Credible surveys show 60 % are dissatisfied with their lives, that they work basically as a means to get money, which I believe is reflected in this sense of the little guy against the imposimg giant.

Many of them are University age people, who for the first time in their lives, are allowed to expess this frustration with the society that has controlled almost every aspect of their lives, and now it’s time to let all hell break loose.

If it wasn’t beef or the FTA, them some other excuse would serve as a flash point.

This won’t be the end of it.

one unarmed protester I saw had climbed up on a police bus in front of the Seoul Finance Center last night. Why? Because the the police were firing at the crowd with super high-pressure water cannons and he was trying to stop it.

And why were the police firing at the crowd with water cannons? Were they in the middle of a street? Were they trying to attack a bus?

So he was surrounded by 6 or 7 riot police and as they were holding him, another policeman came up from the side and took a giant swing at the protesters with his long club. The protester was some skinny college kid and I don’t understand why half a dozen policemen were unable to subdue him.

I think most long-term residents of Korea would agree that there is inappropriate violence on both sides and that Korean military conscripts are a poor choice for crowd control. On an episode of Cops I watched last night, I saw a short, chubby Fort Worth policewoman take down a taller, leaner young man who tried to run away and resisted arrest. It’s all in the techniques. She knew exactly how to subdue him quickly and get him cuffed.

You can argue that pulling away police buses is “violent,” but the protesters’ would counter that the police are blocking the roadway and they merely want to protest in front of Chongwadae to make their point to Lee. If the police had allowed them to do this two months ago, the protests would never have escalated the way they have. I mean, aren’t there protests in front of the White House all the time?

There isn’t much space immediately in front of the White House, but there is a lawn across the street. I’ve seen small pickets, but I’ve never seen or heard of tens of thousands of people protesting on that sidewalk or opposite lawn. Given the emotions and the strong possibility of violence, the police are correct to keep a large group of protesters away from the Blue House. Even if the protesters feel they have the right to march to the Blue House, that does not justify destroying public property. The very fact that they did so demonstrates that the police are exercising good judgment in confining their demonstrations.

Back here in the States, it is interesting to see how these protests are being covered by the Big Three networks. The images I am seeing are of violent clashes as protesters charge a police line and protesters standing on and rummaging around inside police buses.

http://tvnews.media.daum.net/list/view.html?cateid=100000&newsid=20080629133905234&cp=ytni