I can understand why these women feel unsafe but is following someone around in Korea considered a crime? If not it would explain the indifference shown by the police:
Concerned residents in the Haebangchon neighborhood, located next to Itaewon in Seoul, have formed a community awareness group in response to an increased amount of sexual harassment in the area.
People Unite against Street Harassment (PUSH) was established in March this year and held a fundraiser during the 10th anniversary of the HBC Festival last weekend.
Brittany Hayes and Alicia Trawick from Florida in the United States lead the group.
“Over the past year there have been different things happening, but it was kind of being brushed under the rug,” said Trawick. “The police were not doing anything, so we took it upon ourselves to do something.”
PUSH President Hayes believes the police response has left a lot to be desired.
“A lot of people have contacted the police about this issue but nothing has happened,” she said. “A girl wrote on the HBC forum on Facebook that she had been stalked by a guy and when she went to a police officer on the street he ignored her.”
Ashley Pifer, also from the U.S., said she had such an experience.
“I was with my friend in a mart along HBC road when an African man came in,” she said. “He said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ My friend responded and I just ignored him.”
“We walked down the road to CU Mart. I went inside and made a purchase and as we were leaving the same man walks in. He proceeded to rub my arm and say, ‘What’s this? I like.’ I moved away and walked out.
“I left my friend and walked further up the road to the pharmacy. When I came out the same man was standing across the street. I panicked and called my boyfriend and then the man ran away. To me it wasn’t coincidental that we were in three places in a row.”
As she later discovered, the incident was not isolated but part of a pattern.
“I wasn’t even going to report it until I saw a post on the HBC forum,” she said. “A guy said a similar man had followed his girlfriend home. So I decided to make a report because others came forward with similar stories,” said Pifer.
“My Korean boyfriend and I spent two hours being transported to three police stations. The whole time the police were trying to convince us not to make a report. One of the officers spoke to us in English and tried to help but after speaking with his superiors he came back and pretended he could not understand me. I eventually gave up. They didn’t believe me and it was pointless.” [Korea Times]
My angrydykometer is getting a signal… whoa… and it’s a strong one.
My distrust is so high of “community organizers”, Master of Liberal Studies degree holders, and those quick to start clubs with rigid structures and “fundraisers”, it is hard to know if this is a real crisis or one manufactured to create some media clippings, résumé padding, and fulfill a sense of self-importance.
Though I can believe a shady Haebangchon African hassles a white girl on the street every once in a while.
Of course a “community awareness group” is not really the proper and effective way to take care of pesky Africans… but the children can have their little club, raise some socially-pressured funds from suckers who need to show some liberal street cred, collect some socially-pressured dues from friends and acquaintances… have a couple of nice vegetarian meals, print some Stop Harassment flyers to further litter up the area, and buy a club notebook computer that will become the de facto property of whoever is running the club when it goes tits-up in six months when everybody completely loses interest in “meetings” that have no new issues, no new information, no new solutions, and no new hope to stop pesky Africans from touching the white girls.
Then everybody will just go back to ignoring the Africans or telling them to bugger off like they do now.
Ashley Pifer and her Korean boyfriend seem like a nice couple.
?oh=5890c2c99b46dac9a61c131f6c0ca690&oe=55C1ADD9
…though I can’t imagine if you are really worried about community stalking, why you would post pictures of yourself all over the internet.
“By the way has anyone seen this Haebangchon movie that was recently released?”
Generally speaking, when some little jerk-off film is cobbled together, and there are only six IMDB users ranking it, they are all friends of the writer/director/star… so no matter how bad it is, they give at least six compassionate stars to keep it looking above average.
Coming in at a whopping 3.7 stars means James Williams III has no friends, his mother didn’t even help out, and/or this movie is so monumentally sucky that nobody could live with themselves even if they used a fake name in a throwaway account to rank a movie nobody will ever see.
Soooo… I think I will be missing this one…
…though now I am sickly curious.
Setnaffa
9 years ago
Hmmmm… Black guy in Korea smoking pot and being chased by the mafia… Why does that sound so familiar?
Leon LaPorte
9 years ago
6. Isn’t that what happened the last time Obammy came to Seoul?
Bob
9 years ago
I like Alicia Trawick’s job history. “Freelance Instructor” for over two years. Prior to that, “Corporate Trainer” for two months and one month (for such a short time, not sure why you’d put that on your job history, would seem to raise more questions than establish credibility). Finally, graduate of University of Denver- where the only thing that comes to mind is the recent lacrosse national championship.
TagumCityTim
9 years ago
I lived in Haebangchon during two different times (1990-1991 and 1995-2000). There were always a good number of Africans living there in addition to the American (GI) population. Most of the African nationals were friendly (sometimes overly so to me) so I can understand women being afraid of their behavior and since most of these men come from male-dominated cultures they don’t see the harm in engaging in unwanted banter bordering on harassment.
It is so cute when foreigners make little clubs with fancy positions and everything but secret decoder rings.
“Brittany Hayes and Alicia Trawick from Florida in the United States lead the group.”
https://kr.linkedin.com/in/aliciatrawick
http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/150526_p01_haebangchon.jpg
My angrydykometer is getting a signal… whoa… and it’s a strong one.
My distrust is so high of “community organizers”, Master of Liberal Studies degree holders, and those quick to start clubs with rigid structures and “fundraisers”, it is hard to know if this is a real crisis or one manufactured to create some media clippings, résumé padding, and fulfill a sense of self-importance.
Though I can believe a shady Haebangchon African hassles a white girl on the street every once in a while.
Of course a “community awareness group” is not really the proper and effective way to take care of pesky Africans… but the children can have their little club, raise some socially-pressured funds from suckers who need to show some liberal street cred, collect some socially-pressured dues from friends and acquaintances… have a couple of nice vegetarian meals, print some Stop Harassment flyers to further litter up the area, and buy a club notebook computer that will become the de facto property of whoever is running the club when it goes tits-up in six months when everybody completely loses interest in “meetings” that have no new issues, no new information, no new solutions, and no new hope to stop pesky Africans from touching the white girls.
Then everybody will just go back to ignoring the Africans or telling them to bugger off like they do now.
Ashley Pifer and her Korean boyfriend seem like a nice couple.
…though I can’t imagine if you are really worried about community stalking, why you would post pictures of yourself all over the internet.
Some days, CH nails an issue so exactly dead on, you just have to start a slow clap.
Clap… Clap… Clap.
By the way has anyone seen this Haebangchon movie that was recently released?:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3253048/
“By the way has anyone seen this Haebangchon movie that was recently released?”
Generally speaking, when some little jerk-off film is cobbled together, and there are only six IMDB users ranking it, they are all friends of the writer/director/star… so no matter how bad it is, they give at least six compassionate stars to keep it looking above average.
Coming in at a whopping 3.7 stars means James Williams III has no friends, his mother didn’t even help out, and/or this movie is so monumentally sucky that nobody could live with themselves even if they used a fake name in a throwaway account to rank a movie nobody will ever see.
Soooo… I think I will be missing this one…
…though now I am sickly curious.
Hmmmm… Black guy in Korea smoking pot and being chased by the mafia… Why does that sound so familiar?
6. Isn’t that what happened the last time Obammy came to Seoul?
I like Alicia Trawick’s job history. “Freelance Instructor” for over two years. Prior to that, “Corporate Trainer” for two months and one month (for such a short time, not sure why you’d put that on your job history, would seem to raise more questions than establish credibility). Finally, graduate of University of Denver- where the only thing that comes to mind is the recent lacrosse national championship.
I lived in Haebangchon during two different times (1990-1991 and 1995-2000). There were always a good number of Africans living there in addition to the American (GI) population. Most of the African nationals were friendly (sometimes overly so to me) so I can understand women being afraid of their behavior and since most of these men come from male-dominated cultures they don’t see the harm in engaging in unwanted banter bordering on harassment.