hankyoreh

By Kim Gi-seong, South Gyeonggi province correspondent

According to accounts from the Pyeongtaek Police Station and city officials on July 10, USFK military police (MPs) armed with guns roughly subdued and handcuffed civilians after an altercation over a parking violation on Rodeo Road in front of the Osan Air Base (K-55) base at around 8:15 pm on July 5.

The MPs in question claimed that they were legitimately performing their duties in restraining the three individuals and dragging them toward the nearby Air Force base. They told police they had handcuffed the individuals and taken them to the entrance of the base because they perceived a threat in their behavior.

But police obtained mobile phone video footage of the incident that showed the threatening behavior actually came from the armed MPs, who were seen violently shoving one civilian in the chest as he protested.

The MPs have no jurisdiction to enforce parking regulations. Authority for handling parking infractions in the municipality rests solely with the local police or officials at Pyeongtaek City Hall.

An official with the city’s transportation administration division said, “This kind of demand or crackdown is clearly overstepping their authority.”

Evidence also indicated false statements from the MPs. They claimed they had told one of the civilians, a Mr. Yang, that they had called the local police, but it was confirmed that the police were actually summoned after four citizen emergency phone calls to between 8:35 and 8:36. The request did not actually come from USFK.

The police also dropped the ball in investigating the facts. On Monday, they said that the MPs had turned over the civilians after taking them to the base entrance, about 150 meters from where the incident began, at the request of a police officer at the scene who was worried about the situation escalating. Critics have lambasted the tepid response from the national police, accusing them of flailing helplessly after the fact instead of taking decisive action.

But an official with the Pyeongtaek Police Station told the Hankyoreh on Tuesday that the National Police Agency (NPA) announcement was inaccurate. “The US soldiers ignored the police’s orders to remove the handcuffs and just talked among themselves before taking the civilians off to the base entrance,” the official said. “The police followed behind them, repeatedly demanding that they take off the handcuffs.”

This conflicting account came on the heels of remarks the same day by NPA commissioner Kim Ki-yong that seemed to side with the MPs. “Even if US soldiers are taking a South Korean national by force, it’s not something where you can immediately determine if it is illegal”, Kim said.

Police examined the scene and questioned witnesses Tuesday to determine the facts of the incident. They currently plan to closely examine some three to four mobile phone videos taken by citizens and call the MPs and other parties involved in the incident for further questioning.

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