I find it a bit ironic that on the day it is announced that two GIs would be released from Korean custody by a ROK court, over at Brendon Carr’s Korea Law Blog he has a posting up about the SOFA Agreement, which caused what I presume is a Korean commenter to claim that GI’s get away with the “most heinous crimes in Korea” without listing any of them.
The Myth of GI Crimes is one that is hard to break despite all the evidence saying otherwise. For those that don’t know, US GIs have been tried in Korean courts since the 1960’s with some even receiving the death penalty. This myth of GIs getting away with the “most heinous crimes in Korea” just does not hold up when you actually research it. However, the brain block on people who refuse to believe otherwise is incredible including in the Korean media, which just less than three years ago was passing disinformation about GIs getting away with crimes.
The Myth of GI Crimes is similar to the Myth of Fan Death, no matter how many times you show and demonstrate that a fan isn’t going to kill you, some people still won’t believe it. It is the same with GI Crimes, the brain block technique causes otherwise reasonable people to some how conclude that GIs are getting away with the “most heinous crimes” just as easily as they believe a fan is going to kill them.
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9:43 pm on January 16th, 2008 1
I think about the “most heinous crime” several minutes of every hour. It keeps me warm during the winter, although it makes sleep quite difficult.
11:41 pm on January 16th, 2008 2
What about “GI Fan Death”? Perhaps we should start that concept on this blog. I understand it’s a killer!
8:54 am on January 17th, 2008 3
Even soon after I first arrived, when all my students (adults) were telling me how GIs could do any crime and “just fly back to America” and there was “nothing Korea can do about it”….
……I knew something wasn’t right…..
….because when I’d ask for examples, nobody could give me any.
Any case they did remember turned out to be ones where GIs were actually convicted. But I could never get them to see how their brain shouldn’t possibly be able to twist itself around like that.
The only other thing I’ve every encountered like this mind-block Koreans have with GI crimes is when talking to racists here in Georgia or elsewhere in the US.
Like some friends in high school who hung out with some black guys from the sports teams we were on but who would say from time to time how they didn’t like black people.