[Editorial] Police Provoked the Violence

There is growing controversy over the violent suppression of a protest opposing the expansion of the US base in Pyongtaek on July 10. Video footage of the police's harsh suppression of the assembly has been made public, and on Wednesday protesters came forward and said some of them had been beaten. It is shameful that we still have to see accusations about police violence at protests.

The protesters say there were 7,500 among them and the police say there were 6,000. That means the police excuse that they used violence as a last means of defense is a weak excuse. A high-ranking member of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) who participated said he had "never seen anything like this in 30 years in the democracy movement." Granted, with large numbers of injuries on both sides it would be had to save all the blame for the police. Some university students did break through the police and cut through the barbed wire. And since it was happening in front of a US military installation, something the government is inevitably going to be sensitive about, it would be hard to tell the police to be nothing but soft in responding. The police officials at the scene were surely worried about being reprimanded by their superiors.

Even so, the police response was very wrong. It is easy for protesters or police to get excited amidst all the confusion of a protest. Therefore they must keep from upsetting the other side and react calmly. Otherwise the situation can get uncontrollably violent. The police commander at the site, however, went around yelling abusive language with his megaphone, thereby encouraging a violent response by riot police as if he was determined to worsen the situation, even in places where protesters were not getting violent. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the police actually provoked a violent protest. The out-of-date behavior of that police official should not be tolerated in this era when there is a growing culture of peaceful protest.

The Hankyoreh, 14 July 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]