I'm sure Michael realizes his appearance is bound to draw attention but it still shouldn't be an excuse for him to be constantly harrassed like he is and most importantly how he was treated by the police. That is what he is trying to draw attention to.

I just saw this:
http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/seoulb…

…and my sympathy for Mike went down a notch.

Don't get me wrong… in the States, he'd do fine. He seems like a nice enough guy (despite his endless fascination with racism). Further, he seems intelligent and well-spoken…

…which is why I can't understand why HE doesn't understand.

His public persona invites the exact trouble he is complaining about while spreading blame to everyone from racist drunks to nationalistic cops.

He has a ponytail. Hanging down, or rolled up in a rather unattractive BUN, a ponytail on a dude in Korea is a signboard for scumbag-ism. It screams, "Screw with me because I'm trying NOT to fit in."

I don't know how Mike likes to dress normally, but for the video, he was wearing clothes which would look fitting on a third-world factory worker.

This can be a big strike against you in a uniform-happy society like Korea where people generally dress their class… professionals dress like professionals and guys that don't count put on whatever is at the top of their drawer.

It is probable that of the many people who complain of constant trouble in Korea, a large percentage of them have hairstyles and/or clothing styles which intentionally set them apart from a society which values conformity.

Ameri-centric indignation aside, this is the way it is in Korea. Period. The end. And this IS Korea.

I guess it can be resisted or ignored… but few round-eyed devils are going to beat 5000 years of Korean history.

I still think Michael is getting screwed around but I wouldn't have called the police either. I have seen to much of how the Korean police operate to depend on them dealing with a situation like what Michael found himself in.

I have been preaching here at the ROK Drop for years of swallow your pride and walk away or even run if you have to because nothing good comes from getting the Korean police involved.

Also like I mentioned in my earlier comment I avoid the areas as much as possible where running into such idiots is more likely.

Hopefully nothing becomes of what happened to Michael and the police just let it all blow over.

O.K… the foreigner IS right… but only in their foreign country… not in Korea.

So, let's take a look at Mike getting arrested and charged with assault for calling the cops on a drunk. Did he get a raw deal? Sure… from an American point of view. But this isn't America… something that most of the whiners in the K-blogisphere can't quite grasp.

The guy was an irritating drunk. No question. The guy followed Mike to a coffee shop. So far, so good. Then Mike started being a Foreigner That Isn't Right. He called the police emergency number for something that NOBODY could consider to be an emergency.

Let's take a look at what happened from the Korean point of view… and things start to make a lot more sense.

The cops get an emergency call to go to the coffee shop. The first thing they are thinking is, "Why the hell are we being bugged?" If the drunk is a real problem, why hasn't the coffee shop owner just thrown him out. No business owner allows a drunk idiot to disrupt their cash flow long enough to make it necessary to call the cops. If the cops just have to be called, the business owner is the one to make that decision. So, even before they even arrive, they KNOW they are dealing with a troublesome, pain-in-the-neck foreigner. At this time, from the police point of view, Mike has caused more trouble, for more people, than the drunk has.

Once they arrive, they are professional and deal with the situation by following the proper procedures. They take everyone back to the station for questioning. This is not racism or an anti-foreign action. This is just the way things work. A conflict worthy of calling the cops isn't resolved by disrupting a coffee shop owner's business and it isn't resolved on a public city street.

Now, once they arrive, the drunk is an irritating idiot. But he is drunk. The foreigner is also an irritating idiot… but he has no excuse as he is sober.

Consider the conversation at the police station that might have gone much like this:

Old Cop: "Oh, boy. Here is another one."

Young Cop: "Another what?"

OC: "Another idiot foreigner. He made us go out and deal with his situation and now he doesn't want to cooperate. When we tried to get everyone down here to sort things out, he 'incredulously shot back, 'Why?' ' (direct quote from blog). Further, he was recording everything with his phone. He is just going to be trouble."

YC: "So what do we do? Do we get the Breathalyzer for the drunk?"

OC: "Hell, no. What do we need it for? Anybody can see the ajushi is drunk, homeless and crazy. Why make his life more difficult? He didn't do anything to us. And, nothing happened to the foreigner except he was irritated. Big deal. But now he is passing that irritation onto us. So, we make a show of equally listening to both their stories, write a report that will be forgotten and send them on their separate way. Everything is resolved. End of story."

YC: "What if the foreigner keeps insisting we DO something when there is nothing we can really do? What if he keeps making our jobs more difficult than they need to be?"

OC: "Then we charge him with assault."

YC: "But he didn't do anything. The charges won't stick."

OC: "Of course he didn't and of course they won't. Unless he continues to make trouble, it will all be forgotten. We are the first line of defense in keeping hassle from the courts. But if he won't let it go and we have to send it to them, they know he is a pain in the neck and they will make him pay a fine for causing all this trouble.

And, if we charge him with assault now, it will put some resolution on the situation for tonight and we won't have to listen to him go on and on like this drunk idiot is causing the end of everybody's world.

Besides, if he was Anybody, he would stop trying to take pictures of us with his cellphone and he would be calling an influential friend who knows he is a good guy and who will vouch for him. The friend would tell him to shut his mouth, apologize for bothering us and bow a lot. His friend would call us and introduce himself as Professor Park or Dr. Lee and ask us to kindly take care of his foreign friend who doesn't understand Korea. Then he would offer to 'assist' us by calling his good buddy Chief Kim over in the next precinct who would call our chief to help sort things out. Of course, we don't need that hassle so we would agree that the situation was resolved and everyone could go home."

YC: "Maybe he doesn't know?"

OC: "Of course he knows. He speaks Korean and the foreign blogs are full of complaints about cronyism. They ALL know. They just refuse to do things Korean style. Why should we give them any special consideration if their 200 year-old culture refuses to accept 5000 years of Korean history and try to pretend we are somehow obligated to follow their customs.

But I still feel kindness to foreigners even when they are stupid. When he leaves, I'll give him friendly advice and tell him, 'You should have just gone home. You shouldn't have called us. Next time, just leave.' (direct quote). It is good advice and will show there are no hard feelings."

YC: "I see. If we make things easy, the foreigners will be calling 112 every time they think someone is giving them a hateful look or some taxi driver overcharges them a thousand won. That will make us late to after-work soju parties and disrupt on-patrol naptime. And, in the end, it will solve nothing and create more social turmoil. We have to show them it is better to resolve disagreements through face-saving social interactions than rely on force and open conflict."

OC: "You are going to go far, son. You might even make chief."

Most of my brief run ins came at the stations or on the subway and I eventually learned how to spot them and relocate myself as soon as I saw a mentally ill person or drunk get in my car.

2002 was a great year for it, though….

I had some drunk weirdo grab and push me at Jongmyo Shrine this past summer and fortunately I knew enough Korean to yell back at the guy. An ajushi that checks tickets into the shrine came over and grabbed the guy and pushed him to the ground and threatened to kick his ass. I thanked the ajushi who was actually apologizing to me that a Korean would assault me for no reason.

I think since I was grabbed and pushed in such a public touristy area such drunken behavior against a foreigner is not acceptable to most Koreans while in a club and bar district like Shinchon it is.

*OK, not really.

More over last year I was coming back from Seoul only to get caught between two red lights blocking a driveway to a police station. About eight other cars did the same thing yet the cop pulled me and only me over. I tried to be nice to him with my limited English and began explaining to him drawing it out on a piece of paper. He acted as if he did not hear me and when to my wifes side of the car.

Big mistake. He told my wife I was bullshit because I could infact speak korean and I was faking. He went on to explain that all GI s were bullshit because they are always trying to lie their way out of tickets.

My wife had heard enough and went off on the guy yelling at him and at one point began trying pull him into the police station. The cop gave up and gave me back my license then tried to close the car door on my wife and she kicked the door open and knocked the Cop down….we drove off

And a couple of months ago I was parked with 15 other cars yet I was the only one that got the parking ticket…and the only car with a base sticker. I raised hell down at city hall and they told me never mind