Korean Job Discussion Forums

le-paul · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre

i hate myself for saying this but I sort of agree with you. Ive found no benefit from making complaints in this country and trying to be reasonable to neighbours etc

Next time my neigbours dog keeps me awake all night. Im gluing thier locks shut.

Sooke · Joined: 12 Jan 2004 Location: korea

To the OP: You, sir, are worse than Hitler, Mao, Stalin and Obama all rolled into one! Leaving your house without a license is probably one of the most disgusting, disrespectful, distasteful and disreputable things you could have done in this or any other country. FOR SHAME!! The police had every right to execute you then and there with a bullet to the back of the head. Count your lucky stars they did not. This is not your country, so your backward home country's laws do not apply to this paradise! Begone, and trouble us not with your sinful foreign ways!!

Hey guys (steelrails, TUM, etc.), am I doing it right?

Wow...my manhood has swelled to gargantuan proportions! Feels great, no wonder why you guys do it so much! I can't wait to chastise somebody like this on another thread. I feel so awesome right now ima gonna go to 588 and git me a ton o' hookers!!! ROKhard!!!!

Captain Corea · Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul

Steelrails · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Location: Earth, Solar System

le-paul · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Location: dans la chambre

actually, I dont want to be pedantic but i think if you dont have your licence, the cops can phone in and check it and your insurance. However, if they find out that you dont own one (as is my case, ahem...), im pretty sure youre screwed and going to get a big, fat fine for wasting their time. I think cops get an incentive bonus for crimes anyway so may push any issue but they dont seem to be on an ego trip as much as other nations police. Ive been told by a few koreans, that if you dont have your licence on you, its not the end of the world, they can get that information other ways.

Anyway, it seems as though most of you are talking about your experiences in the US. Were not in the US.

I think 9 times out of 10 if your not behaving like a phallus head, the police will let you go. Ive been quizzed for having no helmet and because a neighbour reported me for a traffic related offence. I was only asked for my ARC both times. However, I knew one guy who behaved like a nob and got annoyed, shouting. The police drove him 35 mins to his home to check his licence then impounded his bike and kept it until he paid his fine.
Maybe I was just lucky or maybe eating humble pie works in korea?

one more thing, my friend told me the best thing to do is to offer them a back hander if they get too arsey as it is quite normal here to offer bribes. Im not really sure that is good, bullet proof advice. Might pay to carry a big bunch of US dollar in a rubber band in your pocket though...

Subtitle · Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: Hwaseong-si

Capo · Joined: 09 Sep 2007

Capo · Joined: 09 Sep 2007

To add to police stories...
I was once threatened with a knife by a guy in a chicken hof when i asked him why he was so rude. I called the police asking to speak to an english speaker and they simply hung up. So I flagged down a cop car and we went back together to the hof where he denied it and made some other complaint about me. They had cameras but didsn't ask to see. Police pointed me in the direction of the local cop shop and said if i wanted to make a complaint go there, so i did...they wrote a little report and we returned to the hof which had now closed down so back to the station. It was then they said if you want to file a complaint you should come back tomorrow between 9 and 5, which were conveniently my working hours and I live the otherside of the city so I never bothered.

Another one is a friend of mine got bricked in the head by another foreigner, went to hospital stitches etc. police said they couldn't do anything because they weren't Korean.

Capo · Joined: 09 Sep 2007

oh i did have 1 kind of sucess!

my friends and i got into a taxi which refused to take home because he want to go to incheon, we insisted because its against the law to refuse for this reason, so we mutually agreed to goto the cop shop to settle the dispute however it was closed. when we got there i tried to take a picture of his taxi licence which he quickly snatched and put in his pocket so then I tried to get his licence plate but he then snatched my camera phone and broke it in half korean eye witnesses backed me and called the police, but when they got there they didn't want to talk to me, just talked to him and then shouted at me and then we all went inside police station together and then another police station where i talked to some guy on the phone explaining the problem and then the local guys shouted at me and him. Next my friends were asked to leave and the taxi driver and I were then escorted to mapogu police station where he was put in the pen which is a basically a section with a 3 ft high wall. in the same room with the dectives desks. I sat down with the detective and explained, THEN waited 4 hours for a translater to come and we went to the interview room to talk in detail about the incident and my complaint and then I was free to leave. One month later the detective called me to ask how much the phone was worth, could only find it on gmarket because it was an old flip phone and it was 30k so i told him that and the dective ask my bank details and the taxi driver transfered me 30k.

Was it worth it? No!

was I happy with the compensation? no I didn't care about the money, I cared about the loss of the sentimental photos stored on my camera.

ESL Milk "Everyday · Joined: 12 Sep 2007

I gotta admit, if you don't have your license with you while driving, going to the police about someone else is probably a bad idea... what was he doing anyway???

The whole 'taking you in' thing was pretty unreasonable, though...

Panda · Joined: 25 Oct 2008

iRock · Joined: 08 Nov 2010

It isn't illegal to not have your license if you aren't driving. When the cops got there, he wasn't riding his bike. He was complaining about it being moved. He could have easily said that he left it there the night before and took a taxi home.

Basically, as long as he wasn't driving the bike in front of the police, he did nothing in front of them to warrant what they did.

Steelrails · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Location: Earth, Solar System

calicoe · Joined: 23 Dec 2008 Location: South Korea

Right, OK. Back to the topic: it is very common knowledge here that if a foreigner gets into a squabble or legal situation with a Korean, the cops will automatically take their side and turn on the foreigner. That is why the case with Bonojit Hussain was so groundbreaking.

But even in his case of obvious harassment and assault, the police still treated him like crap and gave unfair hearing to the drunk Korean who was harassing him. And this was with a Korean woman at his side, and another Korean passenger that helped escort the drunk to the police station. They had to take the case to the National Human Rights Commission,

http://www.koreaherald.com/lifestyle/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20091106000044

We also have plenty of other anecdotal stories of poor treatment of foreigners by police and even health professionals if it seems a claim will be made against a Korean national.

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/11/14/misuda-panelist-discusses-assault-hospital-mistreatment/

"She said police conducted an active investigation � such as asking her what the attacker looked like � one month after the attack, only after a Korean woman had been beaten and killed by a bungler. Thanks to aftereffects from the attack, she also lost her job as an English teacher ... My friends were speaking with the man admitting me, he said that the hospital would not help me unless I paid him $1000.00 in cash because I was a �Russian prostitute who probably deserved what I got�.

Finally after convincing him I was neither Russian, nor a prostitute and having my boss show up, they decided to admit me into Intensive Care."

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2010/10/a-message-to-koreans-who-believe-this-media-bullshit.html

"I called the police on a drunk ajussi harassing me and my group and the police arrested ME. They assumed I was the attacker and believe the drunk, homeless ajussi who made up a complete lie. Oh, who can we believe? The drunk, homeless ajussi with soju on his breath? Or the educated and EMPLOYED college professor working in your country's best colleges? (And NO, my degrees aren't fake.)

But my word is not even worth the lies of a drunk HOMELESS man, at least to the police. "

So, please let's cut the distractions and distortions here of the original topic. The fact is that the law enforcement institutions here are still largely stunted and underdeveloped, and the rule of accusation and rule of the tribe rather than law becomes readily apparent to any foreigner who finds themselves in an adverse situation facing a Korean, whether they are guilty, innocent, or a victim.

WHY all of this side-stepping to avoid the truth?

Panda · Joined: 25 Oct 2008

@ Calicoe

Yeah, I havent heard so far any story with Foreigners in Korea winning a big conflict...in the past a few years since my arrival in Korea

But I also know that police in almost every country tend to protect their own citizens more than others, so I am not sure its a Korean thing or not.

But people should always keep in mind to stay humble in front of a policeman and not to make them feel their authority being challenged.