[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Violent rioters make no sense

Letters

[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Violent rioters make no sense

Published: 14 Dec. 2003, 23:28

Is it just me, or is there massive hypocrisy in the air? My commute takes me past the Blue House, Korea’s Central Government Complex, and the U.S. Embassy, and I can’t recall a day over the past two years when there hasn’t been at least one demonstration of some sort or the other at one or more of these places. That’s in addition to the myriad demonstrations (most illegal) that one can read about daily all around the peninsula.
Some of the saddest things I see are demonstrators injuring riot police, whose squads are mainly made up of young Korean men doing their involuntary military service. We have Koreans berating, fighting, burning with Molotov cocktails, and even using potentially deadly slingshots aimed at riot police. Does it make any sense to show one’s disgust with sending conscripted soldiers to a faraway war zone, or any other gripe for that matter, by using injurious or deadly force with conscripted police? I’m confused.

by Shane Berg