Police in hot water over handcuffing incident

Kim Ki-yong, commissioner general of the National Police Agency

Police are under fire for failing to secure the immediate release of three citizens who were handcuffed last Thursday by American troops following a dispute outside Osan U.S Air Force base near Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi province.

Activists claim that it is illegal under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for members of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to handcuff Korean citizens. The activists denounced the local police for their poor handling of the case at the scene.

A team of seven U.S. military police (MP) handcuffed three local civilians and apparently attempted to take them into the base following a scuffle over parking outside the airbase.

The incident occurred after one of the civilians, a man identified as a 35-year-old with the family name Yang, parked his car within 500 meters of an entrance to the base. The MPs asked Yang to move his car as MPs are allowed to ask civilians to move their vehicles from such close proximity due to terrorism concerns.

The military personnel handcuffed Yang first then two others, a passer-by surnamed Shin and Yang’s brother, after they protested.

Local police then arrived on the scene where about 40 civilians had gathered. The MPs removed the handcuffs after the police urged them to do so for about 20 minutes.

Activists claim that the police reacted passively as the U.S. soldiers initially refused to immediately release the three handcuffed civilians. Then the police allegedly proposed that the MPs set the men free later at another location.

Following this, the MPs took the civilians 150 meters away and released them there.

“It’s so embarrassing that our police can’t even claim its rights and protect its own citizens on our own soil,” said a member of a civic group that calls for a revision of the SOFA treaty between Korea and the United States.

“The American troops violated the SOFA treaty that prohibits detention of Korean civilians by the U.S military. Police should have ordered a release of the three men immediately, but they acted in a rather humiliating manner.”

Police said that the officers asked the MPs to move to a different place because the protesters were upset and could pose a threat to the U.S. soldiers.

“According to the officers who were at the scene, the MPs were surrounded by the protesters, some of whom used abusive language, and the soldiers looked intimidated. And that’s why the officers had the military personnel remove handcuffs at a nearby area,”said a high-ranked officer who asked to remain anonymous.

Public criticism intensified when Kim Ki-yong, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, defended his officers Monday by saying that they must have had difficulty figuring out whether the three handcuffed men were Koreans.

“I believe it wasn’t easy for the officers to confirm whether the detained individuals were Koreans, Korean-American soldiers, or even Japanese,” he said.

A member of the Society for the Citizens’ Solidarity for Human Rights said the police chief’s remark is “total nonsense.”

“What the police commissioner general said implies that our police have to sit and watch while our citizens are dragged away by a foreign military,” said Oh Chang-ik, director general for Citizens’ Solidarity for Human Rights.

Rep. Roi Hoi-chan of the minor United Progressive Party also had a similar view.

“So, it’s not illegal when a U.S. soldier handcuffs a Korean civilian? I think Mr. Kim perfectly belongs to those traitors who committed treason under the Japanese colonial regime,” he commented on his Twitter.

The police said they will look into whether the officers’ measures were against the law. They are considering arresting the U.S. MPs for the alleged violation of the SOFA treaty.

The USFK apologized Sunday for the incident and ordered a “full investigation.” <The Korea Times/Yi Whan-woo>

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