By I wonder if there is more to this story?:
A South Korean local court on Monday sentenced two soldiers of the U.S. Forces Korea to two-year suspended prison terms for beating a taxi driver last year.
The American soldiers, identified only by their initials J and C, were charged with injuring a cab driver who had refused to take them to Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, in June last year. The reason the driver denied service to the soldiers is unknown, according to the statement released by the court.
The Uijeongbu District Court sentenced them to six months in prison each, suspended for two years, convicting them of inflicting injury on the driver. [Korea Herald]
As people know taxi cab related incidents and the 2nd Infantry Division go hand in hand and from personal experience I can tell you it is often because the cab drivers are vultures looking to rip off GI’s. Sometimes when you have a GI that is drunk and the cab driver tries to rip him off, tensions mount and the incidents occur. It is not an excuse for a soldier to get in a scuffle with a taxi driver, but it is just the reality of what often happens.
I have told this story before, but I will give you an example of an altercation that could of gone bad if the NCO involved that was from my unit didn’t keep his cool. Four NCOs get in a cab at Stanleyville to get back to camp before curfew. One of the NCOs closes the door to the cab and a sun visor on the window falls off and ajushi starts claiming the NCO broke the sun visor and demands $30. The NCO will not pay ajushi because he knows all he did was shut the door and ajushi set him up to claim that he broke the sun visor. So the NCO continues to refuse to pay and the ajushi begins to grab the NCO and push him and makes a scene demanding that he pay him. Ajushi is clearly trying to provoke a situation where some people may have hit him or pushed him back for the pushing and grabbing he was doing of the NCO.
If the NCO would of hit ajushi the Korean media would of dubbed it an American NCO runs amok in 2ID assaulting a taxi cab driver after being drunk and damaging the taxi. That is how it would sound in the Korean media with no reference to the soldier’s side of the story. That is why I am always skeptical when it comes to 2ID taxi cab related crimes.
Anyway back to my story, the NCO refused to be provoked by the taxi cab driver. Eventually the KNPs come over to see what is going on. The NCO had the other NCOs with him as witnesses to what happened and the KNPs say that they are biased witnesses since they are his friends. Then he finds other American soldier witnesses who were standing nearby and saw what happened and they verify the NCO’s story. The KNPs say that those witness are not reliable because they had been drinking. The taxi cab driver then has other taxi cab drivers verify his version of events and the KNPs take that to be the truth. How are the American witnesses all biased but the other taxi cab drivers are not? The KNPs demand that he pay $30 or he will be taken to jail. He says fine take me to jail because I will not pay this crooked taxi cab driver.
By this time the American MPs arrive and see what is going on. They do nothing and tell the NCO to pay or he will be arrested by the KNPs and will make the blotter and his chain of command will be notified and be angry with him. He had already called his battalion Command Sergeant Major so the chain of command was already notified and trying to coordinate transportation to pick them up. However, the other NCOs with him all decided to chip in and pay the $30 because it was now past curfew and they just wanted to get back to camp. They ask the MPs for a ride and the MPs say they are busy and can’t give them a ride. They needed to take a taxi back to the camp.
All the other taxi cab drivers would refuse to take them and told them they had to take the taxi cab of the driver that just extorted $30 from them. All these taxi cab drivers in the ville are vultures that work together to extort money from GIs so they all were going to let this taxi cab driver further extort money from these soldiers because they all do the same thing. So these Soldiers had to take the taxi back to camp and the driver extorts them by demanding $10 for a ride that by the meter would cost about 4000 won.
As bad as this NCO was treated he did the right thing by not being provoked by the taxi driver because if he fought back against the cab driver he will not win in the Korean courts. That is why I have always said it is best to swallow your pride and walk away because I hate seeing soldiers get hemmed up or thrown in jail for stupid stuff like these taxi cab related incidents.
12:01 am on April 4th, 2011 1
Excellent analysis…
1:28 am on April 4th, 2011 2
OINK
Only IN Korea.
2:07 am on April 4th, 2011 3
Yeah only in Korea, where the GI's beat up the locals in a criminal act and blame it on the racist locals. Of course those convicted GI's now will come back encouraged after reading this bull, and claim the ajushi attacked them instead. The crime is now encouraged by their own GI peers. Only in Korea.. lol.
4:45 am on April 4th, 2011 4
Ahhh Korea. I miss the Racism. Kept life —interesting.
Here is a thought: Give a couple of weeks of Language Training to the Newbies. With option for further training. But two weeks mandatory. The reason is that the troops will have fewer troubles outside the gates.
I know this because I picked up enough from the Bartenders to impress the taxi drivers. I was "obviously" not school trained when I spoke. But I showed an effort not see from many GIs. One even told me I was half Korean. I took that to be a compliment.
I know it will never happen. How do I know? Because it makes sense! Dumb assed Army "leadership".
7:40 am on April 4th, 2011 5
You're right about the MPs being useless. I'm not going to start telling stories but, yes, they are "never on our side" (a quote from a former E-6 in my old battalion).
9:29 am on April 4th, 2011 6
GI Korea exerts a positive influence on NCOs.
10:22 am on April 4th, 2011 7
#5 Archieb, Your former E-6 was, and likely STILL is correct. MPs are useless if you are a Soldier. I have stories, but i will refrain. None are needed, we all have them.
11:20 am on April 4th, 2011 8
@#6 – I used to brief my Soldiers all the time about the scams these cab drivers pull among a host of other Korea specific things to be aware of in the ville. Informed Soldiers in most instances make good choices.
9:00 pm on April 4th, 2011 9
Does refusing service deserves an assault because it wasn't worth it for the taxi driver to go to the place where the GI's wanted to go? The CCTV tape shows clearly the GI's stopping the taxi, after the driver refusing ride then trying to leave. The Gi's then opened the door and dragged the driver out of the car and started beating the driver. I don't know what you guys would call a vicious assault an assault, only when it doesn't involve a Korean? Or only when it doesn't involve an American?
So this is all justified because for some reason, the GI's are always the ones having violent problems with the tax drivers?
Please stop making up excuses for these animals.
9:04 pm on April 4th, 2011 10
It's not always GI's who have problems with taxi drivers, but GI's are easy targets.
9:05 pm on April 4th, 2011 11
Oh and it's Hansik day. Happy Hansik.
9:11 pm on April 4th, 2011 12
Easy target for what? The driver stopped, asked the GI's where they're going, they shouted back animal zoo, Camp Cloud. The driver says sorry, it's not my way. The GI gets pissed off, pounds on the car, stops the driver from leaving by standing in front of the car while the other opens the door, the driver gets excited, tris to drive and leave, but the GI's drag him out of the car and starts beating on him.
Now after they read ROK Drop, the drivers after serving their probations, come on here and say it was all the Korean's fault for attacking the two American GI's for no good reason.
9:13 pm on April 4th, 2011 13
Re-edit:
Now after they read ROK Drop, the GI's while serving their probations, come on here and they will say it was all Korean’s fault for attacking the two American GI’s for no good reason. That it's all Korea's fault for being racist toward white people and racist toward GI's.
10:06 pm on April 4th, 2011 14
Tom I know Chinese is your first language but I clearly said in the very first sentence "I wonder if there is more to this story?" because the article did not provide any details. Make these Soldiers were at fault though you provided no link to your version of events.
Regardless it is well known what the cab drivers in the 2ID area are like. I have never had a problem with a cab driver anywhere else in Korea but in the 2ID area it was a frequent problem.
11:10 pm on April 4th, 2011 15
It might help Tom IF he understood that GI's have few troubles with Taxi drivers at other Camps.
But he doesn't.
In my nine years in Korea, I had only one problem with a Taxi driver. (While walking from bar to bar and back again, the same driver would come up to me and ask if I wanted a ride. After the fourth time, I got pissed and told him "conna chogi". He left me alone after that.) This was before curfew became law and I had a room near by.
Curfew only caused problems.
12:26 am on April 5th, 2011 16
"I got pissed and told him “conna chogi” "
lol… what does that mean, Hillbilly?
"Tom I know Chinese is your first language but I clearly said in the very first sentence “I wonder if there is more to this story?” because the article did not provide any details. Make these Soldiers were at fault though you provided no link to your version of events"
Don't give me that garbage. You are throwing a subtle suggestion, and you are sowing the seeds to suggest that these men are innocent and that they were unjustly convicted – all based on what you claimed was going on, in the past with the taxi drivers and the GI's. In other words, you're trying to use the victim complex again!
1:29 am on April 5th, 2011 17
"What does that mean, Hillbilly?" All I needed to hear Tom.
You are Chinese after all. Thanks for the confirmation.
2:34 am on April 5th, 2011 18
LOL. Hill billy, that's not even Korean. He probably thought what the f*ck, what is this dumb f*ck saying?
lol.
4:13 am on April 5th, 2011 19
He was pretty pissed. Safe bet he understood. Which is more than I can say for Tom the chi-com. (that rimes!) Well, almost.
6:44 pm on April 5th, 2011 20
Y'know, I share some of Tom's skepticism here.
I'd hate to be away from family and loved ones, especially north of Seoul, but this sounds like excuse-making. I can't think of a good reason at all for jumping on a taxi, beating up a taxi driver, or even stealing a taxi (all of which, iirc, are common or recent events up there), but it seems the case is being made that the Korean taxi drivers are scamming the GIs and are therefore somehow deserving.
It reminds me of Stephannie White's "friend" talking about "certain students from the Hongdae area [who] were actively looking to provoke an incidents with GI's after their success with the Shinchon Stabbing Incident."
Yeah, they "provoked" the GIs to go to Shinchon which is off limits. They "provoked" one GI to bring a knife with him when he went out drinking. And then they "provoked" him to hold it to someone's neck.
That's some mighty skilled provokin'.
If we're going to share stories, let me relate this one. An English teacher newbie was livid, convinced that this taxi driver was trying to rip him off. How, I asked? The taxi driver was refusing to take him unless he paid more.
Well it turns out that the driver was close to being done with that shift and was supposed to be heading back to home base (around 3 pm, a common shift end for taxi drivers). They even have signs that say (in Korean) that at such-and-such time this taxi will head to such-and-such neighborhood. But the newbie was sure that the driver's refusal to go in the opposite direction for ten kilometers or so was a ploy to get him to offer more money… not because the taxi driver asked for more but because the newbie just offered it on his own.
My point is that legitimate taxi driver behavior can be misconstrued as jerking around someone who doesn't know what's really going on.
How isolated is the base in question? Before I owned a car, I used to have to take a taxi to work in an isolated area where taxi drivers new they couldn't pick up a return fare, so they would demand double for the 2000 won or 3000 won ride. This is actually a violation of the rules (with some exceptions), but everyone who worked there knew this was the game. Jumping up on a taxi or assaulting the taxi driver wouldn't have been an appropriate response.
Are these guys trying to catch taxis in a place and at a time when the "bullet taxis" operate? That's when a taxi driver will pile in four passengers — often strangers to each other — who are all headed for the same distant locale. These often operate near subway stations or major bus terminuses, especially during morning rush hour or when the subway lines close. Back when I lived near Sookmyung Women's University Station, it was nearly impossible to catch a taxi in the morning unless you were headed for Yŏŭido. Again, annoying as crap, but jumping up on a taxi or assaulting the taxi driver wouldn't have been an appropriate response.
I haven't been in a Seoul taxi in over two years, so I wonder if hapsŭng is still practiced. Though there are advantages to "taxi sharing," there are disadvantages as well, and taxi drivers don't want to pile in a load of people for a single fare if they can avoid it. Even for KoKo passengers, that's a reason to be "refused" a ride. Again, annoying as crap, but jumping up on a taxi or assaulting the taxi driver wouldn't have been an appropriate response.
Now I must admit that the $30 scam story related above is a new one on me. I've never been ripped off by a taxi driver, and in fact, I had one make sure to return something I'd left in the taxi, but I suppose it happens. The post makes it sound like the taxi drivers north of Seoul, however, are an atypical lot who routinely looks for ways to rip off GIs. I'm not saying I don't believe it, but I'm highly skeptical, since my first-hand look into claims of "the Koreans are trying to rip me off" usually don't hold water on closer scrutiny (but they sometimes are valid claims). What's usually (but not always) at play is that a lack of native language skills and a lack of how things are done locally create a misimpression of someone being "ripped off," where the person thinks because of a lack of language skills they are being targeted for being ripped off.
I'm skeptical, but not married to my opinion either. Enlighten me with the wily ways of the Northern Kyŏnggi Taxi Driver.
7:22 pm on April 5th, 2011 21
Shinchon is not off limits.
10:22 pm on April 5th, 2011 22
Oh I can see it now. Why did you two guys beat up that taxi drivers?
"Because the five foot seven man attacked both of us so we decided to beat him up, it was self defence."
"Because the Korean taxi driver refused to take us to where we wanted go, so we decided to take his taxi and drive ourselves to get to where we needed to go".
"Because the Korean said "no", it was self defence".
"Because we are GI's and these ungrateful Koreans are not thankful toward us Americans."
"Because the Korean media is always unfair, so we decided to show everyone what we're talking about".
"Because he didn't speak English".
Any more excuses that you guys can think of?
10:24 pm on April 5th, 2011 23
"We thought he was Tom."
11:20 pm on April 5th, 2011 24
LOL.
11:55 pm on April 5th, 2011 25
Good one ChickenHead. Good sport Tom.