By And the other 2/3 of their time is probably spent sleeping in their cars: 
It was 6 p.m., a pleasant time for school children to hang out with friends in a public playground in Haeundae, Busan. But the calm was short-lived, interrupted by a 50-year-old drunk surnamed Hwang.
Hwang cursed at the dozens of children. Frightened, the children ran away. A neighbor reported the drunk man to the police and two police officers and an ambulance came and hauled Hwang away to Busan Medical Center’s emergency room.
On the way Hwang’s behavior continued unchecked. He yelled at officers and health workers and urinated in the ambulance. It took several hours for Hwang to sober up. Police gave him a lift home at 11 p.m.
According to the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, officers at the city’s 58 police precincts handled 54,925 cases of drunk pedestrians between January and May, or some 364 cases per day. Handling drunks can take up a third of the task of an average officer. Police precincts that handle Busan’s most crowded and busy areas – Seomyeon, Yeonil, Jeonpo – complain that there are so many drunks that they completely clog up their daily tasks.
The Busan police department estimates that the nation’s police spends at least 50 billion won ($41 million) annually on drunks. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
11:13 pm on September 20th, 2009 1
Well, I'm no rocket surgeon, but I'd have to say actually doing something about the drunken disorderly besides babysitting them until they sober up then giving them a lift home would be a step in the right direction.
How about fines, records and stiffer punishments for repeat offenders?
How about freakin' actually charging and prosecuting them when they commit assault?
Nope, not gonna happen.
This is Korea and we should just "understand"!
12:48 am on September 21st, 2009 2
How about forcing them into rehab if they are repeat offenders?
3:57 am on September 21st, 2009 3
Benicio74,
There are many countries around the world where the police actually "do something" about drunken disorderly behavior and mete out myriad "fines, records, and stiffer punishments for repeat offenders."
Most, if not all, of these societies have far worse crime and safety problems than Korea.
You can go and live there if you like.
There's a cost to everything. "Doing something" about drunken disorder is not free of cost and the benefits must be weighed against these costs.
And what are we talking about by "disorder" here? For the most part, drunken disorder in Korea means wasted ajosshis passed out in the streets or stumbling around. The more extreme cases involve perhaps wasted ajosshis screaming and cursing at you, pushing you, "assaulting" you (although assault here generally connotes something much more extreme than is actually the case). Drunken disorder, and disorder in general, means something much different in places like the US. It could mean getting jumped by violent and powerful individuals, getting knifed or shot, etc. It's not the same as in Korea, that's for sure. "Doing something" might be necessary in places like the US simply because the cost of not doing so is much more severe than in a place like Korea.
As far as the costs of "doing something" in Korea, there are of course the basic administrative, expanded government costs that will require taxpayer money. As you probably know already, Korean drinking culture often involves drinking to excess in one sitting in a group. A major result of this culture is, well, very wasted ajosshis in the streets stumbling in the streets causing (for the most part minor disturbances, though of course as in all things there are major ones sometimes) minor disorder and or passed out in the streets. "Doing something" about this and "solving" this "problem" is not some unqualified good without any costs and simply a matter of "progress." There are costs from interfering or altering a major adult (mostly male) phenomenon that for better or worse has become a part of the culture.
Babysitting drunk businessmen or office employees and giving them a lift home seems to be if anything the right approach compared to arresting, prosecuting, and punishing everything in sight. It shouldn't be forgotten that this kind of thing used to be common as well in the older, small town America we have largely lost. In America we've gradually developed into a kind of "Anarcho-tyranny" where we refuse to or can't seem to control real crime and the real hardcore vicious criminals, yet we control, regulate, punish, every little thing about the innocent and non-threatening.
8:36 am on September 21st, 2009 4
AND THE OTHER 2/3 OF THEIR TIME IS SPENT SLEEPING IN THEIR CARS BEHIND SCHOOLS AND OTHER PLACES THAT ARE FAR AWAY FROM PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS.
12:18 pm on September 21st, 2009 5
I've been assaulted by one that actually hit me with his bike after that I hurried into a library. He followed and fought with the library security guard. I left. If I had stayed I would of been blamed for the whole incident.
1:24 pm on September 21st, 2009 6
Kilmer, I appreciate your input and I do understand the costs of legal action.
Most of the time, the drunks are not violent.
However, the ones that get violent are almost always let go without any punishment or inconvenience to themselves.
The old "He's drunk, he has a hard life, you should just understand" is their get out of jail free card almost every time and they know it.
They can cry about how it's completely the fault of the person they assaulted and in many cases the police will believe them.
As long as they can get away with the liquored up assault, they will.
It's far past time to put a stop to that!
5:25 pm on September 21st, 2009 7
Many people who should be receiving psychiatric help self-medicate with alcohol instead, which only worsens their illness and increases their aggressiveness.
5:28 pm on September 21st, 2009 8
…and methamphetamine addiction and glue sniffing is a lot more common in Korea than people are willing to admit.
8:13 pm on January 11th, 2012 9
in a society that encourages people to write how many bottles of Soju they can drink on their resume, you expect people to be sober and orderly?
@TeaDrinker, there are alot of things koreans are not willing to admit.
hence Fan death.
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