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[EDITORIALS]Crimes against the weak

Published: 19 Jul. 2004, 22:15

It is a good thing but far too late that the police have caught the killer who murdered 26 people, senior citizens, masseuses and vendors. Even inside the police force, officers are admitting that his capture was pure luck and that it was only possible because of some sort of divine intervention. The admission by the police is a reflection of how little police work actually contributed to the capture of the serial killer.
The police have to cast off their old ways of conducting investigations. The old method uses tip-offs by citizens, conducting inquires and getting confessions from suspects. That is not enough these days. In the case of a homicide, tracing human relationships and financial aspects are not sufficient to cope with today’s crimes, which are getting more complex and are being committed by smarter people. Foremost, improving the methods of investigating a crime scene would be a good thing; that would help secure more clues related to a crime. A more scientific approach of using those clues is also needed. In addition, the establishment of an organization that specializes in collecting and analyzing crime data is essential.
The recent murders were not aimed at a specific person but were aimed at a nonspecific group of people. Anybody could become a victim. In the case of a crime that has a large crime scene and does not have a particular motive, it’s hard for a single police station to handle the matter. The special mobile police forces that each provincial police headquarters operates need to be strengthened, and a system should be put into place that makes the cooperation between them possible so that crimes that are mobile and cover a vast area can be solved more efficiently.
While reporting on this crime, plainly relaying the killer’s words that disparities of wealth in our society served as his motive, is a problem. We should not give a reasonable motive to a killing spree that was committed by a mentally ill person. As we have witnessed, the group that was victimized the most by this killer were young women in their 20s working as masseuses ― in other words, sex workers. They work at illegal massage palors and are the weak in society. Although many of them just vanished, nobody really noticed or paid any attention. It shows what a big security loophole our society has. Starting now, we have to investigate other missing persons cases that involve young women so that we can improve our public safety.