The drunks who frequent the park downstairs from my apartment are a noisy and irksome bunch.  Regularly keeping me awake late into the night and/or waking me up at the crack of dawn with their rantings and ravings.  Signs are posted all over the park prohibiting drinking but I’ve never seen that enforced.  Until tonight.

The intensity of the shouting reached an unusually high fevered pitch so I stepped out on the veranda overlooking the park to see what was going on and I arrived just in time to observe one of the drunk ajusshi’s give one of Korea’s finest a violent shove.  The cop shoved him back and said what I assume was the Korean equivalent of “settle down!”.  Now, in my observations over the years I’ve found Korean cops to be exceedingly tolerant when dealing with disgruntled citizens.  Had the drunk guy backed off I doubt he’d have suffered any consequences for assaulting an officer of the law.  Instead, he charged the cop again and the fight was on!  The cop quickly got the upper hand and was wrestling the ajusshi to the ground.  Another cop came into view at this point and as he attempted to assist his partner, a second drunk guy jumped him from behind.  All hell pretty much broke out at the point.

It appeared there were six cops versus three drunks (several other drunks were milling about but limited themselves to verbal tirades) and in short order the police had subdued the offenders and had them in handcuffs.  But what really stood out for me was the restraint the officers showed in the face of physical violence.  No billy clubs, no pepper spray, no punches–they just put them on the ground and slapped on the cuffs.

Now, of course this brought to mind the unfortunate situation in Ferguson, MO.  I don’t know what happened other than what I’ve read and I’m not passing judgement.  But in general I’ve been concerned about the growing militarization of our local PD’s.  It seems more and more the police do not see citizens as a community to be served but rather as an enemy to be subdued.  I don’t think that bodes well for anyone.

Granted, the police have a difficult and dangerous job and we obviously owe them a fair amount of discretion when it comes to protecting themselves.  But it seems all too frequently I’m seeing stuff like this woman being beaten mercilessly for having the audacity of walking on the shoulder of the freeway.  “Hey lady, what you are doing is dangerous and against the law.  Let me punch your face in.”

Handcuffed and sitting on the curb are you? Well, a swift kick to the head seems to be in order then…

Anyway, I think the Korean cops take more shit than they deserve, and American cops dish out more shit than is normally warranted.  I would think there’s a middle ground to be found between these extremes.  But of the two I’d say the Korean cops got the job done and everyone lived to see another day.

And now the park is quiet.  I think I’ll take advantage of that and get me some sleep.

UPDATE:  And yes, for every story of police misconduct there are probably 100 like this.