Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smithington]

Honestly, I think they could hand out pink slips to 98% of the country's police officers and no-one would notice the difference. Think of all those do-nothings in uniform drawing a paycheck from the government each month. The government could save a fortune by sacking them. And as far as I'm concerned the vast majority of them deserve to be sacked.

I can't even watch them anymore. Last night I was sitting outside a local mart right across from a police station. The traffic violations I witnessed in those fifteen minutes really started to bother me. I could have handed out fifty tickets in that time. There were even two cops standing outside the station for most of that time, and they didn't blink an eye. Pathetic. I'd fire the lot of hem. Out of disgust I finished my drink and headed to another mart three bocks away so I wouldn't have to witness this spectacle of apathy and inertia.

Then on the weekend, in Itaewon, I watched in fascination the group of twelve kops in their yellow vests marching around in circles behind the Hamilton hotel. (I'm sure many of you have seen them.) Round they went back down to the main street, marched along the road for five minutes, then back up again behind Hamilton hotel. Round and round they went in circles for about three hours. Meanwhile during that time a thousand traffic violations have occured in front of the Hamilton hotel.

In any other job in the world where people so fantastically and consistently failed to do their job they'd be sacked. Can you imagine if we neglected our teaching duties in that manner. We'd be out the door before lunch.

It's time to fire these do nothings.

[CentralCali]

The traffic tickets are already written, and quite likely for more violations than you noticed. That's the purpose of the traffic cameras.

The police you saw this past weekend in Itaeweon are the conscripts and were deployed for both visibility and also to monitor that religious revival at the end of Itaeweon closest to the army base. A fair number of those conscripts weren't "walking around in circles"; what they were doing was marching in formation to each single post. When they arrived at the post, one would fall out of the formation to take up the single post and the conscript already at the post would fall into the formation. Those single posts were for controlling pedestrian traffic. All three functions are a bit more than "do nothing".

Maybe you should take a stint at police work to learn a bit about it?

[optik404]

Smithington for President of Korea. He has all the answers. Hope. Change.

[thrylos]

I'd much rather have my taxes going to the Kcops who actually help people more times than not instead of the KKKcops of the US, killing (mostly black) teenagers that would make Western movie shoot outs look civilized, using army-style tactics on the citizens they're supposed to 'protect and serve' and subsidizing their donut breaks.

Who could believe they actually serve for the public good instead of acting like self-appointed vigilantes after being the dumba$$ bully back in school?????

[Zyzyfer]

[Smithington]

[Smithington]

[nicwr2002]

They are definitely inconsistent and rarely follow through with enforcing laws. They put up banners on the trees (breaking the law themselves) that stated there would be a 300 만원 fine for putting banners up using the trees. People continued putting them up and even put them up in front of the announcement. Obviously there hasn't been any enforcement, or a very selective enforcement, because the number of banners hasn't decreased.

The police also posted banners about not parking on the street with a similar fee, but the cars are still there with no noticeable decline. They are almost useless for anything less than a violent crime.

Oh yea, in downtown Gwangju there is this corner at an intersection that the city was trying to make pretty by planting flowers there instead of the usual trash bags. People just kept placing the trash bags there and killing all of the flowers. Finally, they put up a camera with a recording on replay that said, "Don't put trash here or you will get a fine." Guess what, trash is still there and it has been about 6 months are more since that camera was put there.

[jvalmer]

I believe Korean police these days just want to avoid being accused of being 'heavy-handed'. So, they let a lot of things go, or aren't agressive responding to minor things.

Remember, that it was up until the mid-90's that being tortured by the Kpolice was routine.

[Captain Corea]

I'm in the "they are pretty useless" crowd.

I rarely see them doing... anything.

[CentralCali]

I've definitely gotten tickets generated by traffic cams. I haven't actually run any red lights in Korea, but evidently I did speed a few times. And those times weren't on the highways.

I have also seen the CSI cops doing their thing; one team at the scene of an attempted arson, another team at the site of some major vandalism. Both of those were about a block away from my apartment in Busan.

I watched the cops last Saturday night in Itaeweon (went to Seoul for my week's vacation) and what I described is what I saw happening. And depending on the time of night and the size of the crowd, it may very well be quite useful to have a cop on hand to herd...er, direct both pedestrian and vehicle traffic at both the intersections and the crosswalks, even if those places already have lights there.

[Steelrails]

I've had some good experiences with KCops (Busting a Korean for stealing a foreigner's laptop through B&E, Busting a Korean for stealing from another foreigner's apartment through B&E), I've also seen them yawn as traffic mayhem or other shenanigans happen right in front of them.

[Plain Meaning]

[Smithington]

[Plain Meaning]