hankyoreh

Two days ago, some human rights group activists were hauled in who were holding a press conference protesting excessive crackdowns and arrests by police. The reason was surprising. It was because they shouted political slogans calling both on the police chief to resign and on the police to end violent crackdowns.

The police say this constitutes an illegal demonstration protesting the appropriate execution of their duties. We now live in a world where you can be arrested because criticizing the police on the street is considered illegal. The police’s arrogation of power has gone beyond acceptable limits.

The reason why the freedom of assembly and the right to protest are protected in a democratic society is simple. There are not many means by which one can communicate and correct infringements of or limits to the exercise of rights by those in superior positions of power. This is particularly the case when it comes to authorities. The only avenues you can be reassured of include assemblies and protests. This is why the Constitution strictly regulates limits to these rights. Last year, a court filed a finding that the provision in the current law governing demonstrations forbidding nighttime outdoor protests was unconstitutional, and two days ago, it advised again that the crime of obstructing general traffic was unconstitutional because it believed it was being used to arbitrarily limit the freedom of assembly and the right to protest.

Of course, to undemocratic authorities, assemblies and protests can be a real headache. In order to restrict these freedoms, they have mobilized all sorts of means, including super-constitutional legal measures. The emergency measures taken by the Park Chung-hee administration were representative of this. The emergency measures made criticism of Park’s Yusin Constitution and all criticism of the government impermissible. It cruelly punished assemblies and demonstrations. Students, therefore, had to be prepared to go to prison for just a few minutes of protest. The Chun Doo-hwan administration, too, was the same. You needed a government permit to assemble or protest. Only government-manufactured protests were possible, and even demonstrations for the right to survive were illegal.

This administration, which has arbitrarily said no to and cracked down on protests since the candlelight vigil demonstrations last year, has begun to make similar regressive systemic changes to close off protests critical of the government. The Grand National Party is pushing legal revisions that make wearing a mask at a protest illegal, allow police to collect fingerprints as they like and arbitrarily haul citizens into the police station, and permit class-action lawsuits against demonstrators. This prepares the legal grounds for hauling off people anytime they criticize policies that benefit the wealthy and powerful, official violence or the high-handedness of capital, and for criminally punishing and fining them if they resist. This, however, is no different than letting loose the leash of the savage dog called public power. As for the result, why do they not know the tragic precedents of the Park and Chun administrations?

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]