Governmental Authority Threatened

The governmental authority is being threatened more and more, as the interference in the execution of police official duties continue to increase.

The National Police Agency announced yesterday that such cases have sharply increased from 6074 in 1996 to 8037 in 1998, and since then has shown a continuously increasing tendency as follows; 8261cases in 1999, 8463 cases in 2000, and 8174 cases thus far October, 2001.

The policemen working in the police stand said that "Over one or two persons created a disturbance in the police stand everyday. The policemen became the object for venting out drunkards` anger."

Sergeant Lee of Seoul Kwanak Police Station was dispatched after receiving a report of marital quarrel, but he was injured by the husband, who was arguing that the marital quarrel was not a police matter.

And a riot police lost an eye when pierced by bamboo stick during maintaining the demonstration at Jongmyo Park, Seoul, on 2nd.

The policemen said that "the police cannot help but be passive, since the civil appeal to the excessive power or abuse of official authority when the police try to aggressively control the demonstration. Compared to the escalating demand for the human rights, the governmental authority is seriously dissipating."

Regarding such a phenomena, Cho Byung-In, head of research department of the Korea Criminal Policy Research Institute, said, "It is a widespread civil sentiment to doubt about how the police officers execute their duties. The recently rising distrust toward the politics and the successive corruptions of the public institutions tend to be expressed as a hostility against the policemen that are directly involved in the peoples` livelihood."

However, the police maintains that the light penalty has rather aggravated the problem. Prof. Pyo Chang-Won (Dept. of Public Administration, Korea National Police University) said that the resistance to the police`s authority should be heavily punished because interfering with the governmental officers are severely punished even in the advanced countries.

Prof. Pyo pointed out that "While the civilians should restrain the groundless hostility against the police, the police should develop a sophisticated and efficient technique of legal execution in order not to raise the disapproval of civilians."

changkim@donga.com