[WORD_ON_THE_WEB] 'The police neglected their duty'

CCTV footage has been released from an incident in Incheon last year where an enraged man injured the family living downstairs because of a noise complaint. The footage shows that police left the scene of the crime while it was taking place.

A male and female police officer were dispatched to a four-story apartment building in Namdong District, eastern Incheon, after receiving a noise complaint about a 48-year-old man on the top floor from a male resident on the third floor. The upstairs neighbor was also demonstrating threatening behavior, the man said.

While the male officer brought the third-floor resident down to the first floor to ask him questions about his neighbor’s behavior, the fourth-floor resident came downstairs brandishing a knife and attacked his neighbor’s family, which included his wife and his two adult daughters.

The female officer was on the third floor at the time talking to the wife. She fled downstairs. The male officer on the first floor did not go back upstairs to investigate. Instead, he called for back-up while the third-floor resident went upstairs to fight off the attacker on his own.

The victim commented that she “heard that my husband knocked the offender down, and the police took custody after that.”

She criticized the officers’ response, saying that “they don’t look like they feel any kind of pressure judging by the footage of them waiting outside.”

Both officers were fired, but objected to the disciplinary ruling. Their appeals were dismissed.

#failing_in_their_duty
“I’m enraged by the footage of the husband running up alone. Aren’t the police supposed to be acting like that, not him?”
“The police must protect the citizens, but they neglected their duty. It’s infuriating to watch them leave the scene of the crime.”

#shameless_objection
“Do they have no shame? Appealing against disciplinary orders after acting like that.”
“I didn’t exactly expect them to self-reflect, but objection? That’s crossing a line.”

#gender_is_not_the_issue
“What bothers me the most is that this case is being misrepresented as an example of every female officers’ incompetence.”
“This didn’t happen because there was a female officer on site. This happened because the police force has some serious issues that need addressing.”

BY LEE SI-YEOUNG, YOO JI-WOO [yoo.jiwoo@joongang.co.kr]