"I hope there are more courageous attempts where police take responsibility for and correct their mistakes, yet do not grow weak because of them but instead overcome them."
Citizens angered by the unprecedented ballot shortage during the June 3 nationwide local elections have been staging protests in front of the Handball Stadium at Olympic Park in Jamsil. Initially, they gathered voluntarily, setting aside political coloring, in a protest condemning the National Election Commission's poor election management. But in the absence of leadership, as the number of participants dwindled over time, conservatives of the so-called "asphalt right" who claim "election fraud" gradually joined the protests, and the political coloring deepened.
The emergence of political coloring in protests cannot be considered unusual, but the biggest problem is that distrust toward public institutions has spread into a situation of disregard for public authority. The arrows of anger aimed at the National Election Commission's failures are being redirected at the police, who are tasked with maintaining order. The protesters' actions and language grew more aggressive over time, with some demanding identification from police blocking the front of the Handball Stadium, or calling certain officers "Chinese." Some protesters even posted videos filmed of police officers' faces on social networking services (SNS) along with false information.
For the police, who understand why citizens gathered in Jamsil, it was difficult to respond firmly, yet also difficult to leave officers exposed to harm. While the police command wavered over the level of response, frontline officers failed to properly stop a situation in which youth handball players, trying to enter the Handball Stadium to retrieve their equipment, were surrounded by protesters and put in distress. In the end, complaints emerged not only among the protesters but also among ordinary citizens, asking, "What is the point of police if they don't deploy at times like this?" It became a situation where the "police for the people" were criticized by everyone.
The sense of injustice fell entirely on the frontline officers. A post on the police internal network by Kim Min-gyu, a superintendent and chief of the security division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's 2nd Mobile Unit—who was personally surrounded by protesters on the 5th of this month, subjected to insults such as "Try using your radio" and "Are you an outcast?" and mistaken for "Chinese police"—captured this sense of injustice in full. Superintendent Kim said, "Teachers are making tireless efforts to restore the fallen authority of educators," adding, "Now is the time to reflect on what level our human rights and dignity are at, and if they have fallen more than necessary, how we can restore them."
He continued, "Going forward, the nature of protests may change into a test of how far police will tolerate," adding, "The pressure placed on police will become that much more vicious, and our patience and pride will not be great enough to endure it."
As the situation grew serious, the Korean National Police Agency belatedly stated through a media notice on the 9th of this month, "While respecting and actively protecting legitimate expression of opinion, which falls under constitutional fundamental rights, to the greatest extent possible, we will take strict action against clear illegal acts such as assault, defamation, and coercion targeting citizens, reporters, police, and firefighters." President Lee Jae-myung also recognized the gravity of the situation, pointing out, "They are reportedly branding police officers as 'fake cops,' hurling abuse, and even not hesitating to commit confinement and assault," and "Things that are utterly incomprehensible and difficult to tolerate are happening openly in broad daylight."
However, the officers' complaints have not subsided. One officer expressed frustration that, after suspicion arose among protesters over equipment such as sunglasses and masks—asking "Why are police covering their faces?"—the police command decided to deploy officers to the field only after removing such equipment. He said, "When zealous protesters see frontline officers, they indiscriminately film the faces of passing police, even though they are not subjects of duty enforcement, and demand their rank and name and that they speak Korean," lamenting, "Police officers are human too, so it is exhausting to explain to each malicious YouTuber one by one. Yet these people film an officer's slip of the tongue or a momentary irritation and use it as an opportunity to post videos." He added, "There are people who blow cigarette smoke in officers' faces, and with countless people venting their complaints right in front of their faces, officers chose masks as a minimal safeguard to protect themselves."
Complaints are also emerging over the sight of frontline officers being pushed around by protesters. The argument is that the command is effectively neglecting a situation in which the unimaginable is happening on the ground—where officers inform protesters of the number of personnel rotating in for shift changes and seek the protesters' permission when withdrawing or briefly relocating. The anger of one officer, who said, "We have become police who rely on nothing but a single mask," has even resonated with tens of thousands of officers.
Morale is steadily declining, not only among officers deployed to the scene but also among colleagues who have watched it unfold. There are even self-deprecating remarks that, although they carry the name "public authority" (gong-gwon-ryeok), what the police now hold is empty (gong) authority. Although officers too are someone's family and citizens in uniform, the reality that they are the first to be sacrificed when a situation arises in which they must condone someone's violent acts is weighing ever more heavily on the steps of officers heading to their posts.
The head of one regional police station's officers' association said, "I don't know how to understand and endure this reality, in which innocent officers who bear no fault for the ballot shortage in this local election become the public's punching bags and targets of their venting," adding, "If citizens' right to political participation has been violated and they seek redress, it is only natural that they receive it through legal procedures within the bounds of the law. Acts that disregard and make light of state public authority cannot be justified by any pretext."
He continued, "We should subdivide the crime of obstruction of official duties to establish a new crime of obstructing the official duties of judicial agency personnel, so that those who obstruct the official duties of public officials working in investigative agencies through assault, threats, deception, or force are punished more severely than under current penalty provisions."
