&#91EDITORIALS&#93End the kidnappings

The increase in abduction cases for profit is making public tensions rise. Two kidnappers in their 20s were found to have killed the abductee only 10 minutes after receiving 100 million won ($84,000) from the victim’s parents. That is a crime that makes us shudder. Yes, our society is getting crueler, but it is deplorable to think it has come to this.
Also, we now live in constant concern about whether our surroundings are safe. The 20 recent cases targeted children, female college students and female entertainers, who have little capacity to resist in the face of a crime. Parents with children are complaining that they cannot live with such fear and uncertainty.
These abductions, whether planned or impromptu, come as more people are facing credit crunches and threats to their livelihood. With the press reporting in detail on how the crimes took place, copycat crimes are on the increase. Our society cannot claim to be civilized if we let these inhumane abductions that endanger people’s lives for money or other gains spread like an epidemic.
The government should draft a special measure that will strongly instill in people’s minds that abductions and kidnappings will fail. Kidnappers and abductors will be seized no matter what. They must realize that such base crimes will never be dealt with lightly. In order to do that, the police must throw all its resources into abduction cases. The police’s current inertia and easygoing approach will not help. A father who had little credibility in the police, saved his child by engaging himself in a fight against the criminal but died from stab wounds; the female college student’s parents lost their daughter after directly contacting the kidnappers.
The government should form a special task force that will apply more systematic methods to investigations rather than merely relying on questioning. It is desirable for the families of victims to first go to the authorities and cooperate in seizing the criminals. The press should concentrate their reports on how the police are working to catch the criminal rather than on the crime itself so that there will be no further copycat crimes.