Ruminations in Korea

Comment by MistahKim

1 August 2006 @ 8:06 pm

Mr Jeff, take the “nora challenge”.

http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=296

It looks like a rather famous female/lesbian/republican/blogger is actually a
male/lesbian/democrat/blogger

Comment by dg611

3 August 2006 @ 1:01 pm

On the subject of Korean vs. western policeman…I read your 2 year old article about Korean police officers and wondered if anything has changed in the past two years. I just wanted to offer a (much too long)comment on that subject:
I could never use the words ‘respect’ and ‘Korean police officer in the same sentence (oh wait, i just did…i mean except this one). I could call them patient, tolerant, kind (to a fault) and respect’full’ and I could say that I envy those qualities and wish i had them in that quantity. I mean, when I see some old drunk guy out of his car yelling, screaming, laying hands on…basically verbally and/or physically assulting a Korean police officer…I just say to myself….”well no wonder breaking the traffic laws is the norm instead of the exception.”
Though it is unfortunate but true, people tend to obey traffic laws only because they fear the consequences if they don’t. In the states (or elsewhere for that matter) if you are making a decision whether to run that red light or not you more than often stop because you fear that there maybe a hiding cop somewhere who will give you a ticket that will take a bite out of your wallet…a real pain in the finances. When you choose to park, you know that if you double park or park on a yellow curb you are more likely than not to not only get a ticket but have your car towed. This we know will cost a small fortune (I once had to pay around $250usd to get my car out of impound for parking on a yellow curb in the city..D-U-M-B!!!)

The point is that fear of the punishment keeps you honest and the police are the agents of that process. Laws and fines may also serve as revenue for a city or state but I think they also serve to keep honest people honest. The idiots will always do the wrong thing and they may or may not pay the price but a generally honest person will obey the laws because they are the laws and they must be followed. Most people fall into both categories..high traffic fines are a sort of prophilaxis for the temporary stupidity that afflicts us all from time to time (for example, blind curve passing on a motorcycle or parking on a yellow curb). Without it…you see what you have before you; chaotic and dangerous driving with little concern for the safety and convenience of others. The high fines in the US give the police some power (for some, maybe too much).
We also know that we cannot physically assult a police officer because the results of that action are potentially catastrophic. An intelligent person knows that verbal assult and abuse of a police officer during a traffic stop, while a much less serious offense will usually make things worse for you. This fear of punishment may not make us respect the police officer who abuses his power but it makes us less likely to offend him and more likely to appreciate and respect the officer who lets you off with a warning. Either way, if you got stopped, you likely broke the traffic laws and deserved what you got.
It is hard to respect the Korean police officer (there, I did it again) because:
1. he has no ‘teeth.’ The fact that even if he decides to do his worst to me and write me a ticket, the cost will not be terribly painful. I could park illegally in the same spot for 3 months, get caught once and pay a 40,000 won fine and it is still cheaper and more convenient than paying for monthly parking and I can go and do it again for another 3 months before I get caught.
2. Outside of Seoul, they rarely write tickets to foriengers Like in your story, they look at you with a stupid look, suck air through their teeth and tell you to go on. I have been stopped numerous times for illegal u-turns (with plenty of forward view, not illegal in many US states) and have never been ticketed (don’t get me started on the loathesome lack of left-turn signals). I would be more likely to respect them if they at least wrote the ticket and gave it to me to pay. I did wrong, i deserve it.
3. They allow people to physically assult them. This is just inexcusable. I’m not saying that the officer needs to slam the guy down on the car or spray him with pepper gas. I just think there needs to be a stiff (I mean REALLY stiff) fine for touching a police officer; one warning and ‘BAM’ a million won or 10 days in jail. That would put a stop to most of it right there.
4. They sleep in their cars This is not something that you see once in a while. I see it frequently enough that if I want to take a picture of it, I’m sure that I could do it on any given day. Again, cultural differences, but if you could take a picture of a US cop sleeping in his car, you would likely get him in some serious trouble…sleeping on duty?
5. They don’t even pay attention to their own area Go and stand in front of any police station and look around and see how many parking violations you can see. Stand there for 5 minutes and see how many traffic violations you see. Walk one block around the building and count the number of general violations of the law you can find. The number would be ridiculous. They can’t even police their own block because there is just too much to do. I think they just gave up except on serious and/or violent crime.
6. They TOO break the traffic laws This is maybe the biggest one. I see a cop talking on the phone driving down the street. I see a motorcyle cop without a helmet. I see a cop make an illegal U-Turn and stop at a gas station (maybe he was responding to an emergency call eh?) If I didn’t know better I might think that traffic laws are unimportant.

I’m sure I can think of more…but isn’t that enough. Am I being too harsh? Don’t even get me started on the Eric Estrada wannabe motorcycle cops who spend more time riding around trying to look menacing than stopping violating motorists. Those guys should be writing tickets aplenty.

My solution for the traffic chaos:

1. triple all fines. Double the points.

2. Allow punitive damages on accidents involving physical injury (currently payouts are too low becaue there are no punitive damages only actual damages and pain and suffering)

3. Professional drivers (buses, taxis, truck drivers) lose their license if they have more than 1 violation in a year.

4. Stop ‘announcing’ crackdowns and just do them at random across the country. Particularly, drunk checks late at night (and on rainy nights too!!)

5. City governments create fleets of tow trucks and give tow drivers free reign to tow any vehicle illegally parked; with concentration on main roads. Impound fees triple.

Make sure that these new policies are advertised on every possible media venue with emphasis on the seriousness of the issue, warning period for one month when all violators are advised of what the new fines would have been. Whaddya think Jeff? would it work?

Comment by Jeff in Korea

3 August 2006 @ 1:18 pm

Simply statec, I have to agree with nearly everything you said, and the differences aren’t worth talking about.

Would it work? Good question. I would like to think it would help. But at least TRY.

Interestingly, I have noticed in the past couple of months that police cruisers in Pusan are actually pulling vehicles over with their sirens and PA systems for violations. A start?