There will be questions, needless to say, about why there wasn't a bigger attempt to control crowds last night in Itaewon.
The lack of crowd control was particularly striking, considering the massive police presence you routinely see at Seoul protests, even for small events.
I’m reminded of the “wants more government… more government” meme with the girl getting pepper-sprayed. Here.
Last edited 2 years ago by Kevin Kim
ChickenHead
2 years ago
We keep coming back to that word…
…control.
Nobody talks about sense or responsibility or situational awareness or any of those useful and successful internalized virtues.
Every delicate problem seems to be addressed with the hammer of control.
My heart is growing increasingly hard as this situation changes from how to honor the victims to someone thinking up reasons to tell me what to do… which will never really be in my best interests.
Am I the only one who just lived through two years of covid mismanagement and petty tyranny?
Or is everyone else just that poor at pattern recognition?
Stephen
2 years ago
The first call to police from Itaewon came at 18:34 local time – several hours before the deadly crush took place.
The caller to South Korea’s 112 emergency number said they were on the main street to Itaewon and an alley next to the Hamilton hotel was becoming dangerously crowded.
“That alley is really dangerous right now people going up and down, so people can’t come down, but people keep coming up, it’s gonna be crushed. I barely made it to get out but it’s too crowded. I think you should control it,” the caller said.
The police officer asked if the caller meant that people weren’t flowing well, that “they get crushed and fall, and then there’s going to be a big accident?”
Yes, the caller responded – “this is so chilling right now“.
“No one is controlling it right now,” the caller said. “The police has to control this. You should let people out first and then let people in. People keep pouring in but they can’t get out.”
That was the first of at least 10 calls to police in the capital Seoul over the next three hours on Saturday. But that night, local residents say, the police presence was wholly inadequate.
Officials and experts now believe one reason why so many people thronged that particular alley was its proximity to the Itaewon subway station, a spot with high foot traffic.
Kwon Seolah, chief of the Center for Disaster Safety Innovation at Chungbuk University, suggests that officials could have ensured subway trains bypassed Itaewon station, or blocked off vehicles from entering the district to make more space for pedestrians.
A restaurant owner who returned home at 22:00 local time said he could not even exit from Itaewon station because it was so crowded. So he went to a different station and circled back home.
Local businesses told the BBC there had been a Global Village festival earlier in October, showcasing Itaewon’s cosmopolitan character. That was organised by the council, and there was a prepared crowd control plan.
Another woman, a money changer who was selling flowers for people to lay down at the makeshift shrine to the victims, said she saw few police officers – attempts to organise the crowd were being made earlier in the evening by local volunteers, she said, not the police.
She also said that the local business association had requested help from the police last week in dealing with the crowds at the weekend, but did not get it.
Jonathan Head, Tessa Wong, additional reporting by Youmi Kim and Jungmin Choi
Here’s your crowd control. One policeman who made a big difference .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=93UFsSCD-Go
This disproves the excuses that right-wingers are making up. If one cop made this difference imagine what more cops would have done .
That was after the fact when everyone knew something bad happened. He wasn’t there when everyone rushed to see the K-Pop Star.
As I heard, now seems to be confirmed, mad rush due to ‘celebrity’ siting: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/k-pop-singer-lee-jihan-dies-in-stampede-in-south-korea/ar-AA13z5xz?cvid=63315262990648cda4bdbd8fe1cc0954
I’m reminded of the “wants more government… more government” meme with the girl getting pepper-sprayed. Here.
We keep coming back to that word…
…control.
Nobody talks about sense or responsibility or situational awareness or any of those useful and successful internalized virtues.
Every delicate problem seems to be addressed with the hammer of control.
My heart is growing increasingly hard as this situation changes from how to honor the victims to someone thinking up reasons to tell me what to do… which will never really be in my best interests.
Am I the only one who just lived through two years of covid mismanagement and petty tyranny?
Or is everyone else just that poor at pattern recognition?
The first call to police from Itaewon came at 18:34 local time – several hours before the deadly crush took place.
The caller to South Korea’s 112 emergency number said they were on the main street to Itaewon and an alley next to the Hamilton hotel was becoming dangerously crowded.
“That alley is really dangerous right now people going up and down, so people can’t come down, but people keep coming up, it’s gonna be crushed. I barely made it to get out but it’s too crowded. I think you should control it,” the caller said.
The police officer asked if the caller meant that people weren’t flowing well, that “they get crushed and fall, and then there’s going to be a big accident?”
Yes, the caller responded – “this is so chilling right now“.
“No one is controlling it right now,” the caller said. “The police has to control this. You should let people out first and then let people in. People keep pouring in but they can’t get out.”
That was the first of at least 10 calls to police in the capital Seoul over the next three hours on Saturday. But that night, local residents say, the police presence was wholly inadequate.
Officials and experts now believe one reason why so many people thronged that particular alley was its proximity to the Itaewon subway station, a spot with high foot traffic.
Kwon Seolah, chief of the Center for Disaster Safety Innovation at Chungbuk University, suggests that officials could have ensured subway trains bypassed Itaewon station, or blocked off vehicles from entering the district to make more space for pedestrians.
A restaurant owner who returned home at 22:00 local time said he could not even exit from Itaewon station because it was so crowded. So he went to a different station and circled back home.
Local businesses told the BBC there had been a Global Village festival earlier in October, showcasing Itaewon’s cosmopolitan character. That was organised by the council, and there was a prepared crowd control plan.
Another woman, a money changer who was selling flowers for people to lay down at the makeshift shrine to the victims, said she saw few police officers – attempts to organise the crowd were being made earlier in the evening by local volunteers, she said, not the police.
She also said that the local business association had requested help from the police last week in dealing with the crowds at the weekend, but did not get it.
Jonathan Head, Tessa Wong, additional reporting by Youmi Kim and Jungmin Choi
BBC News, Seoul