Exposing the Donga Ilbo’s GI Crime Lies
Thanks to the ROK Heads who have shared this article with me which is one of the biggest examples of shoddy journalism I have seen in quite a while in the Korean media. This article is in the Donga Ilbo in response to the recent GI crime incidents. I will quote the article in full and then provide my comments after various passages:
The string of sexual crimes committed by American soldiers in Korea in recent weeks is known to have resulted from reckless recruitment of men with criminal records, mental disorders or other problems.
According to U.S. Defense Department data released in 2008 by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, the number of U.S. Army recruits convicted of felonies such as robbery or assault more than doubled from 249 (based on U.S. Army statistics) in 2006 to 511 in 2007.
Waxman blamed unconditional recruitment of soldiers amid a shortage of military manpower due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Felony Recruiting Myth
First of all the two soldiers accused of rape were both 21 year old Private First Classes so they were not recruited in 2006 so the linkage to felony waivers that year is irrelevant. Since the Donga-Ilbo wants to bring this subject up I have already debunked the felony recruiting myth years ago but I will address it again here.
Over 180,000 soldiers were recruited into the military in 2007 and only 903 recruits needed a waiver. That is .5016% of all recruits that needed a waiver which is hardly of concern. Also the claim that felony waivers are needed to meet recruiting numbers doesn’t hold up either. In 2007 the US Army recruited 80,635 soldiers. 511 of the soldiers had the felony waivers. If the US Army did not allow in every recruit with a felony waiver they still would have met the recruiting mission of 80,000 soldiers in 2007. The other important thing to realize is that these waivers are only issued on a case by case basis and signed off on by a senior field grade officer. The vast majority of the waivers are thefts and drug crimes. So if a teenager writes a bad check, shoplifts, or gets caught smoking marijuana, they shouldn’t be allowed in the military? If anything these are probably people that need to join the military to learn discipline. Out of all the felony waivers in 2007 only five were for sex crimes. Yes five people out of 80,000 recruited that year by the Army and this is something that is supposed to be leading to increased sexual assaults in Korea? By the way anyone wonder how many servicemembers in the ROK Army have felony convictions especially sex crimes? Maybe the Korean media has looked into this before, but I sure haven’t seen it.
The GI Crime Myth
The Donga Ilbo article goes on:
Analysts say crimes committed by American soldiers in Korea have increased in number because a considerable portion of inexperienced soldiers are deployed to Korea. The number of crimes committed by American soldiers in Korea surged from 207 in 2007 to 316 in 2010.
First of all young men whether they are in the military or not cause more crime than older men. So it is no surprise that younger enlisted Soldiers commit the majority of the crime. However, sending nothing but older personnel to Korea is unfeasible. You cannot have a military force filled with nothing but NCO’s and officers. Any military that is effective needs to be filled with young men trained to fight. The second thing I will point out from this passage is that these stats are not attributed to anyone. Where did the Donga-Ilbo gets these stats from? As ROK Heads know I have compiled USFK crime stats for years here on the ROK Drop from the USFK court martial results published every month just to be able to respond to blatant media fabrications which this obviously is.
Here is the real number of crimes committed by USFK servicemembers the last two years:
Number of Crimes Committed
- 2009: 98 crimes
- 2010: 153 crimes
As you can see this is much lower than what the Donga-Ilbo is claiming. So once again where did they get their stats? Also here is the number of USFK servicemembers convicted of crimes in Korean courts for the past 4 years:
USFK Servicemembers Convicted In Korean Courts
2007: 48 criminals
2008: 66 criminals
2009: 87 criminals
2010: 128 criminals
So overall there has been an increase in USFK crime, but not as bad as what the Donga-Ilbo is claiming. Also something else the Donga-Ilbo doesn’t point out is that the increase in crime is caused mostly by the fact that USFK is allowing more of its personnel to drive cars which means increased driving infractions that are handled by the Korean courts. Here is a list of traffic related crimes from 2010 compared to 2007. My one caveat is that bodily injuries are usually from injuries sustained from a traffic accident, but this is not always the case. Unfortunately the criminal prosecution results published by USFK don’t specify why the servicemember was convicted for bodily injury. So all bodily injuries being traffic related is an assumption on my part. Anyway here are the statistics:
Traffic Crimes from 2009 Compared to 2010
- Bodily Injury – 2007: 8 – 2010: 22
- Traffic Law Violation – 2007: 0 – 2010: 11
- Hit & Run – 2007: 1 – 2010: 9
- DUI’s – 2007: 13 – 2010: 28
- Violation of Auto Management Act – 2007: 0 – 2010: 3
- Total Traffic Crimes – 2007: 22 – 2010: 73
The driving change can be linked to an increase of up to 51 crimes in 2010 compared to 2007. This is important context when talking about GI crime that is not reported by the Donga-Ilbo. With that said that is why I have always believed that the best way to judge GI crime is to look at major crimes committed. The Korean National Policy Agencyconsiders Murder, Burglary, Rape, Larceny, & Assault as major crimes when compiling Korean crime statistics. So lets compare the number of major crimes from 2010 to prior years:
USFK Rate of Major Crimes from 2007-2010
- 2007 – 23
- 2008 – 15
- 2009 – 21
- 2010 – 48
So what crimes is causing the numbers to increase? When the numbers are analyzed the major crimes increased in 2010 because of because of burglary and assaults. Why are these crimes increasing? I don’t have the data to prove anything but it could be the curfew change has allowed servicemembers to be out later and thus increasing the amount of time available to get into altercations with Koreans. Like I said before this is just a theory with no data to support it since the court martial results do not provide any times when the incidents occurred.
The most important fact to point out is that despite the increase in GI crime, USFK still has a lower per capita crime rate than the general Korean population:
- Korea: 1 major crime out of every 128 people
- USFK: 1 major crime out of every 594 people
What is also interesting it was just back in July when it was reported that overall crime in the 2nd Infantry Division had dropped over the past 12 month period which the police chief of Dongducheon said was because of better educated Soldiers coming to Korea.
The SOFA Myth
Anyway the shoddy journalism from the Donga Ilbo continues:
Despite mounting crimes committed by American servicemen here, no effective measures or regulations are in place to punish them. Clause 5 under Article 22 of the Status of Forces Agreement on the deployment of U.S. forces in Korea suggests that even if an American soldier commits a violent crime such as murder or rape, Korean police can take the suspect into custody only when they directly catch him at the crime scene.
All the Korean authorities have to do is fill out paperwork requesting that a USFK servicemember be handed over to Korean custody. This is done to ensure that the rights of the accused servicemember are protected. A SOFA is a document signed between the United States and the host country of US military personnel in order to clarify each side’s rights and responsibilities in regards to a variety of issues that arise with the stationing of US troops in a foreign country.
A SOFA between different nations is never the same because each nation has different legal and political systems that influence the way in which a SOFA is written. For example in the United States people expect that someone accused of a crime should have the right to remain silent and have access to lawyer. With that it is important to realize with Status of Forces Agreements is that unlike civilians, troops are ordered to go overseas. Since troops are under orders they are owed the legal protections they would find in the United States. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard summarizes this best, “we sent them under our system, and we owe them those protections.”
Not all countries the United States has troops in respect these rights. For example the SOFA between the US and Japan allows the military to hold servicemembers accused of crimes until they are indicted by a Japanese court, to which then they are handed over to Japanese authorities. This holding of the servicemember prior to indictment is to protect their rights to remain silent, not to have coercive interrogation tactics used against them, and have access to a proper lawyer, which is not something readily available to them if held by local Japanese authorities. It is legal differences such as this that make detailed status of forces agreements necessary.
You can read more analysis about the SOFA at this link:
The Donga Ilbo’s criticism against the SOFA is especially ridiculous considering that USFK just handed over the Soldier accused of rape in Dongducheon just like all other GI criminals after the Korean authorities submitted the proper paperwork for his transfer.
The Donga Ilbo goes on:
In other cases, Korean police must hand over the suspect to U.S. authorities if requested.
Moreover, the U.S. military has the right to reject Korea’s request to put a suspect in detention if and when it finds even a slight chance that the soldier’s rights could be infringed on in a Korean criminal investigation or trial by a Korean court. For this reason, U.S. soldiers who commit crimes are detained mostly by military police of their own units rather than Korean authorities.
In addition, if the U.S. demands that Korea hand over jurisdiction, the latter has no choice but to do so except in cases in which the crimes are deemed “exceptionally serious.” For this reason, Korea has used its jurisdiction over a U.S. military suspect in less than 5 percent of all crimes committed by American soldiers stationed here.
Why doesn’t the Donga-Ilbo provide one example of when USFK refused to hand someone over? Just one please. Also once again, where did the stat of 5% come from?
Shady Statistics
Here in the final passage I think we can probably attribute all these shady statistics to this well known anti-US group:
A source at the National Campaign for Eradication of Crimes by U.S. Troops in Korea said, “To minimize punishment, U.S. authorities arbitrarily judge that most crimes were committed while on official duty and thus take away jurisdiction over cases from Korean authorities,” adding, “Even in cases where Korea holds jurisdiction, only one to two U.S. soldiers as defendants are given prison sentences per year.”
The utter lies allowed to be published in the Donga-Ilbo is really astounding. Once again can the Donga Ilbo provide examples of all these people getting away with being tried in Korean courts because USFK says they were on duty? The only examples I can think of are traffic accidents while driving military vehicles with the most famous example being the 2002 Armored Vehicle Incident. I would like just one example of a non-traffic related incident such as assault or rape where a GI was declared on duty to avoid being tried in a Korean court. I would like just one example. Then the claim that 1-2 servicemembers are given prison sentences per year in Korean courts is more lies. Just looking back at the ROK criminal prosecution results for this year, 7 GI’s were given prison sentences. So once again where did the anti-US groups stat come from?
USFK Needs To Do More
So I think I have made it pretty clear that this article is filled with lies that the Donga-Ilbo should be embarrassed by, but I’m sure they could care less because they are out to promote perceptions of American GI’s instead of facts. I just wish the USFK public affairs office would do more to counter this blatant propaganda instead of allowing it to circulate unchallenged in the Korean media. As long as USFK doesn’t dispute these lies by engaging the Korean media in Korean then the false stereotypes that many Koreans have of American GI’s will continue perpetuate.
