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Koreans protesting against the resumption of U.S. beef imports advanced to a point just one kilometer from the presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae on Saturday night. Police fired water cannons and mobilized 10,000 riot police, led by 110 S.W.A.T. troops, to repel the advancing protesters. Protesters snatched some of the shields used by riot police and started bonfires on the streets, sending black plumes of smoke billowing into the air. A total of 100 citizens and 41 police were injured in the all-night rally, and 228 protesters were arrested.
The candlelight vigils should be respected. But the protesters are taking things too far by illegally occupying the road just in front of Cheong Wa Dae and protesting all night, even though the government has not committed any illegal or corrupt act. It is human nature to feel uncomfortable about possibly contracting the human form of mad cow disease. But thus far not a single person in the United States or Korea has been confirmed to have contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Refusing to accept this simple fact makes communication impossible. But if one chooses to accept it, then there should be limits as to how one expresses his or her fear over mad cow disease.
Parents with babies in strollers and even handicapped people took part in the protests, putting their safety at great risk. Calling on the president to "step down" just three months after his inauguration and shouting "down with dictatorship" in this day and age cannot be viewed as having been motivated by purely innocent intentions.
But the mobilization of S.W.A.T. teams to block the protesters was not a good idea either. S.W.A.T. troops clashed directly with protesters and arrested them. These teams were created during the 1988 Summer Olympics to deal with terrorist attacks, and mobilizing the ultimate means available to police to deal with protesters is going too far.
Police fired water cannons for the first time since the anti-free trade agreement protests in March of last year. Seven trucks fired around 10 high-powered blasts of water, and people in their 70s and women in their 20s had to be taken to emergency rooms after being hit in their faces. We must think about the adverse effects of these short sighted measures, which were aimed only at dealing with protesters.
Chief secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae are said to be attending the candlelight vigils in order to get a feel for the public sentiment. They surely must have seen up close the public's distrust of the government and their fears. And if the presidential secretaries were unable to see that their incompetence and irresponsible acts are the sources of the problem, then they were simply wasting their time.
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