Ruling Party Politicians Criticized for Comments About Itaewon Crushing Victims’ Families
Not a good look for the PPP:
High-profile politicians from the ruling party and the presidential office are under heavy fire after speaking ill of the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in the Oct. 29 crowd disaster in Itaewon, accusing them of venting their anger at the government. Lawmakers and observers chastised the ruling party politicians for their lack of sympathy and political attacks on the family members who started a civic group to call for a full government investigation and an apology from the president.
Korea Times
The most-criticized remark came from Kim Seong-hoi, former presidential secretary for religious and multicultural affairs in the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. He criticized the bereaved families for demanding the government take responsibility for poorly managing the crowd on Halloween weekend and for failing to communicate properly with the victims’ families.
“Why do you people blame the government for the whole thing when it was your responsibility to keep your grown-up children from going (there)?” Kim wrote on Facebook, Sunday. “Have your children been conscripted by the state from birth? Since when did the president of the free Republic of Korea become the ‘supreme paternal leader’ (who must take care of all members of the public)?”
You can read more at the link with other ruling party politicians making comments critical of the victim’s families. I can understand their frustration with political activists trying to nationalize what was a tragedy caused by whoever started pushing people in the crowd and the lack of crowd control by the local police. With that said the ruling party needs to keep their comments to themselves because it just further gives fodder to politicize this tragedy by their critics.
Wow. Some refreshing truth.
Now the wisdom of politicians not being political is another matter… and giving something for the other side to focus on in their complaining is a problem… and the questionable manners of speaking the uncomfortable truth to people who don’t want to hear it and who aren’t really to blame either… are other issues.
But the statement remains true.
Is the president more responsible or are the parents more responsible to guide children?
The government has taken a lot of safety duties in society to the point it is assumed they are responsible… and they are… highways, food and drug, electrical, industrial, etc.
Are they responsible for noticing big crowds in confined spaces with odd dynamics?
At some point, society is faced with making a choice between personal responsibility and government micromanagement.
The location of this line is not clear.
However it is clearly somewhere far above the government controlling my entertainment options because… safety. That is a system set for abuse.
If parents haven’t trained their children to know big crowds can be dangerous and what the warning signs are, they are in no place to blame the government for not being good parents.
Perhaps rubbing this in the faces of grieving parents because political opportunists are taking advantage of the situation is not correct.
But the continuing transfer of personal responsibility, coupled with autonomy and freedom, to government has to stop.
I don’t want to blame government for a lot of things… or they WILL take responsibility for them. And the solution will be targeted at the lowest common denominator.
Did nobody learn anything from the covid response?
It’s all about blaming someone else for their failure to teach their children how to be safe.
Yes. That sounds harsh. But more than 150 people died because they were idiots.
In every country there are warning signs of danger. Don’t drive through flood waters. Don’t lean over 800 foot drops to take selfies from slippery or crumbling stone cliffs. Don’t stick your fingers into a Cuisinart blender. Don’t change out a light switch before disconnecting the 200V supply…
I have been through the deadly alley many times. It is inconceivable that 150+ people would try to enter it at once. The excitement of being out post COVID lockdown, alcohol, the thought of meeting a celebrity (who was himself killed), and the general disregard for one’s own mortality contributed; but the fact remains that many people saw the danger and went another way.
I hope folks will learn the right lesson. Be aware of your surroundings. Do not trust mobs to protect you. Even mobs of beautiful young people.
And do not trust bureaucrats to protect you either. No government protected its citizens from COVID. The virus simply mutated—as all viruses do—to a less fatal illness.
If one demands the government keep everyone safe, expect everyone to be put into concentration camps. That’s how government works.
There is no compassion, just jackboots and pepper spray.
The comments made by Setnaffa and his supposed chum(sockpuppet) Chicken Head can be summarized into a single line;
We don’t care how may people die, as long as Yoon is in power and he provides me plentiful photos of US-ROK military exercises for my wanking pleasure
Naw… wanking to pictures of excercises is like beating it to the bra page in a Sears catalog.
CH, you misunderstood.
Chinabot was telling us he pleasures himself looking at photos of Americans in uniform.
Sort of the opposite of the so-called “Yellow Fever” experienced by some folks when they arrive in Asia.
Like Peter Graves’ character in Airplane, he probably has subscriptions to Gladiator magazines.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as they used to say on Seinfeld.
Setnaffa.
Why so shy to admit?
We all know that the reason that you hated Moon and thirsted for Yoon is because Moon cut down on the joint ROK-US military exercises.
It is obvious that the sight of those military exercises gives you pleasure and some of mental comfort.
As such you would rather see innocent Koreans die than have Yoon removed from power.
No, Setnaffa, YOU misunderstood.
I haven’t slept with a real woman since Sears went out of business.
And a buff GI screwing on his flaming red blank adapter?
Don’t get me started.
Thanks for the unsolicited visuals.
The PPP politicians should take a page from Oh Sehoon’s(The PPP Mayor of Seoul) playbook.
The guy had the smarts to hold a press conference and apologize and assume responsibility even saying that “he should have done more.”
That is unlike the Minister of Interior and Mayor of Yongsan-gu who said that “they’ve done enough” when evidence shows more could have been done and the other PPP politicians above are not helping and pouring oil to the flames.
While the DPK and the media are going after the above persons, no one is going after Mayor Oh.
Mayor Oh sure has learned a lot since the days of being a rookie politician and the Mayor of Seoul just before Park Wonsoon.