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My insane housemate Dmitri from Korea/Kazakhstan/Texas/”If Sebastian Bach had a country, I would live there” just showed me this amazing footage of a protest-turned-riot from Seoul, South Korea on September 29th, 2002. I’m a huge sucker for riot porn, and this is probably the best I’ve ever seen. Notice the giant flamethrower. But at the same time, notice how organized, and almost civilized, the rioters are.

Apparently, the rioters are ex-spies for the Korean government who did secret operations in North Korea during the 70s and didn’t receive compensation. The only article I can find about it is a brief AP news article:

Ex - Spies Protest in S. Korea

September 29, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-SKorea-Former-Spies.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Police detained about 200 former South Korean spies who protested Sunday against the government’s alleged refusal to pay bonuses for secret missions they carried out in communist North Korea decades ago.

A total of 218 protesters were detained for questioning after they took over two lanes of a six-lane road in Seoul, wielding metal rods and setting fire to gas canisters, said Seoul police Sgt. Lee Sang-chul.

Nineteen policemen and 10 demonstrators were injured, he said. Police quickly put out the blazes but traffic was backed up. Television footage showed four riot police taking away one bleeding demonstrator. About 1,000 policemen were used to stop the hour-long protest.

The former spies demanded the government follow through on alleged promises to give them cash bonuses, houses and other benefits for infiltrating North Korea between the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the early 1970s.

http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2002nn/0209nn/020929nn.htm#360

The thing that really struck me about the video, though, is the abrupt ending. Even in a dangerous and violent situation, the Korean police (1st Mobile Regiment’s 1st & 3rd Company(1001st, 1003rd Mobile) of the South korean Combat Police Corps, according to the video) are willing to suddenly accept a peaceful reconciliation. I had Dmitri translate what he could, and at 6:10, the police captain meets with the leader of the protesters, shakes his hand and apologizes. The protest leader then tells all of the injured people to get to the back and all of the other people to be prepared to be arrested. They then chant some slogans and file peacefully onto a police bus. This is all less than hour after going after police with a massive flamethrower and having a sword battle in the street.

The notion of a non-violent conclusion is something that American police never even consider. If a crowd is using weapons, they will be fired upon. Last time I was in up against a line of riot cops, I saw them beat the shit out of a young girl who wasn’t running away from them fast enough. She was bloody and crying and she didn’t do anything at all. They also arrested and beat up my friend Ted for taking a picture with his camera phone. And this was in an unarmed and generally co-operative crowd. (I took some footage of it on my cameraphone and put them on my YouTube account. The one of the guy getting picked up and dropped by the horsecop is pretty good. He dropped a can in the street.)

There’s no doubt in my mind that if this type of protest happened in America, every person holding a weapon would be shot and killed, and everybody left would be maced, tasered, beaten and arrested. I don’t know if I think this is illogical or not. On one hand, I don’t think people should point flamethrowers at other people. On the other hand, I don’t think large groups of people should be openly fired upon. I just think the extreme differences between our cultures is fascinating.

One thing I am sure of that I’d like to see American police be more willing to come to civil, non-violent resolutions like this.

One last on an unrelated note: I’ll be keeping an eye on the new PRO-IP act, which would establish an Office of Federal Copyright Cops, essentially. Ars has a write-up about the sitch so far. I’ll write more if the bill progresses.

That’s all for now,
Rich

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