Police announced Sunday they would push comprehensive measures to stabilize public security in the “four big foreigner concentration areas”: Itaewon-dong, Daerim-dong, Garibong-dong and Ansan’s Wongok-dong due to the significant number of crimes being committed in these areas by foreigners.
According to the police, the number of foreign criminal suspects totaled 26,915 last year, a 19.3% increase from 2010. Of these, 3,432 lived in those four areas alone, a number up 25.7% from 2010. In particular, of the 3,704 foreigners arrested on suspicion of violent crimes, 830 were in the four areas, or 22.4%.
Clearly, it’s not the 외국인 who need the 보호.
One beat cop with Guro Police Station said they get sent out 15 times a day to handle cases of foreigner violence; sometimes, they get sent out up to 50 times. Accordingly, the KNP decided to create foreign organized crime investigation teams for Seoul and Gyeonggi-do police to deal with foreigner crime. The police are also strengthening their intelligence gathering activities using detectives proficient in foreign languages like Chinese. One police official said 50 of the 84 foreigners believed to have records of gang violence or to have committed violent crimes over the last three years but who were not forcibly deported were confirmed to be operating in the four big foreigner areas, and possibility existed that organized crimes would occur with these individuals at their core.
Some consider this no more than bias against foreigners, however. Kim Yeong-seon of the Ansan Migrants Center said some foreigner crime happened because of cultural differences or ignorance of Korean law, so education on observing the law was being carried out through migrant laborer groups. Kim also said for police to crack down only in particular areas could lead to distorted views about the foreigners living in said areas.
Marmot’s Note: I have to think if you’re a young’ish foreign-born Korean national, now is a good time to consider a career in law enforcement.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope then that they put some real cops on the beat, not just more of the little goslings i see from time to time in the ville waddling uselessly behind their squadron leader like wide-eyed gumsmacked spectators at the itaewon freedom show.
I never learned the word for ‘foreigner ghetto’ but maybe a careful scanning of the newspapers will teach it to me.
Would it be better if the news were a bit more specific about which foreign nationalities were at the top of the offender list? I just don’t think it’s fair to lump everyone together.
Another example of slop-job journalism from the Korean press. More on this story over @asiapundits – http://www.asiapundits.com/regions/korea/seoul-police-to-crackdown-on-foreign-gangsters-and-potential-terrorists/
Hey, which social media plugins do you use at your blog? They look nice.
Hmm….
조선족해결사 서울 한복판서 납치·추격戰
http://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2012021301070827274002
I use ‘Social Media Widget’ by Brian Freytag and ‘Social Profiles Sidebar Widget’ by H.-Peter Pfeufer. The icons on the sidebar and footer were a customizable freebie set that I found via Google. Social Profiles allows you to add customized icons. The only thing I dislike about them is if I post a story to Reddit the only image that will display next to the article is the Facebook “F” icon from my sidebar! I still haven’t figured that one out. The joys of wordpress.
Sorry also running Sociable.
“Would it be better if the news were a bit more specific about which foreign nationalities were at the top of the offender list? I just don’t think it’s fair to lump everyone together.”
They’re obviously targeting the migrant groups, not you the white guy.
white guys are natives, wow never new that
“…….said 50 of the 84 foreigners believed to have records of gang violence or to have committed violent crimes over the last three years but who were not forcibly deported ….”
And they were not forcibly deported because….
You’d think that would be a condition of their conviction, non?
cm, You don’t know what color I am.
@ chanceencounter : Those “foreigners” who committed violent crimes but were not deported were probably just Koreans who had lived abroad for a long time and were being counted as “foreigners”. Either that, or US soldiers, who are also no deported for violent crimes – the upside being that they assault eachother and their spouses more often than they assault the locals.
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