Tougher Penalties for Taxi Cab Related Incidents
The Korean government is taking a harsher stance against anyone who assaults taxi cab drivers:
Physically assault a South Korea taxi or bus driver and you’ll face a minimum three-year jail term or a $20,000 fine, officials said Wednesday.
A Ministry of Construction and Transportation official confirmed Wednesday that a revised bill addressing the assault of public transportation drivers recently passed South Korea’s National Assembly and is to go into effect in February.
Several U.S. military community personnel found themselves entangled in the South Korean legal system after tangling with taxi drivers in the last year.
“The law was designed to boost people’s safety,†an unnamed ministry official told The Korea Times.
“We will sternly punish those using violence against public transportation drivers that threatens the safety of drivers, passengers and pedestrians.â€
Killing a driver will bring a sentence of five years to life in prison, the official said.
I am all for punishing idiots who assault taxi cab drivers, but I do have to wonder if this law is solely meant for USFK personnel or will it be enforced on the general Korean population as well because I have personally seen many times cab drivers getting into confrontations with other Koreans. With the selective nature of enforcing laws in Korea, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is solely a law focused on punishing USFK personnel. I would also love to see increased penalties as well for taxi cab drivers who break the law by overcharging and even sometimes assaulting customers who will not pay them the overcharged price.Â
I wonder how this will embolden taxi drivers.
If expats spend time with Koreans rather than with just other expats (as I've seen many 1 or even 2 year stint expat ESL instructors do), they would know that Korean people don't have a positive view of taxi drivers. Their stereotype is that they are criminal types – even to the extent of things like rape and assault as well as ripping people off.
If this stererotype was even partially earned, this new law coule cause huge $$ to fill some of their eyes.
Will be selective enforcement at its finest, I am sure.
"Killing a driver will bring a sentence of five years to life in prison, the official said."
Yeap, especially designed for the USFK. They should have said "5 years for murder and first class 5 star hotel accomodations with regular visits from the American embassy".
The world does revolve around the USFK.
There are many POSITIVE things GI balances against the negatives of Korea. Don't be fooled, GI is a POSITIVE people person … really he is.
Tom, like I said before I'm all for GIs getting punished when they assault taxi drivers. Fortunately no one has killed a taxi driver and if they did I would be fore them getting life in prison. However, according to Korean law very few murderers ever get life in prison. Also I don't know what five star accomodations you are talking about because the GI prisoners go to Choenan Prison which is no luxury hotel and there is no regular visits from the US embassy. There are regular visits from the jailers at Camp Humphreys to bring them food and mail.
Something else just came to mind, maybe you would prefer GIs that assault taxi drivers get the same sentences that taxi drivers get when they assault GIs. Such as when a taxi driver rapes a US soldier and gets a 10 month sentence and then is released on appeal.
http://rokdrop.com/2006/07/16/philippina-woman-ra…
"to bring them food and mail" what bastards…..unbelievable….incredibly…..I just don't know how to stand it……bastards….
[…] Wheeler is absolutely correct, taxi cab related incidents now have harsher punishments due to new laws passed by the Korean government I first reported about here. However, I’m still waiting for a law to pass that implements harsher penalties for taxi cab drivers who overcharge GIs with outrageous cab fares. I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath to long waiting for that to happen. […]
[…] true and the perpetrators are caught, they will face a minimum three years in jail according to the new taxi cab law passed last December. Also just to point out that Uijongbu isn’t the only place that taxi […]