Student preparing for bar takes cigarettes from minors smoking

“If you forcefully took cigarettes (from minors), you could be mistaken for committing theft. So let’s go to the police box for an investigation.”

A 20-something man and police argued in Seoul`s Shillim-dong neighborhood packed with private academies at around 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Three middle school girls were giggling by them.

The man, 26, a non-smoker who is studying for the bar exam, never passed the academies without confronting teenagers who smoked cigarettes. He forced them to extinguish their smokes and took their remaining cigarettes, taking more than 200 packs of cigarettes that way.

He collected the cigarettes and sent them to a nearby police box or disposed of them by himself. That day, he took a pack from middle school girls who were smoking. They then cussed at him for doing, so he reported it to police to demand an apology from the students.

Contrary to his expectation that he would get help from police, officers who rushed to the scene blamed him for taking the girls` cigarettes. They said that had he forcefully taken the cigarettes, he could be mistaken as having committed theft.

They also advised him to “just preach to the students" since he could put himself in trouble.

The man cited the Youth Protection Act and said, “We are obliged protect teenagers as citizens.”

Article 4 of the law says, “Everyone should ensure that teenagers are not exposed to a harmful environment to protect them.”

Their dispute ended with police apologizing to the man. One officer who rushed to the scene told The Dong-A Ilbo over the phone Wednesday, “We didn`t treat (the man) that way because we thought he stole cigarettes,” adding, “We only told him to move to the police box to make sure that he would avoid trouble from violent students.”

jikim@donga.com