MBC’s PD Diary, the same program behind the creation of the false mad cow fears has now aired a program trying to blame the police for the fire that killed six people including one policeman in Yongsan last month:

With the prosecution nearing the end of its investigation into the Yongsan demolition protest, which resulted in the deaths of six people last month, the release of new video footage of security guards shooting water at protesters and providing evidence of the alleged relationship between police and security guards has raised concerns that the prosecution has not conducted a balanced investigation. People involved in the protest and concerned civic groups have observed that the prosecution appears to be giving more weight to the explanations offered by police while ignoring the statements made by protesters and civic groups.

On Tuesday, Munhwa Broadcasting Corp.’s current-affairs television program “The Producer’s Notebook” aired a video clip showing police officers and security guards shooting water at protesters occupying the dilapidated building that was the site of the Yongsan demolition protest tragedy on Jan. 19. Another clip showed security guards with shields marked “Policia,” the Spanish word for “police,” storming into the building before dawn on Jan. 20, when the resultant clash between police and protesters led to the deaths of six people.  (…..)

But it has been reported that the prosecution secured recordings of police radio transmissions made just before police entered the building on Jan. 20, which revealed the security guards’ participation in the police operation to remove the protesters from the building. It has also been confirmed that the prosecution obtained a transcript of a firefighters’ radio transmission made at around 4:00 a.m. that day, approximately three hours before the crackdown began. In the transcript, someone can be heard saying, “Security guards are setting fire beneath the makeshift tower on the rooftop, but it’s difficult to get onto the rooftop because the police are not cooperating.” More recently, the prosecution responded to “The Producers’ Notebook” segment containing the video footage by saying, “While there was a statement by one of the protesters that security guards fired off water cannons, it couldn’t confirm who they were,” meaning that prosecutors had in fact taken statements from protesters about the incident.

In saying that it has “no obvious evidence,” the prosecution seems accept the police’s statements about the police radio transmissions. Though one transmission appears to contain instructions from police to security guards and another appears to contain conversations about the guards’ participation in the crackdown, police said that the recordings were not made by police officers. Later, they changed their story and said the recordings were “reports by field officers who misconstrued security guards as police.”

Now, with the prosecution close to announcing the outcome of its investigation, its methods are coming under increasing scrutiny, with some saying that they are attempting to blame protesters for the tragedy, giving more weight to justifications for the crackdown than to reports that police used excessive force in executing its operation.   [Hankyoreh]

I have to wonder if these security guards are actually hired gangsters used in Korea to move people out of buildings?  If so they should not be working with the police.  Whoever said they saw a security guard setting a fire should be questioned on what he really saw if this information is in fact authentic.

However, there is no way a security guard firing a water cannon is worse then the behavior of the professional protesters behind this fire that were throwing molotov cocktails at civilians businesses, cars, pedestrians, and buses.  The police had a civic responsibility to take action to stop these people, but they should not have included the security guards in the effort.