeah, this sounds like that serial rapist who’s been going around the neighborhood again? Still think red-light districts (as they now stand in Korea) aren’t insane festering messes, the eradication of which would benefit great numbers of people?
(Not that I’m saying anyone in the ostensible justice system is taking THAT stuff seriously, mind you. But maybe they get away with doing so because everyone else is so busy making sex jokes and hooker jokes and so on.)
?
Anjinsan, you’re mixing your own morals with the law. Just bc something is illegal does not mean that it’s inherently bad and vice versa.
Yeah, what’s the big deal about the exploitation of women who grew up in abusive or otherwise shitty households and continue living in a cycle of abuse based on their lost self-esteem. Such places also do a service by taking gullible women who get entrapped in debt and forced to pay back through prostitution by the mob off the streets. The police should focus on something more important, like issuing parking tickets or sleeping in parked patrol cars.
Need more time to get a real job? Whatever. It’s not work they want, it’s money for nothing. There is such a shortage of workers in Korea that factories are bringing in people from South East Asia.
Yes, Tom, it is true.
Kiddie porn, car theft, embezzlement,
prostitution, and any type of robbery
are good things which almost all societies
ban just for the fun of it.
Things are rarely as they seem.
Are the police busting the johns, or are they simply upset that their kickbacks from the pimps aren’t enough ?
“… go spend a night or two hanging around the ER in a hospital near a red-light district.”
Considering there is a whorehouse in one form or another on just about every street corner in this country, doesn’t that fact place every hospital near a red-light district?
“Yes, Tom, it is true.
Kiddie porn, car theft, embezzlement,
prostitution, and any type of robbery
are good things which almost all societies
ban just for the fun of it.”
As a libertarian, I am for the legalization of prostitution and drugs. Banning vices can backfire and create more socially unacceptable outcomes.
You tend to see everything as black and white.
Yea, like I’m gonna be for kiddie porn and seeing women exploited. You’re inching closer to Godwin’s Law.
Sometimes govts ban things bc some assholes place their own morals over others. Case in point, alcohol was banned during the Prohibition in the U.S. Should alcohol be banned then? So anything legal is good? Dont see things so black and white…
Anton@16,
Not quite. While the sex trade operates in just about every neighborhood, the “red light” districts are the ones where it dominates the local economy to the marginalization of everything else. The ones where it’s not just in the open, but without even a facade of being something else.
And from what I’ve heard, the ER of any hospital near one is a pretty constant horror show, because there’s much more violent crime as well as more sex crime in the vicinity.
17, What? Keep believing whatever you
are trying to sell. (Nobody’s gonna buy it anyway.)
17, What? Keep believing whatever you
are trying to sell. (Nobody’s gonna buy it anyway.)
Yeah, they’re all victims waiting to be rescued!!! Get real, for many it’s a simple easy way to finance their lifestyle, which is the reason some of ‘em are in debt in the first place.
Note: Many, not all, and not necessarily most.
Many of us don’t want a nanny state, and most statistics suggest crimes are worse where there is no paid relief.
“Yeah, what’s the big deal about the exploitation of women who grew up in abusive or otherwise shitty households and continue living in a cycle of abuse based on their lost self-esteem.”
Where’s your statistics, do you really think all of them have such a background or is this based on personal research!
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[...] Note: As Notlob and Gord Sellar pointed out in my previous post on this issue, prostitution may very well be [...]