Tag: crime

The Stars and Stripes has provided an update on the rape and robbery of a US Army officer in Taegu:

South Korean police have narrowed their focus in an alleged rape to South Korean men connected with the U.S. military in Daegu.

Daegu Nambu Police Station detective Lee Doo-ho said the man who they believe raped a female military officer during an attack in her off-base apartment on July 7 is reported to speak nearly fluent English.

Because of that, Lee said, investigators are focusing on current or former Korean Augmentees to the U.S. Army, South Korean men who work on a U.S. base and shop workers near the bases.

The 5-foot 5-inch suspect wore a mask and hat during the attack, Lee said, so there is no sketch to publish.

Police have said the man also stole about $1,100 in U.S. currency and 250,000 won (about $250), and about $2,000 worth of items, including a digital camera.

Does anyone know if this is making the Korean news at all? I asked some KATUSAs if they heard of this story and they hadn’t. If this guy is to be caught this story needs to be updated in the Korean press with more details of what people should be looking for. A 5-foot 5-inch Korean guy that speaks English is probably not enough information for the readers of the Stars and Stripes to catch this guy.

This story in today’s Stars and Stripes is strange but really not surprising:

Local police are seeking a South Korean man who works for the U.S. military in connection with the discovery of about 12 tons of U.S. military shell casings and live ammunition in a commercial warehouse Monday.

Detective Im Il-soon of the South Yangju police station identified the suspect as a 47-year-old man named Kim who works for the 17th Ordnance Company, which operates from the Kwangsa-ri ammunition depot, south of Dongducheon.

Im said three other South Korean men, none of whom work for the U.S. military, are being held in connection with the case.

Camp Kwangsa-ri is located between Dongducheon and Uijongbu just off of Highway 3. The camp is mainly run by the ROK Army with a handful of civilian workers and even smaller contingent of US soldiers. All training ammunition is picked up and dropped off at this camp for 2ID. It appears the Mr. Kim they are looking for who I actually have had to interact with before at Kwangsa-ri to turn in ammo, if it is the same Mr. Kim, was trying to sell the shell casings as scrap metal but was negligent and let live rounds mix with the expended rounds when he handed over the brass to Mr. Shin. The Korean workers are extremely careful to seperate brass and live ammo at the facility so this slip up is equally strange:

The police detective said the three men in custody helped broker a deal between Kim and a man identified only as Shin, who paid about $30,000 for the casings and ammunition as scrap metal. Im said Shin was not arrested because police believe he didn’t know the merchandise was stolen when he purchased it.

The detective said some of Shin’s employees who had military experience became suspicious of the ammunition boxes and contacted the police.

Im said that as former soldiers, the employees said they knew that “if even one bullet was missing in their units, it would be a really huge problem for them.”

Im said 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm and .50-caliber rounds and shell casings were found in the cases.

Since Mr. Shin turned over the ammunition to the police this leads me to believe he probably didn’t do anything illegal. However, if they did try to melt down the ammo it really could of turned into a dangerous situation for those involved. I just wonder how long Mr. Kim has been selling the old brass for $30,000 a pop? He has been there for quite a while. If Mr. Shin didn’t turn them in, Mr. Kim would have never gotten busted. It also makes me wonder how many other illegal activities such as this goes on in Korea without USFK knowing?

UPDATE #1: Yonhap has a few more details about the taxi cab incident this weekend. However, nothing has been provided yet to explain what happened to cause soldiers to “run amok.”

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The Lost Nomad inquires why incidents between soldiers and Koreans keep happening in 2ID. The Marmot also is wondering what the heck is going on in 2ID. I’m sorry but this is a long post but some things just need to be said.

Now let me shed some light on what is going on. Basically the ville here is a big play pen for the soldiers. With the curfew and other restrictions on the soldiers they have few options other than go to the ville. There are very limited entertainment options on post so they turn to the ville. Then to top things off the battle buddy policy makes it nearly impossible for the soldiers to carry on any meaningful relationship with anyone other than drinky girls. How many girls would like a boyfriend that has to bring their buddy with them on every date everywhere they go. Not my idea of a romantic time out.

Something else that ukes me is that the USFK leadership constantly harps on alcohol abuse and human trafficking and prostitution but what do we do, we send the soldiers to spend the majority of their free time in a place that promotes alcoholism and prostitution: the ville! The Army creates conditions for these soldiers to get in trouble through their policies that indirectly promote what I call the “ville culture”.

What I really find interesting is that the drinking age is raised to 21 to reduce alcohol related incidents but these underage soldiers are still allowed to go into all the clubs. Why are the underage drinkers allowed in these clubs to begin with? Underage drinkers are not allowed into drinking establishments in the US so why should it be allowed here? We tell the underage people not to drink but then we set conditions for these guys to fail and get in trouble because the alcohol and sex is waved right in their face. You got 18-20 year old soldiers in a club with ajuma pushing alcohol and half naked Russian & Phillipino drinky girls on them making the soldiers feel like a king. A lot of them cannot resist the temptation at their age. So the soldiers drink get involved with these drinky girls and take this I’m king of the ville attitude with them everywhere else they go in Korea.

Things like fights in the ville, beer bottles over the head, and other similar incidents happen in the ville but the club owners do not publicize it. They let the MPs handle it and let it go through UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) channels instead of the local police because they don’t want to harm business with the GIs in the ville. Soldiers do get seriously hemmed up under UCMJ. If you get an alcohol related incident you can count on some serious punishment. However, this “what happens in the ville, stays in the ville mentality” carries over into the real Korea outside the play pen called the ville by some of these soldiers.

So when a drunk Korean in a situation outside the ville bumps into a soldier and they exchange words and maybe a few shoves the “what happens in the ville, stays in the ville” mentality takes over for some of these soldiers because these soldiers may have seen over their time in Korea people get in fights in the ville over the same reason and appear not to get in any trouble because they do not see the UCMJ process that takes place. So they get in an with the ajushi and walk away thinking it is no big deal. When it happens in the play pen called the ville it may not be a big deal but outside the ville it is a big deal because there is no business interests that wants to keep it hush hush.

Even if the soldier did not provoke the fight in the end the soldier will be the bad guy and ajushi an innocent victim. I have seen it to many times with my own eyes the Korean police side with crooked or drunk ajushis over altercations with soldiers though the ajushi was clearly in the wrong. Another factor that plays into this; is that in the US when you are provoked or assaulted you feel you have the right to self defense and will not get in trouble if you are assaulted by someone else. Here in Korea it is usually the guy who is beat up the most who is declared the victim no matter who started the fight. So if a soldier got the worst end of a fight with an ajushi and a beer bottle across his face you would hear nothing about it and it has happened before because I have seen it with my own eyes.

I will give you an example of an altercation that could of gone bad if the NCO involved didn’t keep his cool. Four NCOs get in a cab at the ville to get back to camp before curfew. One of the NCOs closes the door to the cab and a sun visor on the window falls off and ajushi starts claiming the NCO broke the sun visor and demands $30. The NCO will not pay ajushi because he knows all he did was shut the door and ajushi set him up to claim that he broke the sun visor. So the NCO continues to refuse to pay and the ajushi begins to grab the NCO and push him and making a scene demanding that he pay him. Ajushi is clearly trying to provoke a situation where some people may have hit him or pushed him back for the pushing and grabbing he was doing of the NCO.

If the NCO would of hit ajushi the Korean media would of dubbed it an American NCO runs amok in 2ID assaulting a taxi cab driver after being drunk and damaging the taxi. That is how it would sound in the Korean media with no reference to the soldier’s side of the story. That is why I say we should wait for more of the story from these past couple of ville incidents. But the soldiers in the other incidents even though they may have been provoked by the ajushis; they should not have beat the crap out of him even though they felt justified to, because they will not win in the Korean courts and have absolutely no chance of winning in the Korean court of public opinion. So as I have said before, swallow your pride and walk away because I hate seeing soldiers get hemmed up or thrown in jail for this stupid stuff.

Anyway back to my story, the NCO refused to be provoked by the taxi cab driver though he felt he was being by the cab driver. Eventually the KNPs come over to see what is going on. The NCO had the other NCOs with him as witnesses to what happened and the KNPs say that they are biased witnesses since they are his friends. Then he finds other American soldier witnesses who were standing nearby and saw what happened and they verify the NCO’s story. The KNPs say that those witness are not reliable because they had been drinking. The taxi cab driver then has other taxi cab drivers verify his version of events and the KNPs take that to be the truth. How are the American witnesses all biased but the other taxi cab drivers are not? The KNPs demand that he pay $30 or he will be taken to jail. He says fine take me to jail because I will not pay this crooked taxi cab driver.

By this time the American MPs arrive and see what is going on. They do nothing and tell the NCO to pay or he will be arrested by the KNPs and will make the blotter and his chain of command will be notified and be angry with him. He had already called his battalion Command Sergeant Major so the chain of command was already notified and trying to coordinate transportation to pick them up. However, the other NCOs with him all decided to chip in and pay the $30 because it was now past curfew and they just wanted to get back to camp. They ask the MPs for a ride and the MPs say they are busy and can’t give them a ride. They needed to take a taxi back to the camp.

All the other taxi cab drivers would refuse to take them and told them they had to take the taxi cab of the driver that just extorted $30 from them. All these taxi cab drivers in the ville are vultures that work together to extort money from GIs so they all were going to let this taxi cab driver further extort money from these soldiers because they all do the same thing. So they had to take the taxi back to camp and the driver extorts them by demanding $10 for a ride that by the meter would cost about 4000 won.

What kind of image of Korea do you think these GIs will carry of Korea the rest of their lives when they return to the states? Basically they will remember a trashy ville filled with prostitutes and alcohol, ajushis trying to rip them off, crooked policemen complacent in it, and MPs that did nothing to help them. That is the image Korea is portraying to many GIs. USFK only adds to the problem by setting conditions that cause things like this to happen by promoting the ville culture due to all the restrictions and regulations. A simple thing that could of prevented the incident from above from happening is that buses that run between camps should run later. Currently they stop running at 2100. There should be what I call the curfew bus that picks everyone up out of the ville at curfew or have a fleet of AAFES taxi there waiting to pickup soldiers so they don’t have to deal with the Korean cabs.

That is my two sense on what is happening. This is what the Nomad thinks should happen:

Why don’t we read about military personnel from Taegu, Camp Humphreys or Osan doing stuff like this? Is it something in the water up there? I have to wonder how long before USFK leadership cracks down, and hard?

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop holding only the individuals accountable. Maybe, just maybe, it’s also time to hold their supervisors accountable. And their supervisor’s supervisors. Or, if someone from a unit screws up like this, make the entire unit pay for it – lock them on base/post for 30 days with no liberty, period. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to stop concentrating on stopping prostitution (which should be left to the Koreans in the first place) and start concentrating on what’s causing this recent rash of incidents. Something is broken and it needs to get fixed.

First of all it would be easy for somebody to say why does all the other Area’s in Korea have all these drunk driver’s and hit and runs that give all us here in Area 1 all a bad name? There are drunk drivers in Area 2,3, & 4 because of the conditions there. Many soldiers until recently when the regulation was changed to E7 and up could drive vehicles in those areas, where in Area 1 you cannot. So you add the promotion of alcohol along with the ability to drive and you have drunk driving incidents.

You don’t have as many drunken fights between soldiers and Koreans because in the other Areas there is much more to do on post compared to 2ID camps. Going to the posts in Yongsan and Osan is like going to Disneyland for someone from 2ID. However to say these areas do not have their own share of problems is untrue. The infamous Shinchon Stabbing Incident involved soldiers from Camp Humphreys. Yongsan has had a soldiers that killed prostitutes in Itaewon just like 2ID has. So their is plenty of finger pointing that can be done depending on ones perspective.

Some of suggestions the Nomad has provided has already been done. I have seen multiple units get locked down on post for weeks at a time due to a string of alcohol related incidents in the unit and that still does not fix the problem. The incidents keep happening.

The only way I see to reduce the problem is to change the culture in ville. However, the problem will never be fully eliminated because there will always be stupid people who do stupid things. Is the military able to eliminate all alcohol related incidents in the US? No way, so it can’t be expected that USFK can end all alcohol related incidents in Korea.

However, more can be done to reduce the amount of incidents such as providing more things to do on post for one. The crappy clubs on post filled with guys and slot machines get old after a while. Why isn’t there regular shuttle buses that run to Everland or Lotte World? Or regular shuttle buses to different Korean National Parks that run at regular times? How about giving out more passes to soldiers to stay out over night so they can travel to some of these places. I can think of many things that can be done that provides something other than getting drunk for soldiers.

With the curfew and travel restrictions in 2ID it is tough for the soldiers to do anything other than get drunk and go to the ville. So it is important the change the current ville culture. So how do you do this? First of all, why are underage drinkers allowed in the ville? Why are clubs that have Russian and Phillipino drinky girls not off limits? Everyone knows they are not there to sweep floors but for prostitution. With all the preaching about human trafficking and prostitution, why are they not off limits? It is because USFK doesn’t want to piss off the locals who maintain the play pen. If underage drinkers were not allowed in the ville and places with foreign nationals were put off limits the club owners would lose a lot of money and may cause problems for USFK by publicizing “incidents” or holding protests. However, in the long run these club owners would have to change their business models and clean up the ville and create a club atmosphere that is more what you would see in states. These are just some simple suggestions.

If the Army really wants to create a culture change around here allow more command sponsored families here. All these married guys wouldn’t be getting drunk and hanging out in the ville if their families were here. This would greatly reduce the amount of people in the ville thus reducing incidents. Plus the ville would have to have to adjust their business models to attract families to want to go to the ville such as more family restaurants that would replace some drinky girl clubs. This is something that the other areas in Korea have going for them compared to Area 1 where there in no command sponsored families. This may be why Area 1 may appear to have more incidents.

Obviously this is a very complex problem that is not easy to solve. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I am just offering what I believe to be worthwhile suggestions that could improve conditions around here. In the mean time I will continue to do my best to keep my soldiers informed and out of trouble. From the conditions I have to deal with, it is not an easy thing to do.

The Marmot reports about a drunken brawl in Uijeongbu between three US soldiers and a Korean national. If you can read Korean you can get more details here. I’m sure this guy was minding his own business doing absolutely nothing when he just randomly got assaulted by the evil GI’s that prowl the streets of Uijongbu. (Yes I’m being sarcastic.) That is the usual story by people who tend to loose drunken brawls. I guarantee you that if the GI’s came out on the loosing side of the brawl and were beat up like Mr. Cho nobody would care then.

I think that the GI’s story should be heard before passing judgment. How do we know that this Korean guy and his buddies didn’t assault the GI’s and came out on the losing end? Also the fact that the Korean police handed over the one suspect to the US MP’s shows that they didn’t think that the incident was serious enough for them to investigate. Once the case got publicity of course the police go ahead and blame the SOFA just like all the policemen do to cover themselves though the SOFA has nothing to do with this case since the soldiers were off duty.

This all goes back to my posting from last month about, Swallowing Your Pride. If Mr. Cho some how bumped into the soldiers like he claims or even took a swing at them, which at this point we don’t know for sure; those soldiers should of just got out of the area quickly because in confrontations with Koreans you will never win no matter how rightly justified you feel you are. Your best option is to swallow your pride and get away from the situation.

Speaking of random assaults I wonder if this burglary and rape of a USFK soldier stationed in Daegu made any of the Korean news?

South Korean police are searching for a Korean man who allegedly raped a female U.S. officer Sunday in Daegu.

A Daegu Nambu police detective said authorities are seeking a 5-foot-5-inch Korean man who they say entered the American woman’s off-base apartment around midnight Sunday.

The detective said the suspect entered the apartment from a balcony, struck the woman and raped her before stealing about $1,100 and 250,000 won (about $250), and about $2,000 worth of items, including a digital camera.

The police officer said the 22-year-old American worked for a medical support unit and that local police are conducting a joint investigation with U.S. Criminal Investigative Command agents.

This isn’t the first time a US service member has been raped, murdered, or assaulted in Korea by a Korean and probably won’t be the last. But will anybody in Korea hear about it? That is the question I am wondering. If the Korean police are serious about catching this guy wouldn’t they want to publicize it as much as possible?

I guarantee if it was USFK service member that did this crime there would be never ending news coverage of it complete with all the emotional pictures of crying families, talk of the unfair SOFA agreement, and talk of all the crimes committed by US service members in Korea while simultaneously ignoring the fact that Koreans commit just as serious crimes against USFK soldiers.

Oh My News and the rest of the Korean media where are you? Is a drunken brawl that happens all over Korea every day more news worthy than the rape and and burglary of a 22 year old female? The silence in this case is deafening.

I have to give a hat tip to the Lost Nomad for pointing this Stars and Stripes article out. It appears there may be truth to the rumors I reported before.

Much of Friday’s testimony centered on Davis’ alleged relationship with a South Korean woman whose family owns a club in Songtan that base officials had declared off-limits to U.S. servicemembers.

According to testimony, Davis offered her guidance on how to get the ban lifted and eventually began a sexual relationship with her, concealing from her the fact that he was married.

So he did have a Korean girl friend who’s dad was a club owner. I guess we will see if the rest of the rumor is true as this eventually goes to trial.

Here is something I hadn’t heard before though:

Davis also faces prosecution by South Korean authorities on charges of possessing weapons at an off-base residence, in violation of South Korean law. South Korean authorities may file additional charges later, U.S. Force Korea officials have said.

I’m wondering how this guy could of had weapons which I’m assuming to be a gun in his apartment. Maybe Nomad can help me out here, but is the Air Force allowed to bring hand guns over here? I know the Army cannot. Anyway this 1LT Davis is looking more and more like a real bad apple. The legal system will determine if he is or not but I have already pretty much made up my mind.

The Stars and Stripes has an update about the Osan officer currently jailed at Camp Humphrey’s for alledgedly shaking down bar owners.

A U.S. Air Force lieutenant was charged Friday with bribery, extortion, rape and other misconduct in connection with an alleged shakedown scandal while he headed the Air Force police team that patrols the bar district outside Osan Air Base.

The officer, 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis of the 51st Security Forces Squadron, also was charged with assault, larceny, adultery, violations of regulations and lawful orders, willful dereliction of duty, making false official statements and conduct unbecoming an officer, according to a U.S. Forces Korea news release.

The assault and rape charges throws a new wrinkle into this case because I have heard absolutely nothing about those offenses. It is safe to say 1LT Davis is in some extremely serious trouble looking at these charges.

I have posted before about what rumors I have heard. However, what I still can’t understand is how the bar owners thought that 1LT Davis had the power to put their clubs off limits? In 2ID the club owners before being put off limits can make their case to a board comprised of senior leaders in the division about why they should not be put off limits. I’m not sure how they do it in Osan, maybe the Nomad can help me out here, but the process should be similar. If the club owners felt like they were being shaked down by the town patrol why didn’t they make their case to the board in Osan about it? If they did launch a complaint, then why didn’t the board launch an investigation into the allegations? If I was this guy’s lawyer this is what I would be looking at.

Even so 1LT Davis is still got charges against him he can’t possibly beat such as making a false official statement, conduct unbecoming of an officer, and adultery. These charges are all serious and pretty cut and dry. He better hope his lawyer can work out a good plea deal for him because he is going to get convicted of something, it is just a matter of what and how many.

The Shinchon Stabbing Incident occurred on May 15th, 2004 when 4 GI’s and a KATUSA went and partied in the Shinchon area of Seoul one night.  The soldier with tattoos pictured below apparently was extremely drunk and walked out in front of a taxi cab when the stop light was green.  This caused a confrontation between the drunk soldier and the taxi cab driver.  During the confrontation some “concerned citizens” intervened to help the taxi driver and some heated words were exchanged.  I believe it is safe to assume that many of the “concerned citizens” who mostly were Korean college students were probably equally drunk at the time.

Anyway a fight broke out and nobody can really say for sure who started it, but it ultimately ended up involving all the US soldiers who were surrounded by dozens of “concerned citizens” eager to pound on some GI’s.  One of the soldiers in an effort to defend himself pulled out a pocket knife to get the attackers off of him who were choking him. In a struggle with the attackers the soldier accidentally cut the throat of the Korean student.  This pocket knife would later go on to be described in the Korean media as a military issue knife conjuring up images of some Rambo blade when in fact it was a simple pocket knife. The soldiers were eventually subdued by the mob and arrested by the police department. I had predicted at the time nothing would happen to the students and the soldier would get slammed and nobody would care. Well that is unfortunately the case.

You can actually read a detailed account of what that night from John Humphrey at this link.

The soldier in question, Pvt. John C. Humphrey was convicted of attempted homicide after stabbing a 27-year-old man in the neck with the knife. He was given a 2 1/2 year sentence in a Korean prison.  The soldier was at first charged with simple battery since he was trying to protect himself, but due to all the misinformation in the media the charges were upgraded to attempted murder.  This case I use as a perfect example to my soldiers of what not to do in Korea. Pvt. Murphy was probably a good kid just out having a good time with his friends when things went wrong and now his life has been seriously impacted and he had to sit in prison for 2 1/2 years. The entire Shinchon area is off limits to soldiers for good reason; to prevent incidents like this from happening. Unfortunately these soldiers did not abide by this command policy.  An additional thing to keep in mind is that GI’s should not carry knives with them in Korea.  I understand in America it is common to carry a knife, but in Korea pulling a knife on someone is like pulling a gun on someone in the States.  This is considered a massive escalation of the confrontation by Korean standards.

Anyway there is a fringe minority in Korea who looks to create incidents with soldiers and drunk GIs. Harassing a taxi cab driver is just asking for trouble. Any incident in Korea between soldiers and Koreans will always end with the soldier on the losing end no matter if the Korean started it or not.  Notice that in the Shinchon Stabbing Incident that these soldiers were assaulted by the “concerned citizens”, but none of them were charged with a crime, in fact they were treated as heroes:

No matter what poor judgement the Shinchon GI did or didn’t exercise in carrying a knife with him or for using it (I wasn’t there, either, of course, there were certain hugely mitigating circumstances that call into question the notion of the “crazed American GI tearing up the streets”, which certainly should shed doubt on the Korean media’s labeling the Korean guy who did the attacking in the first place any sort of “hero”, which should call into question that hack with a toy camera – Bae Sang Beom – being a “photographer” or a “journalist”, and should definitely cast doubt as to whether Oh My News is really even a “newspaper.”

Bae Sang Beom – you’re not a “photographer” or a “witness” or a “documentarian,” nor are you journalistically honest enough to admit to yourself that you actually didn’t see (or photograph) anything but a couple of GI’s being held by a large crowd, waaaaay after the fact. Sounds familiar to me, from what I’ve seen with my own two eyes and with my own cameras.

The bottom line is that when in a confrontation with Koreans, especially went it makes the news more than likely your side of the story will never get heard and you will be demonized in the media. So the best course of action is to always keep away from situations that can turn into something that makes you out as the bad guy. Walk away from confrontations and whatever you do never use a weapon. If you are soldier reading this heed my advice and follow all command policies, they are there for a reason, so you don’t end up becoming the next Pvt. Murphy.

Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link: