Police in Mapo-gu sport their new Ferrari F575.
The pasta rocket was produced for ceremonial use for Mapo Police Station, who plan to use it as part of their joint campaign to get locals to obey traffic laws.
Mapo-gu Cops and Their New Ferrari
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Must be a lot of barber shops in the Gu to pay for that car:)
this has to be the biggest waste of money i’ve ever seen in seoul. how about they just hire competent police officers to do their damn job and stop people when they break the law? the police in korea are bunch of jokes nobody respects their authority and certainly driving around in a ferarri isn’t gonna help how little people already think of them. and what’s with the 3 fruitcakes rapping at the end of the video?
I don’t understand the rationale behind this halo squad car thing. Sure, Porsche Turbo’s on the Autobahn, but anywhere else. If I saw it, I’d want to throw rocks at it. pasta rocket?? whats wrong with Carbonara?
if u ask me its a damn waste of a pussy magnet
Fancy defacing a beautiful car like that!
Why dont they purchase Mont Blanc pens for all the cops so when they write up tix, people will be inspired to follow the law as well. How about purchase some Versace uniforms too? Morons.
How much is the upkeep for parts and servicing?
And seriously, what good is a ferrari when local traffic moves at 10/mph and highway traffic at 20? I dont think the car will ever see beyond second gear.
The other day I was stopped at a red light when a car drove right on through it. A cop car was stopped at the light as well, but of course the cops just watched the guy drive away. Pathetic.
I guess you can sleep in a Ferrari, too.
On the lame tv dramas that
my wife forces me to watchajumahs watch, police cars actually chase and apprehend the bad guys with guns drawn on city streets that just happen to be quite empty. Groooaannn…But in reality for example, I recall this rich ajossi getting pulled out of his Audi for failing the breathalizer at a random checkpoint near my pad. The guy was belligerent, evening pushing and shoving the cops, which is not surprising since he’s clearly drunk. But the cops didn’t do anything! They just took it and eventually let him go! Back in the states, he would have been beaten Rodney King style for that sh*t.
and what is up with the cops driving around with their siren lights on all the time??
It’s funny how some idiot expats are always complaining about the Korean police and about crime in Korea.
It’s driven by moral indignation and self-righteousness more than anything, since empirical data and facts don’t really warrant it. Anecdotal evidence and experience, combined with moral indignation and self-righteousness, seems to be the perfect recipe for expat stupidity.
The police in Korea are a “bunch of jokes” and not respected because by and large Korea is an orderly society. The police in the US by contrast aren’t so much respected as they are feared – feared for their increasingly taser and trigger happy ways, for being trained essentially like paramilitaries with the power and ability to easily kill, and for the fact that being sent to prison in the US isn’t simply a matter of serving time in a cell behind bars, but a de facto ass rape sentence and a possible death sentence. In a word, torture. If Cullen Thomas is to be believed, prison in Korea is like summer camp.
The police of a particular society or nation is as much the symptom, or a reflection, of the crime, law, and order of the society or nation.
I see Korean cops get pushed around as well. I know it’s the culture when it comes to not doing anything to an older person. But I also think it’s because usually they’re skinny as shit. and dont have that indimidating factor which I think doesnt necessarily conflict with being approachable. Instead of a ferrari, they should invest in a gym in every police station. With 4억, I’m sure you can at least by a bench press for each and all police stations in Korea.
It’s driven by moral indignation and self-righteousness more than anything
In my case, it’s driven by actually haveing been run over by Koreans on the streets of Seoul because the Korean cops are lazy scumbags and Korean men are self-centred jerks.
If those cops really want to impress while cruising around in their new Ferrari, they need to ditch the uniforms in favor of unconstructed blazers and baggy trousers and have instrumental music by Jan Hammer blaring from the speakers.
um, i would suspect that’s more just because they are not required to eat a dozen donuts while waiting for the bad guys to show up.
i thought that it was just in the films the american cops being fat, until i went to the states. the patrol cops looked like they should be patrolled by the fat patrol.
Seems like a tool move, if the italians do it (Lamborghini squad cars) why can’t the Koreans. Well because they have style . In Sydney they have an undercover Lamborghini and some WRX’a and Nissan GTR’s. These were not bought, they were confiscated under hoon laws and also for being bought with drug money.
And Mkaplan, you also are a tool if you think the traffic police do an even remotely competent job. The most I have seen them do is move people on that are blocking roads because they decided to park where they wanted to. You want to talk numbers, look at Korea’s traffic fatality rate and tell me that is acceptable.
Lots of butthurt Charismamen in here who will never get to drive a Ferrari in their lives. Enjoy your mediocrity, crackers.
That all depends on where you go, and I don’t find that to be generally true. Those seem like small town cops. Most cops I’ve met are young and muscular. Highway patrol cops tend to be that way too.
But as far as I’m concerned they’re assholes anyway. A necessary evil.
Now that they’ve finally more or less closed down all the counterfeit brand name women’s handbag mfrs, it’s apparently time to really move upmarket and let Korean chopshops get in on the fake goods action. how fitting that their first customers should be the
Keystonekimchi kops. Whadda ya bet the driver’s brother-in-law owns a tow truck service?I hope it was forfeited property. A Hyundai Pony would have drawn more looks in that neighborhood .
The police in Korea are a “bunch of jokes” and not respected because by and large Korea is an orderly society.
Guess you didn’t read the newstory the other day about the 60+% increase in violent crimes (by Koreans) against persons in Korea last year, or the one about Korea leading the OECD in auto-caused pedestrian deaths.
inkevitch,
You’re a tool if you think that I even mentioned the traffic police in my comment.
You’re the one that needs to take a look at the numbers. See here and here.
Korea is an orderly society? I hope your tongue was firmly planted in cheek when you wrote that.
If sweeping problems under the rug, pretending it doesn’t exist or if acknowledging the problem but blaming it on others means Korea is an orderly society… then yeah, sure.
It’s not exactly a new car. That particular model went out of production in 2006. I can’t imagine how why they would pay 4억 for a car that’s worth less than 150 000$.
The cops are f***ing useless when it comes to enforcing traffic laws. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people run red lights and the cops are watching and do nothing. About 3 weeks ago I almost got hit by an idiot doing that and the cops and the intersection didn’t bat an eye, just went on with their stupid lights flashing doing nothing.
Every single day when I drive my kids to school, at least 1-3 cars run each of the 3 sets of lights I hit on the way. Is it any wonder that Korea has the highest car accident rate in the OECD? It’s because they are morons who are too self absorbed to follow the rules for safety and would rather shave 2.5 seconds off their drive.
“It’s funny how some idiot expats are always complaining about the Korean police and about crime in Korea.
It’s driven by moral indignation and self-righteousness more than anything, since empirical data and facts don’t really warrant it. Anecdotal evidence and experience, combined with moral indignation and self-righteousness, seems to be the perfect recipe for expat stupidity.”
For me it’s based on dealing with them, their complete lack of control of the situation, their complete lack of professionalism, and on and on and on. My bad opinion of them has been formed by more than one experience, and at one time some very extensive involvement. No moral indignation or self-righteousness here. I appreciate the orderly society here, and am actually proud of it. I just wish that when people do get out of line, and they do, the police had the balls to protect others in their way. And in my case, the police have failed to do this every opportunity they have had.
Yes, why can’t Korean police be more like the police in the US? Police should be more like an occupying army and less like a friendly neighborhood guardian whom you can ask for directions and who isn’t necessarily going to beat you within an inch of your life when you are drunk and somewhat belligerent on the street.
’cause the cops there don’t need you,
and man, they expect the same.
“I appreciate the orderly society here, and am actually proud of it.”
I would expect the crime rate in Korea to be much lower than that of Canada, where violent gangs also compete for the lucrative illegal drug and prostitution markets with violence…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_Canada
But, Canada and South Korea have roughly the same crime rate. Simply put, it appears Korea has very few crimes because the media doesn’t cover crimes here (in Korea, you only hear of a serial killer or a serial rapist after he’s been arrested) while in North America crime is sensationalized (yes, two extremes of the spectrum).
…or rather, the Korean media gives little coverage to crime.
KrZ,
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
“Freedom” and “order” to some people here seem to involve being “policed” by an occupying army composed of jacked up, power tripping, over-armed guys willing to tackle/tase/shoot ordinary citizens at a moment’s notice, and punish you with simple jail sentences that are in reality torture sentences as they invariably involve ass rape, violent physical assaults, and possible death. All of these implicitly authoritarian methods and tactics are to no avail of course, as the US has enjoyed high crime rates for quite a while now with no indication that there will be a meaningful reduction any time soon.
There’s a term for this. It’s called Anarcho-tyranny. Real crime and criminals can’t or won’t be controlled and dealt with, while ordinary innocent citizens are controlled by a Byzantine and oppressive bureaucratic state.
The contradictions never end here…. as a way to encourage people to slow down, we will display this incredibly fast car.
My brother-in-law is a cop, and when he was in training he complained that due to Korea’s legal system police CAN’T forcefully deal with people–including drunk dickheads. Basically, police here are supposed to negotiate with and talk down wrongdoers. It’s a totally different legal system than in North America, for example. Of course this doesn’t explain why cops obviously don’t enforce laws like no driving your motorcycle on the sidewalk.
Mkaplan,
Didn’t really read your own link did you.
0.287/ million deaths from car collision. hmm, population 4.8.4 million that is roughly 14 deaths from automobile/ motorcycle/truck accidents a year. From that same database you linked to that is three times the number of death from (5) “flatulence and related conditions” and one third of (42) “accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed” which I can only imagine is fan death. Hmm, me thinks their source of data is shit.
I gather we may be arguing different things, but this is a traffic policing related thread and by not doing their job in policing traffic they can be perceived as incompetent (or possibly they have their hands tied behind their backs by laws).
There is a difference between living in a police state and living in a country where people have a reasonable fear of being caught and punished in a proportionate manner for their misdemeanours.
48.4 million
Cause they don’t want their jajjangmyeon going cold during delivery either.
Koreans are hopeless in traffic, but have you ever observed the traffic lights here? Good gawd, I can’t begin to imagine the number of times I’ve spent more than thirty seconds at a red light while zero traffic is crossing the intersection. 10 million cars idling for NOTHING. I don’t blame Koreans for running red lights. I blame the Korean government, with all their fancy technology, being to incompetent to install an advanced traffic light system. I pray for the day some government official figures out a way he can embezzle a few billion won out of such a project. Only THEN will something be done.
mkaplan and KrZ (KrZ despite your One Jar link):
I invite you to Sacramento. There’s a possibility that the prison-industrial complex’s armor might have cracked at least a tiny bit. Even the local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, has gone on record as saying “enough is enough with the prison costs.” Still, California laid off loads of teachers, and prisons didn’t get touched. Law enforcement still has plenty of funds for CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting). Don’t ask them to help you with identity theft or anything like that, however. They can’t be bothered to help you.
The solution to much of this civil liberties tragedy is staring us all in the face. End drug prohibition. Haven’t heard about any tobacco grows in the national forests lately, have you?
LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)
The rhetoricians amongst you might legitimately ask, “How did he go from a discussion on enforcing traffic laws to drug prohibition?” In my defense, I must confess that CAMP didn’t get it all, baby. They didn’t get it all. As I burn one in the Red Barn, somewhere a cop is polishing off a fifth of whiskey. Let him drink his whiskey, I say. It’s a tough job being part of a military force against your own countrymen.
drink driving and speeding the police do stop you. in addition they should stop for driving through red lights and not wearing a seat-belt as well as i am sure this is the major cause of fatality from accidents. on the other hand, i am always amazed at how they stop you for not using zebra crossings like it’s a big deal. this must be an american influence where the term “jaywalking” came from.
“But, Canada and South Korea have roughly the same crime rate.”
Do you have any data on this that you could cite? Or are you just working off of impressions? Total crimes per capita appear to be more than twice as high in Canada as they are in South Korea.
“Do you have any data on this that you could cite? Or are you just working off of impressions? Total crimes per capita appear to be more than twice as high in Canada as they are in South Korea.”
Coming up the top of a google search doesn’t make it a good source of statistics. Look at the source of the data, question if there is a reporting bias, possibly think. Then post the first thing that comes up on google. Unless you actually believe that 14 people die each year in Korea from car accidents there is the definite possibility that the source of nationmaster’s data on south korea is off.
Wait a minute…according to Yuna, Korea has much better technology for daily conveniences than the developed nations.
inkevitch,
I read the link. We all know that according to the recent OECD data, pedestrian deaths from vehicles are highest in Korea. Nobody has argued against this. The point of the linked data is to try to get a more comprehensive picture. The data is pretty hard to come by, but it is for the most part well sourced. If you know of any better data, feel free to share.
“There is a difference between living in a police state and living in a country where people have a reasonable fear of being caught and punished in a proportionate manner for their misdemeanours.”
I never said “police state.” I specifically said Anarcho-tyranny. When high crime rates have been the norm for so long, without any signs of significantly abating any time soon, I don’t see how you can plausibly claim that criminals in the US have a “reasonable fear of being caught and punished in a proportionate manner.” It’s only the ordinary, innocent citizens that have a reasonable fear of being tased, assaulted, arrested, caught by the police, and subsequently punished in a disproportionate manner (ass rape, violent physical assault, death, etc.), and this is why Anarcho-tyranny is an apt term to describe this state of affairs.
Why aren’t those blue thingy dingies on the Ferrari? I mean it must be a new car, right. There is some guy in my building’s parking gargage who bought his car the same time as me about a year ago. But he still has those blue thing dingies on his car.
They say that a car loses half its value as soon as it is driven off the car lot. But I think Koreans think that as long as they have those blue thingy dingies there car is still brand new. Maybe if some Korean dude has a slut for a daughter or wife he can glue those blue thingy dingies on her and she would be like virgin new. Korean brides should have blue thing dingies taped to their dress. I want to buy a piece of crap 1965 Volkswagon bug and put those blue thingy dingies on it and drive it around Kang Nam Dong just so maybe some brand/image obsessed Koreans get the point.
I told my wife the other day I’m going to sneak down into the garage one night and steal that dude’s blue thingy dingies. But you bet your ass that one time the police will decide to do their job. The next morning I would be on TV with my jacket over my head with the announcer saying foreign Han Nam University professor arrested for selling crack, raping squirrels, assaulting hardworking police officers, gambling with underage ajumafia women AND stealing blue thingy dingys.
Ohhhh, the horror. F***ing foreigners corrupting Korean society.
No, it’s called conspiracy nut rhetoric. What Mkaplan fails to mention is that Samuel Francis who introduced the word “anarcho-tyranny” into the paleocon vocabulary (“we refuse to control real criminals (that’s the anarchy) so we control the innocent (that’s the tyranny).”) was a wacko nut job:
Except of course for the little detail that that is not the case; crime has declined precipitously but then some people cherry pick what they read, a case of confirmation bias.
No doubt, Sam Francis was a racist and racialist. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong here with the idea of Anarcho-tyranny.
He also claimed that the Iraq War was illegitimate. This doesn’t mean that arguing that the Iraq War was illegitimate is “conspiracy nut rhetoric.”
Sure, crime has declined. Yet high crime rates, high that is according to any civilized standard, are still indeed the norm.
Yes, and I could counter that a broken clock is right twice a day. I left that fact in to show that one mustn’t cherrypick facts but should argue with integrity rather than display confirmation bias. The argument was ideological and simplistic.
Police are a necessary evil, but they are also human. While some are frankly assholes, and there are aspects of the criminal justice system that should be questioned, an argument that throws out the baby with the bathwater is simply a hasty generalization. I prefer my own hasty generalization that many cops are assholes. It is an unabashedly rhetorical, whimsical hyperbole that makes no sneaky pretense of correctness.
Again, rhetorical and dishonest. The term “according to any civilized standard” is an embedded premise. Tsk, tsk, caught again.
inkevitch,
NationMaster is legitimate. Their sources are culled from varied organizations such as governments, WTO, World Bank, WHO, UN, OECD, CIA, etc. Different metrics have different sources. There isn’t a single source for each country that supplies all the data for that particular country.
Like I said, if you have better or more legitimate data, feel free to share. Otherwise, you can stick to impressionistic experience and anecdotal evidence, I suppose. I don’t think anecdotes and experience should be written off and dismissed. They have their place, and they’re much more interesting and entertaining. But you can only get so much out of them as far as facts are concerned.
how do you rape squirrels? and in korea 다람쥐 = chipmunks anyway.
you mean you would get arrested for raping chipmunks, right?
“Again, rhetorical and dishonest. The term “according to any civilized standard” is an embedded premise. Tsk, tsk, caught again.”
You’re damn right it’s a premise. And it’s a necessary one at that, one that must be assumed by all parties for any discussion or debate on this topic to even make sense. The idea of a high crime rate is by definition relative. If there isn’t a basic acknowledgment of what should be considered a high crime rate, discussion and debate on this is impossible, and you, as usual, are wasting your interlocutor’s time.
“Why aren’t those blue thingy dingies on the Ferrari? I mean it must be a new car, right. There is some guy in my building’s parking gargage who bought his car the same time as me about a year ago. But he still has those blue thing dingies on his car.”
Those aren’t put on at the factory. The dealership puts them on. Costs 2500 won for 4 at Gmarket if you’re jealous of your neighbours car. Besides, you must have missed my comment about how it must be a used car since that particular model went out of production in 2006 (so, there’s no way they paid as much as the Korean article suggests unless it was bought from a friend of someone at city hall who was owed a very big favour).
“It’s only the ordinary, innocent citizens that have a reasonable fear of being tased, assaulted, arrested, caught by the police, and subsequently punished in a disproportionate manner (ass rape, violent physical assault, death, etc.), and this is why Anarcho-tyranny is an apt term to describe this state of affairs.”
That’s odd. I’m an innocent citizen and I’ve never feared that. Naturally, that’s anecdotal. While this is only a single aspect of a very broad subject, attitudes toward the police in the US generally appear to be rather positive.
A study by Cho, Yeok-il titled “Attitude toward the police among Korean American juveniles in Harris County, TX” presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 31, 2009 found:
” most Korean American juveniles had a relatively high level of favorable attitudes toward the American police.”
According to another study contrasting attitudes toward police in the US and Japan: “Preliminary findings in the multivariate analysis indicate, surprisingly, that the Japanese have significantly lower confidence in their police compared to Americans.” (Public attitudes toward the police: A comparative study between Japan and America -Liqun Caoa, Steven Stackb and Yi Sun.)
It turns out that the police did not use any taxpayer money on the three Ferraris used for the safe driving campaign. But it was lent to them by the CEO of J2 Entertainment for free, who in turn used the opportunity to publicize a singing group under his wing by having them give a performance during the campaign. The cars were “wrapped” to look like squad cars which was also paid for by the lender. I guess by wrapped they mean covered with a plastic film to look it had a paint job. Is “wrap” Konglish or an actual English term? Anyone know?
http://www.mt.co.kr/view/mtview.php?no=2009092416240279133&type=2&NVEC
mkaplan,
Actually, the actual crime rate is about the same. Quality of data, how crimes are defined, the quality of law enforcement and the resulting problem of unreported crimes…
For example, if you looked at the data you’d see that Canada has the highest rate of reported rapes in the world and Korea is somewhere down the list. You might interpret that as meaning that women should stay away from Canada, but that would be a mistake.
Mkaplan:”The solution to much of this civil liberties tragedy is staring us all in the face. End drug prohibition.”
Few can credibly argue against that point. Or the point that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world even though it does not have that high a general crime rate. There are represive forces in US politics driving some pretty foolish policies at play. You can make some credible arguments when you do not undermine them with farfetched gratuitous rhetoric. You are not a broken clock, just an erratic one.
belongs to a Mr.Im who owns all three and he paid for the vamping up as well bringing his own singers (he has a management company) singing “cool running” at the event.
so everyone can stop speculating, like grumpy old men. i.e. like betting the brother-in-law of the driver has a tow truck business, on which i am willing to bet that he doesn’t.
jewook got there first!
They should put that car on car chases!
Still low. I believe the highest incidence of reported rapes involves US professional athletes.
yuna yuna yuna, these people don’t let facts get in their way of wild, grumpy speculation. Its their default state of mind. Whenever they walk down the sidewalk, its grumpy wild speculation about the original of the concrete making up said sidewalk. When they go to a nice restaurant with the love of their life its grumpy, wild speculation about what goes on in the kitchen. You can never escape it, they can never stop doing it; you should just accept fate.
besides, now they’re onto international incarceration rates. The car is COMPLETELY irrelevant now.
SomeguyinKorea
If you could direct me to some data, I’d be glad to see and consider it. We can both agree that both countries are for the most part low crime countries, relatively speaking. They both have low crime rates, and probably aren’t that much different, but I have no reason to believe they’re “about the same.” The available data suggests that generally speaking Canada has a higher crime rate.
You simply keep asserting that “the actual crime rate is about the same.” Presumably you have some access to the data, information, or psychic insight that reveal the “actual” crime rate. Share it with us, rather than merely repeat the assertion and insist upon it. Skepticism regarding statistics is always warranted, but there’s no sufficient justification to simply take your word over the data presented. Something must be compelling you to claim that the “actual” crime rate of Canada and Korea are about the same, whether it’s empirical data, valid deduction from true premises, divine inspiration, etc. Let us know what it is so that we can evaluate it.
Awesome! Another ‘my internet stats support my assertions better than your internet stats support your assertions’ snitfest. My faith in humanity is bolstered even further.
How can we get the rethuglicans to blame Obama for the heinous crime rate stateside? …oh,wait…they already do.
“That’s odd. I’m an innocent citizen and I’ve never feared that. Naturally, that’s anecdotal. While this is only a single aspect of a very broad subject, attitudes toward the police in the US generally appear to be rather positive.”
“According to another study contrasting attitudes toward police in the US and Japan: “Preliminary findings in the multivariate analysis indicate, surprisingly, that the Japanese have significantly lower confidence in their police compared to Americans.””
The operative word here is “reasonable.”
No doubt the general attitude in the US towards the police is rather positive and favorable. These are the same people that believed and possibly still believe that we have been waging a “War on Terror” for the past 8 years. For example, Americans have the highest faith in “Police Efficiency.” And on measures of perception of safety, Americans are among those that feel safest in the world: Perception of Safety-Burglary and Perception of Safety-Walking in dark. You’ll note that Americans are very high on these metrics, much higher than, say, the Japanese, despite living in a country that is much more dangerous than Japan as far as walking in the dark, risk of being burgled, and many other measures are concerned, along with having an arguably much less efficient police force.
It would be nice to believe that beliefs were all that mattered. Alas, we are inconvenienced by that little thing called “reality.”
Having a “reasonable” fear, or any belief/mental state for that matter, means having a fear that corresponds at least somewhat to reality. No matter what Americans, or Japanese, believe, the fact remains that an ordinary, innocent American citizen is much more likely to be the victim of a crime and/or tased, assaulted, arrested, punished in a disproportionate manner (ass rape, violent physical assault, death, etc.).
@ mate having now seen sperwer’s body, i just think old men that fit would have their sweated off their grumpiness in the gym over however many years to go on speculating in such one-sided manner, and would have developed seagal-in-a-cheongsam-like sereneness and magnanimity.
see? i am speculating too, but i speculate fairly, masta.
The CEO of J2 Entertainment is said to have provided the police with those Ferraris (F355, F430, 575) that he owns for the traffic law enforcement campaign. He also paid for wrapping the Ferraris, which cost about US$6,000.
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/09/24/2009092401766.html?srchCol=news&srchUrl=news1
Yuna: Really, who’s emotionally invested enough about this stuff to be grumpy, or otherwise emotional. I laugh all the way to the gym about getting over with these little provocations, especially pressing pressure point hot buttons like WangKon’s over at the burger post exchange and getting the reaction that gives the lie to all the pretensions of being anything other than a shill for Korea right or wrong (but mostly wrong).
All right, mkaplan…
How about the murder rate? It isn’t strongly affected by interpretation of the law (some dude is dead, someone else killed him, seems pretty simple), lack of reporting (kinda hard to miss), etc.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
Canada and Korea are ranked about the same.
“Canada and Korea are ranked about the same.”
Yeah, that’s what it says. Can’t argue with you here.
“i am always amazed at how they stop you for not using zebra crossings like it’s a big deal. this must be an american influence where the term “jaywalking” came from.”
I’m not really sure that’s the case, I don’t recall ever seeing anyone anywhere stopped by police for not using zebra crossings, but I have had it impressed on me that it was illegal in numerous countries, Japan and France come first to mind. [In England it remains that the pedestrian has right of way whether on footpath or in middle of the road, except motorways]
“drink driving and speeding the police do stop you.”
They do? I’ve seen the late night stopping checks, but their locations tend to be predictable, so mostly easily avoided if you need too. And whilst I’ve known korean friends colleagues take the chance when drunk I’ve never heard of any of them being caught [given the great rent a driver system for drunks, I don't understand why they do risk it]
“besides, now they’re onto international incarceration rates. The car is COMPLETELY irrelevant now.”
Given the worrying trend towards crimes against innocent chipmunks, I should think so too, why isn’t that car on its way to pick up a certain professor right now….
“I am always amazed at how they stop you for not using zebra crossings like it’s a big deal. this must be an american influence where the term “jaywalking” came from.”
“K-walking” is the appropriate term here.
On my daily commute in Seoul, for ten to twenty minutes depending on traffic, I find myself surrounded by all the insanity described above until I enter Gate 52, South Post.
It’s amazing how quickly the stress melts away when all the cars at a four-way intersection follow the same right-of-way rules that you do. Driving on post is like finding an island of calm and order surrounded by a sea of gridlock and anything-goes-if-you-can-do-it style driving. The disparity between the two is shocking- both to my visiting family members as they see the traffic culture in Seoul and to my Korean friends as they travel with me on Yongsan Garrison.
After driving for 2.5 years here, I’ve come to accept Korean traffic culture and the cops in Seoul for what they are, but I’m sure glad for the alternative universe that greets me each day at work.
I am constantly seeing halmonis (and many other demographics just walking) pushing strollers in the street. Is it jaywalking if you never touch a sidewalk?
Much better, mkaplan. Always use weasel words like “reasonable.” Shall I say, you’ve laid out a more reasonable premise that would make for an interesting and nuanced discusssion. I would not have included the modifier
“much” before more likely as it leaves you open to the claim of exaggeration.
General statistical probability does not necessarily equate to an increased probability that the “ordinary, innocent American citizen” should have anything to fear. One study concludes that suspicion of the police tends to skew by neighborhood conditions ( but not along racial lines) which would indicate that the majority of “ordinary, innocent American citizens” have little to fear.
Second, what is the actual incidence per thousand of police brutality? Mere increased statistical probability in comparison to a nation such as Korea or Japan is in fact rather meaningless if the actual rate per thousand is not that high anyway.
Granted, statistics on police brutality are not very much available and a certain percentage goes unreported. The few statistics that exist include a 2006 Department of Justice report, which showed that out of 26,556 citizen complaints about excessive use of police force among large U.S. agencies (representing 5% of agencies and 59% of officers) in 2002, about 2000 were found to have merit.
But there are very good counter arguments, such as the 1998 Human Rights Watch report that reported that in all 14 precincts which it examined, the process of filing a complaint was “unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating.” Internal police commissions have often been criticized for a lack of accountability and for bias favoring officers. The ability of district attorneys to investigate police brutality has also been called into question, as DAs depend on help from police departments to bring cases to trial. It was only in the 1990s that serious efforts began to be made to transcend the difficulties of dealing with systemic patterns of misconduct in police departments.
Police brutality appears to have been on the rise since 9/11:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-17-copmisconduct_n.htm
I am highly critical of the “code of silence” and the ferver with which police protect one another. I’ve known cops who were essentially high school bullies.
Look, while I don’t go along with the sweeping generalization about anarcho-tyranny, and I believe it is meaningless rhetorical hyperbole, there are in fact real issues that require constant surveilance and scruitiny.
You know, I’m finding those blue thingy dingies to be much more interesting than Canada, Canadian crime, and SomeguyWhoDronesOnAndOnIncessantlyAboutCanada.
Thanks for bringing a smile to my day, paulhewson.
No problem dude. Peace. And drive safe.
I should add that you haven’t written about the bar code label that remains affixed to the vehicle for a half dozen years. It’s like the Handmade label on the sleeve of a jacket. Four thin threads’ will to survive.
seouldout,
Plenty of references about the US and American culture. Rodney King at #9, US cops and prisons at #10, Miami Vice at #13, etc.
Oh, but god forbid that a Canadian makes any reference to his country…
What a deliciously ridiculous evasion of reality.
i might be wrong but usually my parents sat nav tells them everything in a very soothing, calming voice, 전방에 과속탐지카메라가 있습니다. but i think the navi’s legal, so it’s only announcing the ones which are open, not the ones which are hidden.
yuna,
It isn’t a radar detector, so it’s legal. The works by detecting their position according to the GPS and producing the data stored in its memory. If they want the information to be current, they have to download the updates from the manufacturers website.
interesting, because in the second article i just linked to in the iphone thread, about the security breach, the iphone people were saying just that: why navi is allowed gps yet it’s not allowed on mobile phones – they postulate some crap answers like, one cannot use navi to send the info abroad straight.
@Yuna
my current motorola has gps on it, so not sure what that talk is about
“What a deliciously ridiculous evasion of reality.”
In what way is the predictability of breathalyser stop checks an “evasion of reality”.
You sound like a non-driving ignoramus. I drive frequently at night and the police generally set the “random” checks in basically the same locations. So while I’ve been stopped hundreds of times, the locations of the random checks on my regular routes are almost invariably the same.
For example the far end of the Dongjaktaegyo going towards Yongsan.
Someone in the Korean police department must of saw the Speed Racer movie and said to themselves “We need cars like that”.
“You sound like a non-driving ignoramus. I drive frequently at night and the police generally set the “random” checks in basically the same locations.”
I too have noticed this – even though I’m a non-driving ignoramous, I still get about and have eyes.
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