By Park Hye-won, The Herald Business
"Where do our human rights and dignity stand … ."
Those words were posted on a police internal network by an active-duty officer amid a wave of verbal abuse and assaults targeting police deployed to the ongoing blockade protest at the Jamsil vote-counting center.
Kim Min-gyu, a superintendent and security section chief with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's 2nd Mobile Unit, posted the message — under his real name and titled "Where Has Police Authority Gone?" — on Tuesday on the Korean National Police Agency's internal network.
Kim is the officer who was surrounded by protesters at the demonstration site on June 5 and subjected to taunts including "Try calling it in" and "Are you being ostracized?" Footage of the incident was later circulated alongside the false claim that he was a Chinese police officer.
"Teachers are working tirelessly to restore their eroded authority," Kim said in the post. "Now is the time for us to reflect on where our own human rights and dignity stand — and, if they have fallen further than necessary, how we might recover them."
He also said the protest had, from the participants' perspective, been a success. "It has moved beyond the serious misstep of the Western District Court incident," he wrote, noting that despite being an unregistered assembly, the demonstration had not escalated into disorder or major violence and had maintained a visibly orderly appearance, drawing almost no intervention from authorities so far.
He added that "the small-scale illegal acts and misconduct occurring throughout this process are going largely uncorrected" — a reference to protesters searching the belongings of passersby near the Olympic Park handball gymnasium and hurling verbal abuse at journalists and police.
"The nature of the protest may shift toward testing just how much the police will tolerate," Kim said. "The pressure on us will grow uglier, and our patience and pride may not be strong enough to endure it."
Meanwhile, as internal complaints mounted over what officers described as an inadequate response from police leadership to protester violence, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Park Jeong-bo sent a letter to all staff on June 8. "We will respond firmly to clear illegal acts — including the spread of false information — targeting officers carrying out their lawful duties," he wrote, adding, "I extend my deepest sympathies to colleagues who have suffered unjust harm and whose pride has been wounded."
He also urged officers to remain measured and alert. "The situation we face is an extremely serious matter involving the infringement of citizens' right to political participation," he wrote. "At the same time, we must deeply recognize that the free expression of opinion by citizens is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, and carry out our duties with care and without losing our sense of vigilance."
klee@heraldcorp.com
