Category: crime & punishment

1LT Jason Davis who was formerly in charge of the Osan town patrol, has pleaded guilty to the numerous charges that were brought before him during his on going court martial:

Air Force 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis pleaded guilty to charges stemming from running illicit police undercover operations; accepting cash from club owners; maintaining illicit sexual liaisons with bar girls; violating the U.S. military’s curfew that his police team had the duty of enforcing; being drunk and disorderly; having sex with women who were not his wife; illegal weapons possession; illegally maintaining an off-base apartment; using racial and ethnic slurs; filing a leave request with false information as to his intended destination; and maintaining an improper relationship with a subordinate airman.

Right now Davis is looking at up to 21 years in prison for his actions. However, he is still waiting to see if the Secretary of the Air Force will approve his request to resign in lieu of a court martial. I highly doubt the request will be approved and since he pleaded guilty already some pre-trial agreement for sentencing has probably already been worked out, which means he will not serve the full 21 years.

The article did shed some light on some of the details of this case, like the weapons charge the Koreans are bringing against him:

In addition, Dooge testified, Davis fired plastic pellets at him from an airgun, locked him for about 30 minutes in the squadron’s women’s dressing room and refused to release him.

Here are some more details that are proving some of the earlier rumors to have some merit:

The court also heard testimony from Lee Hye-chin, who said she got to know Davis while she managed the off-base Zone Club.

Lee testified Davis would pay about $200 to bar fine various female club workers.

And on one occasion, according to Lee, Davis pressured her unsuccessfully to arrange a liaison, free of charge, with bar girls.

He want to have Korean or Russian girls, Lee testified. He want me to hook up for him.   He want me to get for him free.

When she declined, she said, Davis raised the possibility that he could use his position as head of the Town Patrol to have the club put off-limits.

Earlier in the proceedings, Davis told Dillow he’d maintained a sexual relationship with Kim Mun-hui, a woman with family ties to another local club.

Kim, Davis said, lavished numerous gifts on him, including a Chrysler Sebring car, a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton slippers and cash.

We also took a vacation to Guam, Davis told Dillow.  I also accepted free drinks from bar owners.

The Korean government is reporting that foreigner crime has risen sharply over the past three years:

The number of criminal offenses committed by foreigners has surged amid an influx of more migrant workers into the country.

The Ministry of Justice said in a report Wednesday that the number of crimes by foreign residents rose from 8,046 in 2002 and 9,338 in 2003 to 12,821 last year.

Of course most of the offenses are traffic related. Here is a new twist though in this article:

Meanwhile, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said about 2,500 Korean-born offenders were jailed in five major immigrant-crowded areas in the U.S. _ New York City, Los Angeles, Orange County in California, Harris County in Texas and Maricopa County in Arizona _ in the 2003 fiscal year.

The figure ranked fifth in the list of inmates by country of origin for foreign-born offenders.

Mexicans led the list with 108,000, followed by 10,500 offenders from El Salvador, 5,500 from Guatemala and 3,000 from Honduras.

I did not know that Korea was that high on the list of incarcerated foreign nationals. This is what one human rights activist had to say about this:

“We should not forget Koreans are foreigners in other parts of the world, and need as much legal protection as they can get,’’ said Kim Jung-ah, an activist of human rights group Sarangbang.

Korea needs to remember that foreigners that live in their country deserve as much legal protection as they can get as well.

The Stars and Stripes has provided an update on the rape and robbery of a US Army officer in Taegu:

South Korean police have narrowed their focus in an alleged rape to South Korean men connected with the U.S. military in Daegu.

Daegu Nambu Police Station detective Lee Doo-ho said the man who they believe raped a female military officer during an attack in her off-base apartment on July 7 is reported to speak nearly fluent English.

Because of that, Lee said, investigators are focusing on current or former Korean Augmentees to the U.S. Army, South Korean men who work on a U.S. base and shop workers near the bases.

The 5-foot 5-inch suspect wore a mask and hat during the attack, Lee said, so there is no sketch to publish.

Police have said the man also stole about $1,100 in U.S. currency and 250,000 won (about $250), and about $2,000 worth of items, including a digital camera.

Does anyone know if this is making the Korean news at all? I asked some KATUSAs if they heard of this story and they hadn’t. If this guy is to be caught this story needs to be updated in the Korean press with more details of what people should be looking for. A 5-foot 5-inch Korean guy that speaks English is probably not enough information for the readers of the Stars and Stripes to catch this guy.

More corruption is being reported to be happening on US Army installations in Korea:

A former U.S. Forces Korea civilian employee pleaded guilty last Thursday to conspiring to defraud the United States of more than $300,000, according to a Justice Department news release.

Fidel Diaz, 49, of Visalia, Calif., entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Washington. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a three-year term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Diaz was employed by the Defense Department as the chief of the Supply and Storage Division for the U.S. Army, Department of Public Works, USFK.

According to the release, Diaz and co-conspirators defrauded the Army of thousands of dollars between 2002 and 2004 while at Camp Giant.

Diaz admitted to violating DOD contracting rules and falsifying purchasing documents, according to the release. In his guilty plea, he admitted he purchased $309,978.58 in nonexistent electrical transformers from two co-conspirators with his and his subordinates’ government credit cards. In exchange, the release stated, the co-conspirators paid him more than $200,000.

The corruption continues here in Korea after last month’s report on the corruption at Kwangsa-ri:

Local police are seeking a South Korean man who works for the U.S. military in connection with the discovery of about 12 tons of U.S. military shell casings and live ammunition in a commercial warehouse Monday.

Detective Im Il-soon of the South Yangju police station identified the suspect as a 47-year-old man named Kim who works for the 17th Ordnance Company, which operates from the Kwangsa-ri ammunition depot, south of Dongducheon.

Im said three other South Korean men, none of whom work for the U.S. military, are being held in connection with the case.

Then you had executive linked to the corrupt Colonel Moran convicted:

Young Y. Lee, 46, of Rockville, Md., and Lorn J. MacUmber, 67, of Gypsum, Colo., each pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aiding and abetting a conflict of interest. Lee was president and chief executive officer of ISS and MacUmber was a senior vice president, according to federal prosecutors.

The executives also had offered the colonel a job at $125,000 per year, according to a news release from Rod J. Rosenstein, a U.S. attorney.

Moran never got the ISS job. The colonel pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy and bribery charges in a federal court in California involving contracts not related to this most recent case, the news release stated. He is in prison in California.

Then there is the continuous black marketing going on:

Military officials are targeting a black-market scheme that involves spouses of U.S. soldiers and civilians buying duty-free food at commissaries in Area I and II for resale to South Korean restaurants, according to ration control officials.

What is it about Korea that causes corruption to flourish here? Does anyone have any comments about if military bases in Japan or Europe have as much corruption as here in Korea?

The wild and crazy summer for USFK continues. The Stars and Stripes is starting to read like a police blotter. First this incident down in Seoul:

A U.S. soldier was charged over the weekend with using a beer can to assault a Korean teacher, according to officials at the foreign affairs section of Seoul’s Mapo police station.

Police said the soldier, a 30-year-old sergeant first class, was drunk and confronted the Korean man at about 2 a.m. Saturday in Seoul’s Mapo district. The soldier took the Korean man’s can of beer and began hitting him on the head with it, the police said.

No taxi cabs or beer bottles involved so it must be a Yongsan soldier.

Then there is this from Camp Humphreys:

An Army sergeant based at Camp Humphreys pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from accusations he tried to abduct a South Korean woman as she walked home, picking her up, throwing her down and beating her when she resisted.

Read the rest of the article but this guy is obvious scum. Hopefully the Koreans throw the book at him.

Then finally a verdict on the Camp Red Cloud soldier arrested for a taxi cab related incident in Okinawa:

U.S. Army soldier found guilty of robbing a cab driver of about $55 in May was given a prison sentence Tuesday in Naha District Court.

Pvt. James Joiner Jr. 20, formerly of Camp Red Cloud, South Korea, had pleaded guilty to attacking Sakae Kuba, 56, in Okinawa City and was sentenced to 2? years in prison with forced labor. No part of the sentence was suspended.

Just think about this, this was a 20 year old kid on his way home after spending a year in Korea, gets layed over in Okinawa, then gets drunk and stupid, and now will spend 2 1/2 years in prison; life ruined. He says he never would of committed the crime if it wasn’t for alcohol.

I don’t know if acts of indiscipline are up overall this summer or just that USFK is under a bigger microscope than it normally is by the media, thus the appearance of more incidents. I do know the USFK leadership must be frustrated by this and I wouldn’t be surprised if some big policy changes come into effect to deal with this problem. Stay tuned.

This story in today’s Stars and Stripes is strange but really not surprising:

Local police are seeking a South Korean man who works for the U.S. military in connection with the discovery of about 12 tons of U.S. military shell casings and live ammunition in a commercial warehouse Monday.

Detective Im Il-soon of the South Yangju police station identified the suspect as a 47-year-old man named Kim who works for the 17th Ordnance Company, which operates from the Kwangsa-ri ammunition depot, south of Dongducheon.

Im said three other South Korean men, none of whom work for the U.S. military, are being held in connection with the case.

Camp Kwangsa-ri is located between Dongducheon and Uijongbu just off of Highway 3. The camp is mainly run by the ROK Army with a handful of civilian workers and even smaller contingent of US soldiers. All training ammunition is picked up and dropped off at this camp for 2ID. It appears the Mr. Kim they are looking for who I actually have had to interact with before at Kwangsa-ri to turn in ammo, if it is the same Mr. Kim, was trying to sell the shell casings as scrap metal but was negligent and let live rounds mix with the expended rounds when he handed over the brass to Mr. Shin. The Korean workers are extremely careful to seperate brass and live ammo at the facility so this slip up is equally strange:

The police detective said the three men in custody helped broker a deal between Kim and a man identified only as Shin, who paid about $30,000 for the casings and ammunition as scrap metal. Im said Shin was not arrested because police believe he didn’t know the merchandise was stolen when he purchased it.

The detective said some of Shin’s employees who had military experience became suspicious of the ammunition boxes and contacted the police.

Im said that as former soldiers, the employees said they knew that “if even one bullet was missing in their units, it would be a really huge problem for them.”

Im said 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm and .50-caliber rounds and shell casings were found in the cases.

Since Mr. Shin turned over the ammunition to the police this leads me to believe he probably didn’t do anything illegal. However, if they did try to melt down the ammo it really could of turned into a dangerous situation for those involved. I just wonder how long Mr. Kim has been selling the old brass for $30,000 a pop? He has been there for quite a while. If Mr. Shin didn’t turn them in, Mr. Kim would have never gotten busted. It also makes me wonder how many other illegal activities such as this goes on in Korea without USFK knowing?

The incident with the taxi driver in Uijongbu this past weekend has been a topic of interest for soldiers up here. The topic was brought up during scheduled New Horizon’s Day training that was held today in 2ID. New Horizon’s Day is held twice a year and focuses on educating soldiers about Korean customs & history, alcohol related incidents, sexual assaults, and sexual harassments. Ironically this date for the training fell at a good time discuss the consequences of soldiers getting in trouble here in Korea because of recent events. This training usually brings up some good discussions and today was no different.

Unlike the Korean media I am going to warn you before hand that this is second hand information from the rumor mill brought up during the discussion, so take it for what it is. Concerning this weekend’s incident apparently what happened was that a Private First Class waved down a taxi after exiting a club in downtown Uijongbu. Upon waving down the taxi the soldier ran and jumped onto and then quickly off the hood of the taxi basically because he was drunk and being an idiot. He didn’t dance around and “run amok” on top of the taxi as some would have you believe.

Never the less this idiot dented the hood of the taxi and the cab driver was pissed and began yelling at him and grabbing him demanding he pay for the damages. The soldier never punched the cab driver by was trying push him off of him and the physical contact was begun by the cab driver though granted the soldier provoked it by denting the hood.

Two other privates with the PFC then went and grabbed the cab driver to pull him off of the PFC. They pulled the cab driver off the PFC and the PFC ran off leaving his other two buddies. Some buddy, leaving his friends to deal with the aftermath of the mess he created. While the PFC ran off two other Korean nationals jumped in and confronted the other two soldiers, more pushing and shoving happened but the Koreans were able to detain the two soldiers, where they were eventually picked up by the Korean police. The PFC was later picked up by the MPs and brought to the KNPs for questioning. That is where it is at right now. The questioning is being done and no charges have been filed yet.

Obviously, the PFC should be the one in a lot of trouble for provoking the incident by jumping on the cab. If true that he did not punch out anyone which I think may be true since we have seen no pictures yet of anyone that was beat up. If you remember the prior incident with the beer bottle, pictures of the injured Korean national were on the net within hours. No pictures of anyone injured in this altercation which leads me to believe that no serious fight happened. Probably a lot of grabbing, pushing, and shoving after the idiot jumped on the taxi hood but no serious physical injury.

Assuming that this story is true, like I said before, who knows, the PFC should pay for the damages to the hood of the Korean taxi and offer a big apology to the cab driver, plus he will receive his military punishment which could entail loss of rank, money, restriction, and extra duty. I don’t see how he would go to jail over this though if no serious physical harm was committed, unlike the beer bottle incident where the soldier involved in that incident is in much more serious trouble because he used a weapon, the beer bottle, and caused serious harm to the Korean national. It doesn’t matter who started the fight, if the soldier used a weapon like he did. He caused serious scarring on the man’s face that he will have to carry around for the rest of his life. So that soldier is more than likely going to jail and paying a big fine on top of it plus the military punishment he will receive, which could include a bad conduct discharge.

I can assure you that soldiers do not get over when it comes to serious crimes like this like the Korean media wants you to believe. They will be punished accordingly. As I have stated in my previous posting I think that the Army can do more to create a better environment that can help prevent these things from happening because I hate seeing soldiers go to jail over these things that could of been prevented.

UPDATE #1: Yonhap has a few more details about the taxi cab incident this weekend. However, nothing has been provided yet to explain what happened to cause soldiers to “run amok.”

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The Lost Nomad inquires why incidents between soldiers and Koreans keep happening in 2ID. The Marmot also is wondering what the heck is going on in 2ID. I’m sorry but this is a long post but some things just need to be said.

Now let me shed some light on what is going on. Basically the ville here is a big play pen for the soldiers. With the curfew and other restrictions on the soldiers they have few options other than go to the ville. There are very limited entertainment options on post so they turn to the ville. Then to top things off the battle buddy policy makes it nearly impossible for the soldiers to carry on any meaningful relationship with anyone other than drinky girls. How many girls would like a boyfriend that has to bring their buddy with them on every date everywhere they go. Not my idea of a romantic time out.

Something else that ukes me is that the USFK leadership constantly harps on alcohol abuse and human trafficking and prostitution but what do we do, we send the soldiers to spend the majority of their free time in a place that promotes alcoholism and prostitution: the ville! The Army creates conditions for these soldiers to get in trouble through their policies that indirectly promote what I call the “ville culture”.

What I really find interesting is that the drinking age is raised to 21 to reduce alcohol related incidents but these underage soldiers are still allowed to go into all the clubs. Why are the underage drinkers allowed in these clubs to begin with? Underage drinkers are not allowed into drinking establishments in the US so why should it be allowed here? We tell the underage people not to drink but then we set conditions for these guys to fail and get in trouble because the alcohol and sex is waved right in their face. You got 18-20 year old soldiers in a club with ajuma pushing alcohol and half naked Russian & Phillipino drinky girls on them making the soldiers feel like a king. A lot of them cannot resist the temptation at their age. So the soldiers drink get involved with these drinky girls and take this I’m king of the ville attitude with them everywhere else they go in Korea.

Things like fights in the ville, beer bottles over the head, and other similar incidents happen in the ville but the club owners do not publicize it. They let the MPs handle it and let it go through UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) channels instead of the local police because they don’t want to harm business with the GIs in the ville. Soldiers do get seriously hemmed up under UCMJ. If you get an alcohol related incident you can count on some serious punishment. However, this “what happens in the ville, stays in the ville mentality” carries over into the real Korea outside the play pen called the ville by some of these soldiers.

So when a drunk Korean in a situation outside the ville bumps into a soldier and they exchange words and maybe a few shoves the “what happens in the ville, stays in the ville” mentality takes over for some of these soldiers because these soldiers may have seen over their time in Korea people get in fights in the ville over the same reason and appear not to get in any trouble because they do not see the UCMJ process that takes place. So they get in an with the ajushi and walk away thinking it is no big deal. When it happens in the play pen called the ville it may not be a big deal but outside the ville it is a big deal because there is no business interests that wants to keep it hush hush.

Even if the soldier did not provoke the fight in the end the soldier will be the bad guy and ajushi an innocent victim. I have seen it to many times with my own eyes the Korean police side with crooked or drunk ajushis over altercations with soldiers though the ajushi was clearly in the wrong. Another factor that plays into this; is that in the US when you are provoked or assaulted you feel you have the right to self defense and will not get in trouble if you are assaulted by someone else. Here in Korea it is usually the guy who is beat up the most who is declared the victim no matter who started the fight. So if a soldier got the worst end of a fight with an ajushi and a beer bottle across his face you would hear nothing about it and it has happened before because I have seen it with my own eyes.

I will give you an example of an altercation that could of gone bad if the NCO involved didn’t keep his cool. Four NCOs get in a cab at the ville to get back to camp before curfew. One of the NCOs closes the door to the cab and a sun visor on the window falls off and ajushi starts claiming the NCO broke the sun visor and demands $30. The NCO will not pay ajushi because he knows all he did was shut the door and ajushi set him up to claim that he broke the sun visor. So the NCO continues to refuse to pay and the ajushi begins to grab the NCO and push him and making a scene demanding that he pay him. Ajushi is clearly trying to provoke a situation where some people may have hit him or pushed him back for the pushing and grabbing he was doing of the NCO.

If the NCO would of hit ajushi the Korean media would of dubbed it an American NCO runs amok in 2ID assaulting a taxi cab driver after being drunk and damaging the taxi. That is how it would sound in the Korean media with no reference to the soldier’s side of the story. That is why I say we should wait for more of the story from these past couple of ville incidents. But the soldiers in the other incidents even though they may have been provoked by the ajushis; they should not have beat the crap out of him even though they felt justified to, because they will not win in the Korean courts and have absolutely no chance of winning in the Korean court of public opinion. So as I have said before, swallow your pride and walk away because I hate seeing soldiers get hemmed up or thrown in jail for this stupid stuff.

Anyway back to my story, the NCO refused to be provoked by the taxi cab driver though he felt he was being by the cab driver. Eventually the KNPs come over to see what is going on. The NCO had the other NCOs with him as witnesses to what happened and the KNPs say that they are biased witnesses since they are his friends. Then he finds other American soldier witnesses who were standing nearby and saw what happened and they verify the NCO’s story. The KNPs say that those witness are not reliable because they had been drinking. The taxi cab driver then has other taxi cab drivers verify his version of events and the KNPs take that to be the truth. How are the American witnesses all biased but the other taxi cab drivers are not? The KNPs demand that he pay $30 or he will be taken to jail. He says fine take me to jail because I will not pay this crooked taxi cab driver.

By this time the American MPs arrive and see what is going on. They do nothing and tell the NCO to pay or he will be arrested by the KNPs and will make the blotter and his chain of command will be notified and be angry with him. He had already called his battalion Command Sergeant Major so the chain of command was already notified and trying to coordinate transportation to pick them up. However, the other NCOs with him all decided to chip in and pay the $30 because it was now past curfew and they just wanted to get back to camp. They ask the MPs for a ride and the MPs say they are busy and can’t give them a ride. They needed to take a taxi back to the camp.

All the other taxi cab drivers would refuse to take them and told them they had to take the taxi cab of the driver that just extorted $30 from them. All these taxi cab drivers in the ville are vultures that work together to extort money from GIs so they all were going to let this taxi cab driver further extort money from these soldiers because they all do the same thing. So they had to take the taxi back to camp and the driver extorts them by demanding $10 for a ride that by the meter would cost about 4000 won.

What kind of image of Korea do you think these GIs will carry of Korea the rest of their lives when they return to the states? Basically they will remember a trashy ville filled with prostitutes and alcohol, ajushis trying to rip them off, crooked policemen complacent in it, and MPs that did nothing to help them. That is the image Korea is portraying to many GIs. USFK only adds to the problem by setting conditions that cause things like this to happen by promoting the ville culture due to all the restrictions and regulations. A simple thing that could of prevented the incident from above from happening is that buses that run between camps should run later. Currently they stop running at 2100. There should be what I call the curfew bus that picks everyone up out of the ville at curfew or have a fleet of AAFES taxi there waiting to pickup soldiers so they don’t have to deal with the Korean cabs.

That is my two sense on what is happening. This is what the Nomad thinks should happen:

Why don’t we read about military personnel from Taegu, Camp Humphreys or Osan doing stuff like this? Is it something in the water up there? I have to wonder how long before USFK leadership cracks down, and hard?

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop holding only the individuals accountable. Maybe, just maybe, it’s also time to hold their supervisors accountable. And their supervisor’s supervisors. Or, if someone from a unit screws up like this, make the entire unit pay for it – lock them on base/post for 30 days with no liberty, period. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop concentrating on stopping prostitution (which should be left to the Koreans in the first place) and start concentrating on what’s causing this recent rash of incidents. Something is broken and it needs to get fixed.

First of all it would be easy for somebody to say why does all the other Area’s in Korea have all these drunk driver’s and hit and runs that give all us here in Area 1 all a bad name? There are drunk drivers in Area 2,3, & 4 because of the conditions there. Many soldiers until recently when the regulation was changed to E7 and up could drive vehicles in those areas, where in Area 1 you cannot. So you add the promotion of alcohol along with the ability to drive and you have drunk driving incidents.

You don’t have as many drunken fights between soldiers and Koreans because in the other Areas there is much more to do on post compared to 2ID camps. Going to the posts in Yongsan and Osan is like going to Disneyland for someone from 2ID. However to say these areas do not have their own share of problems is untrue. The infamous Shinchon Stabbing Incident involved soldiers from Camp Humphreys. Yongsan has had a soldiers that killed prostitutes in Itaewon just like 2ID has. So their is plenty of finger pointing that can be done depending on ones perspective.

Some of suggestions the Nomad has provided has already been done. I have seen multiple units get locked down on post for weeks at a time due to a string of alcohol related incidents in the unit and that still does not fix the problem. The incidents keep happening.

The only way I see to reduce the problem is to change the culture in ville. However, the problem will never be fully eliminated because there will always be stupid people who do stupid things. Is the military able to eliminate all alcohol related incidents in the US? No way, so it can’t be expected that USFK can end all alcohol related incidents in Korea.

However, more can be done to reduce the amount of incidents such as providing more things to do on post for one. The crappy clubs on post filled with guys and slot machines get old after a while. Why isn’t there regular shuttle buses that run to Everland or Lotte World? Or regular shuttle buses to different Korean National Parks that run at regular times? How about giving out more passes to soldiers to stay out over night so they can travel to some of these places. I can think of many things that can be done that provides something other than getting drunk for soldiers.

With the curfew and travel restrictions in 2ID it is tough for the soldiers to do anything other than get drunk and go to the ville. So it is important the change the current ville culture. So how do you do this? First of all, why are underage drinkers allowed in the ville? Why are clubs that have Russian and Phillipino drinky girls not off limits? Everyone knows they are not there to sweep floors but for prostitution. With all the preaching about human trafficking and prostitution, why are they not off limits? It is because USFK doesn’t want to piss off the locals who maintain the play pen. If underage drinkers were not allowed in the ville and places with foreign nationals were put off limits the club owners would lose a lot of money and may cause problems for USFK by publicizing “incidents” or holding protests. However, in the long run these club owners would have to change their business models and clean up the ville and create a club atmosphere that is more what you would see in states. These are just some simple suggestions.

If the Army really wants to create a culture change around here allow more command sponsored families here. All these married guys wouldn’t be getting drunk and hanging out in the ville if their families were here. This would greatly reduce the amount of people in the ville thus reducing incidents. Plus the ville would have to have to adjust their business models to attract families to want to go to the ville such as more family restaurants that would replace some drinky girl clubs. This is something that the other areas in Korea have going for them compared to Area 1 where there in no command sponsored families. This may be why Area 1 may appear to have more incidents.

Obviously this is a very complex problem that is not easy to solve. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I am just offering what I believe to be worthwhile suggestions that could improve conditions around here. In the mean time I will continue to do my best to keep my soldiers informed and out of trouble. From the conditions I have to deal with, it is not an easy thing to do.

UPDATE #4: The Korea Herald has now gotten in on the anti-USFK bandwagon:

The South Korean government is granted primary jurisdiction in crimes committed by U.S. soldiers outside working hours as outlined by the Status of Forces Agreement that governs the legal status of U.S. troops and their dependants here.

However, many U.S. soldiers have evaded the South Korean jurisdiction by citing their exemption from the SOFA clause by claiming on-duty status.

Once again a major Korean news media outlet blatantly passing disinformation. Here is something I am wondering? Chosun Ilbo why haven’t you gotten into the anti-USFK hate fest yet? Do you actually have journalistic standards unlike the rest of the Korean news media? It is still early I guess we will see.

Also, I highly recommend you read this post, this post, and definitely this post from the Korea Sojourner if really want to know how the Korean news media operates.

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UPDATE #3: Now this is my favorite headline, from the Donga: A series of crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and their children threaten Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. They might as well and ran this headline: Run for Your Lives the Americans are Sacking Seoul and the Rest of Gyeongi Province. Here are the alledged details from the taxi cab incident the article provides:

According to the police, the private and other soldiers jumped onto a taxi that was waiting for a green signal at a crosswalk and acted violently on the night of July 15 in Uijeongbu city. They assaulted the taxi driver who tried to stop them, and attacked two other citizens who also tried to hold them back.

Some how I doubt the soldiers just jumped into the taxi and started beating the driver. There is more to this story but we will probably never hear it.
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UPDATE #2: I just read the Korea Times article on this incident and all I can say is unbelievable. How are these people considered journalists? Check out this quote from the article:

About 40 South Korean civic activists staged a rally in front of the headquarters of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division in Tongduchon, northern Kyonggi Province, claiming that the three U.S. soldiers involved in the assaults should be arrested and compensation be paid.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that stipulates the legal status of U.S. troops and their dependents here, the Korean government is allowed to have primary jurisdiction in crimes committed by U.S. soldiers outside of working hours.

However, many U.S. soldiers have avoided the South Korean jurisdiction by claiming that they engaged in criminal acts while on duty.

First of all the 2ID headquarters is in Uijongbu and the protest happened in Uijongbu not Dongducheon because they shut down the front gate at CRC for a little this weekend in response to it. Secondly, once again I challenge anyone of these so called journalists to provide an example on when a soldier that was clearly off duty that committed a criminal act was able to avoid prosecution by claiming they were on duty. This out right disinformation used to stereotype the soldiers in USFK. The state of the Korean news media is really sickening.
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UPDATE #1: Yonhap has further expanded on their article. Check out this last paragraph they added to the article:

The South Korean government is granted primary jurisdiction in crimes committed by U.S. soldiers outside of working hours as outlined by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that governs
the legal status of U.S. troops and their dependents here. However, many U.S. soldiers have evaded the South Korean jurisdiction by citing their exemption from the SOFA clause by claiming on-duty status.

Can anyone name a case where the soldier was off duty and was granted SOFA status anyway? I have never heard of one so I’m not sure how Yonhap can say, I quote: “many US soldiers” are evading South Korean jurisdiction. This is an out right lie.

Plus it is ironic that Yonhap complains about the SOFA but the ROK Army has a similar SOFA agreement in place for the Zaytun unit in Iraq. A ROK soldier kills a local Kurdish Peshmerga soldier and they didn’t turn him over to the Kurdish authorities because they cited he was on duty.

I continue to push my arguement that is a drunken fight with a taxi driver more newsworthy than the rape and robbery of a US soldier? It appears the Korean media and law enforcement authorities are more concerned about arresting these drunk GI’s, than the rapist that is running around Korea right now.

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From Yonhap:

Police are investigating a son of a U.S. soldier for allegedly throwing a glass liquor bottle at a passing bus in Seoul and destroying the bus’s front windscreen, police said Sunday.

“One of six drunken U.S. teenagers belonging to the U.S. base in Yongsan (in downtown Seoul) threw a bottle from the roadside on Saturday night,” the police said.

I think it may be time to lock down Yongsan. (Yes I’m being sarcastic.)

The Marmot reports about a drunken brawl in Uijeongbu between three US soldiers and a Korean national. If you can read Korean you can get more details here. I’m sure this guy was minding his own business doing absolutely nothing when he just randomly got assaulted by the evil GI’s that prowl the streets of Uijongbu. (Yes I’m being sarcastic.) That is the usual story by people who tend to loose drunken brawls. I guarantee you that if the GI’s came out on the loosing side of the brawl and were beat up like Mr. Cho nobody would care then.

I think that the GI’s story should be heard before passing judgment. How do we know that this Korean guy and his buddies didn’t assault the GI’s and came out on the losing end? Also the fact that the Korean police handed over the one suspect to the US MP’s shows that they didn’t think that the incident was serious enough for them to investigate. Once the case got publicity of course the police go ahead and blame the SOFA just like all the policemen do to cover themselves though the SOFA has nothing to do with this case since the soldiers were off duty.

This all goes back to my posting from last month about, Swallowing Your Pride. If Mr. Cho some how bumped into the soldiers like he claims or even took a swing at them, which at this point we don’t know for sure; those soldiers should of just got out of the area quickly because in confrontations with Koreans you will never win no matter how rightly justified you feel you are. Your best option is to swallow your pride and get away from the situation.

Speaking of random assaults I wonder if this burglary and rape of a USFK soldier stationed in Daegu made any of the Korean news?

South Korean police are searching for a Korean man who allegedly raped a female U.S. officer Sunday in Daegu.

A Daegu Nambu police detective said authorities are seeking a 5-foot-5-inch Korean man who they say entered the American woman’s off-base apartment around midnight Sunday.

The detective said the suspect entered the apartment from a balcony, struck the woman and raped her before stealing about $1,100 and 250,000 won (about $250), and about $2,000 worth of items, including a digital camera.

The police officer said the 22-year-old American worked for a medical support unit and that local police are conducting a joint investigation with U.S. Criminal Investigative Command agents.

This isn’t the first time a US service member has been raped, murdered, or assaulted in Korea by a Korean and probably won’t be the last. But will anybody in Korea hear about it? That is the question I am wondering. If the Korean police are serious about catching this guy wouldn’t they want to publicize it as much as possible?

I guarantee if it was USFK service member that did this crime there would be never ending news coverage of it complete with all the emotional pictures of crying families, talk of the unfair SOFA agreement, and talk of all the crimes committed by US service members in Korea while simultaneously ignoring the fact that Koreans commit just as serious crimes against USFK soldiers.

Oh My News and the rest of the Korean media where are you? Is a drunken brawl that happens all over Korea every day more news worthy than the rape and and burglary of a 22 year old female? The silence in this case is deafening.