So whatever happened to the soldier involved in the Shinchon Stabbing Incident? Those not familiar with the stabbing incident it occurred last May when 4 GI’s and a KATUSA went and partied in the Shinchon area of Seoul one night. This is apparently what happened. The soldiers were drunk and harrassing a taxi driver. Some “concerned citizens” who happened to be Korean college students intervened allegedly to help the taxi driver and some heated words were exchanged. I believe it is safe to assume that the Korean students were probably equally drunk at the time.
Is there a better propaganda picture than this for the anti-US crowd? This picture was actually staged by the “concerned citizens” at the scene to give the soldier the worst image possible in the media.
Anyway a fight broke out and nobody can really say for sure who started it but after the fight broke out more Koreans jumped in on a chance to pound on the soldiers. One of the soldiers in an effort to defend himself pulled out a knife and held it to the throat of one of the attackers. In a struggle with the attacker the soldiers cut the throat of the Korean student. 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.
The soldier in question, Pvt. John C. Humphrey was convicted of attempted homicide after stabbing a 27-year-old man in the neck with a knife on May 15th. He was given a 2 1/2 year sentence in Korean prison.
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 is ruined and he will be rotting in prison for the next 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.
There is a fringe minority in Korea who looks to create incidents with soldiers and drunk GIs. Harrassing a taxi cab 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. 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.
Popularity: 5%
My StumbleUpon Page
9:41 am on December 28th, 2006 1
Stuff like this is inevitable — it can be minimized if more platoon sergeants, platoon leaders, and company commanders give “safety” briefings constantly, but individual incidents will inevitably happen in any large population.
Was any consideration given to letting the guy serve his 2 1/2 years in Leavenworth? I wonder about his safety in Korean confinement (unless he’s kept totally apart & isolated from the other Korean inmates). If you hear anything further about his status while in confinement & prior to your PCS, I’d be interested in reading about it.
While I agree with you entirely as far as you go with this, an even better solution would be to pull all of you guys out of there and let the ROK assume responsibility for its own ground defense. Since the ROK has an irate minority of young guys spoiling for a nationalist-inspired fight, let them be drafted by the ROK military, who can put them on the DMZ.
9:41 am on December 28th, 2006 2
Believe it or not but the Korean prisons are actually a better place to spend your hard time then the American confinment facility at Camp Humphry’s. The Korean prisons for Korean inmates is not very good but foreigners have their own special section and get treated very well because the Koreans do not want to be accused of human rights violations by westerners. I will have to write a post soon about this subject.
9:42 am on December 28th, 2006 3
I believe it — after I wrote the above I gave it some thought and realized that the last thing ROK needs is for this guy to be knifed in prison by irate Koreans.
I hope he likes Korean food, he’s going to have to get used to it. I suppose I have to say he got off easy — only 2 1/2 years for almost cutting somebody’s throat.
6:39 pm on February 18th, 2007 4
I knew the soldier who was sentenced to 2 1/2 yrs.
I must say that he was not drunk bu the other soldiers were.
He arrived late and did not have a chance to drink when he met up w/the sldiers who were already drinking.
I don’t know to much about what happened, but I do know that when the fight arised he was caught up in the middle of a mobbing of angry Koreans. He had bricks thrown at him, he was punched, choked & held down…& if self-defense fearing his life he pulled out his poket knife to try & scare away them. Only in the brawl the knife was knocked out of his had & yanked away..ect..causing the accidental stabbing…
That’s the story I gather.
Now his family is to suffer for this too, when you put someone in jail not only does the idivual suffer , but the family as well.
Anyone who has anymore information on this incedent or photographs/links to news articals w/photographs of PFC John C Humphreys, please post on here.
THANK YOU
6:30 pm on April 15th, 2007 5
[...] incident Brendon is referring to is the Shinchon Stabbing Incident. In May of 2004 4 GI’s and a KATUSA went and partied in the Shinchon area of Seoul. [...]