Surely this article must be mistaken. After all, AskAKorean and his cronies were all over me for talking about blood money, how it is abused, and how Korean officials (police, judges) try to force you to take it or take it into account when you are sentenced. I was wrong. I needed to be informed and educated on the matter.
If the incident with the bus driver wasn't enough to show those folks how wrong THEY were now there is a suicide where a settlement played a role. A woman was raped twice. Once by her rapist then again by the system in the form of the judge in the trial.
The note, which was released to the Dong-A Ilbo today after being sent to her family and the judge, runs six pages and says that “the judge insulted me when he sided with the man who raped me and pushed me to accept a settlement.” Ms. Byun also wrote that “the judge refused to believe me because he said ‘you didn’t graduate middle school and just lived as a helper in a noraebang’… I may have come from difficult family circumstances and not had a chance to study much, but I am absolutely not a liar or someone who would put blame on a stranger.”
Ms. Byun also wrote that “the judge said that ‘Mr. Jin is a nice young man who works in a company’ and that I was a slut who was ruining his life to make money… I have worked so hard in my life and made a lot of money so I don’t need money.” She then wrote that “if you can’t believe me then what are you doing in court… you think if a person in a noraebang is raped then they were a temptress?”
Nothing like blaming the victim for their situation. She was trying to get him convicted of rape. The judge was trying to force her to accept a settlement and the piece of shit said she was ruining the guys life for money? What the kimchi?!?!?!?
I can't say that I am sadly surprsied by the story. The Korean lack-of-Justice System has a history of bullshit like this. Whether it is accepting the excuse of rapists that they were drunk, taking the OFFER of blood money into account when sentencing, or the way rapist doctors DON'T lose their license to practice medicine after being convicted. It is a pretty fucked up system over there.
wow I thought everybody knew about blood money payments. As a foreigner I always assumed that if I ever got into an altercation with a Korean i would have to pay them four or five thousand before deportation.
ReplyDeleteAskAKorean feels that non-Koreans don't understand the blood money system and unfairly berate it. According to him and his pals we need to LEARN about it. He actually equates it to plea bargaining in the US.
ReplyDeleteYet, what we see of it differs from what he said it was. Which makes me wonder just who needs to be educated about the reality of blood money.
Oh yeah I do remember it now didn't somebody explain to him the difference between civil and criminal law in America and how police never coerce one person to pay off another in lieu of seeking justice in the criminal courts. Btw they have the shit in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteHe seems to ignore things that don't help his argument.
ReplyDelete