Osan Airbase Airman Arrested for DUI and Hit & Run
Here is another case of a USFK service member ruining his career by drunk driving. I have little sympathy for these drunk drivers in Korea with the abundant mass transit available:
An American airman stationed in South Korea is under suspicion of driving under the influence after crashing into a parked car and attempting to flee the scene, local police said.
A 42-year-old technical sergeant assigned to Osan Air Base is under investigation from the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, a senior police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. The officer declined to provide the service member’s name due to the country’s identity protection laws.
Police said the airman is suspected of hitting a parked car in a backstreet of a neighborhood shopping area frequented by foreigners and young adults at around 8:55 p.m. Friday. The owner of the parked car, an unnamed Korean man, drove after the service member while calling the police.
“I am chasing a hit-and-run foreigner,” the caller said, according to the senior police officer.
Authorities apprehended the airman roughly 10 minutes after the crash, the police officer said, adding that the service member was compliant but had “much alcohol on his breath.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Didn’t even release the suspect’s name huh? Safe to say Betty White.
@gin:
First off, no one likes drunk drivers.
No one stationed at Osan should have been drinking by him/herself so far from home.
They don’t name Korean suspects either.
May we therefore assume you’re just trying to “gin up” some fake conflict?
I’m with Gin on this. Names should be in the paper. Such reports are always caveated with “alleged” and “suspected of”, at least where traditional journalistic standards still exist.
Forty years ago, one could pick up any local morning paper and read the police blotter. It was a staple of every towns’ daily. One morning I learned my Dad (by name) was picked up for “suspected” DUI, and the pastor of my church on another morning (listed as Father Bernard Ganger). It used to list addresses where the police were called to: burglaries, domestic disputes, loud music, etc.
The police blotter was public information. You’re paying for it so you have a right to see it. An old fashioned concept?
Where a real free press exists, like we used to have in the US, the news can be brutally revealing and honest.
And when you think about, that’s exactly why people subscribed to the paper.
Not a big fan of publishing names, myself.
Especially before there is a trial.
Had a friend in Italy who was arrested for “drunk driving”.
Car full of Italians said he was drunk (he was) and driving (he was not), so he would be responsible for the accident.
Except his wife had been the driver (she was the DD, very pregnant at the time…and we all saw her take the driver’s seat when they left).
You never know the real story. And the media is rarely accurate.
Just sayin.
Edited feature isn’t working for some reason.
Just to add, he lost his chances for promotion and his career was over.
In my friend’s case, for no reason.
I don’t recall if his name was published at the time but what would be the point in doing that?
Always thought that about losing a command position too.
My spouse never released the names of commanders he dismissed for the media. Under any circumstances. Didn’t seem right, and there is no point in excoriation from the ignorant public.
Think about how many lives have been ruined this way.
Once the media publishes the name, it’s everywhere.
This is not like decades ago before the internet.
Nor is the media trustworthy. When has the word “allegedly” protected anyone form public opinion?
After the trial, if there is one, the information can be released.
Sorry, this topic gets me het up (it would be nice if the edit feature worked).
I just have seen so many people get f*ed this way (name releases to the public). I’m reminded of the Alaskan air pilot years ago. The paper not only released his name after his copilot accused him of assault, they released two photo images…one of him in a bar from years back looking bleary eyed with a solo cup in his hand, another of her looking professional in her pilot uniform. The public was outraged and demanded his firing. No evidence. Mere weeks later she made the same accusation toward another pilot on another trip (she had an alcohol problem herself, and became blackout drunk on a regular basis). She was let go and went to an airline in Hawaii where she proceeded to do the same thing again.
The original pilot not only didn’t get his job back, but he was unable to work anywhere once his name was released…even without a conviction, they told him the public opinion was too set against him so the companies could not risk it.