Part 4- Consequences and Repercussions

Back to the story.

A couple of days after the cops had hauled Immigration boy in for questioning my old school got a call. It was from Immigration. They were calling to notify them that I was being deported for fighting. Which is kind of funny because I wasn't in the country. I had left my Alien Card at Immigration in Incheon because I wasn't coming back to that school. I guess one branch didn't notify the other. The Immigration officer seemed surprised to hear that I wasn't in Korea. What the Kimchi????

Mind you I hadn't heard ANY of this. My friends "didn't want me to worry" so they kept me in the dark. They also didn't know if I would be able to re-enter the country. I arrived back in Korea with no problem, blissfully ignorant of what had happened or was about to. When I let my friends know I was back their first words were "Good we were worried immigration wouldn't let you in or would arrest you." What the kimchi? I was a little pissed they hadn't told me what went on.

Once again it looked like the story was over though. I started my new job and settled in. A week later the boss comes into the teachers room first thing in the morning. He tells me that we have to go to immigration. They want to talk to me about a fight was in. At first I had no clue what he was talking about. Then it the light above my head clicked on. Immigration boy was out for me again.

Two days before this Hilda got tired of the cops refusing to take her statement. So she went back to the police station with our Korean friends and bitched them out until they took her statement. (At this point the detective in charge was getting tired of the assholes changing their story so many times too.) It was pretty much what I said here. It implicated Immigration boy for physically attacking DongChim when he was on the ground. This is why I was called in to Immigration. He went to his boss for protection. I wasn't looking forward to this.

On the way there my boss alluded to me just agreeing with whatever they said. I never answered him. He brought it up a few times. I should have known he would turn out to be an asshole in the future himself. It seemed to me that the fix was in. They were going to try and coerce me into making a statement that was a lie. He was supposed to set the stage by working on me while taking me there. I was ready to tell them to kiss my fat hairy ass taking great care to lick my taint and then I would leave the country.

My Immigration visit was almost everything I expected it to be. I was surprised they questioned me publicly, at the counter instead of in a room. The first thing I told them before they could say anything was that I was NOT comfortable being ordered in to talk about this. If I should be talking to anyone it is the police. That seemed to take them aback a bit. I don't mean to make myself look like Captain Macho the unafraid hero here. I was scared shitless. I figured this would end badly. However I was more pissed off than afraid. When I get my ass up like that I don't like to back down when I feel I am being threatened or pushed around. Not always a good trait.

They said they just wanted to hear my side of the story. I told them I also wasn't comfortable with him (Immigration boy) being there, and I pointed him out to them. I said he had already lied to them once and tried to have me deported. They poo poo'd that and said it would be ok. So I told them basically what I wrote here. Maybe a little more detail as it was fresher in my mind. Then again that night is pretty much burned into my mind. Immigration boy tried chiming in at one point while I was telling them what happened. I said if he is going to be getting involved I think we should have the police come and take my statement at the same time. He was told to be quiet.

After I finished they asked me to retell the last part again and draw a diagram. So I did, showing them where I was, the 2 guys fighting, Immigration boy and the other mook standing to kick DongChim, and Hilda. The others involved were either gone or around the corner. Of course what I said confirmed everything Hilda said in her statement to the police, without knowing what she told the police.

At this point Immigration boy had to dispute what I said. "Are you sure that was me? We all look alike to you."

To which I replied "Well, I identified you on my own when I came in here today. But hey let's say I mistook you for your friend. That means YOU were trying to kick a guy being held on the ground in the head! You are real brave aren't you?" (Seriously, what a piece of shit. Trying to throw "we all look alike to you" in. I guess he knew he was in trouble and was grasping for straws.)

That took the wind out of his sail. He was told to shut up in Korean (I did know the Korean for shut up. :)) and sent from the room. I told them again in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with being called in. I was thinking of letting the police know that I was called in here and questioned like this or at least talking to a lawyer. And that now I had to wonder if Immigration Boy would abuse his powers again to try and have me deported to save his hide. They seemed embarassed and didn't have much else to say. I was told I could go. They would contact me if they needed to talk to me again.

On the ride down in the elevator I talked to my boss about what had just happened. He had been invisible the whole time. Never tried to help me, or shut me up. I said that I was worried about what the asshole would try next after having already tried to deport me once.

When we got off the elevator a short older man got off with us. In excellent English he said "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. You have nothing to fear." I thanked him, whoever he was, and sloughed it off.

Unfortunately, I had to go back to Immigration a few days later to get my Alien Card made. Immigration boy didn't look happy to see me. Although he did smile when he found out I only had 1 photo. He started to sneer and say that I would have to come back with another photo. It couldn't be processed without 2. The guy I thought was his boss had been keeping an eye on things. He came over and in English asked what was wrong. He then berated Immi boy in Korean and in English told him to simply take my old photo off my old school sheet and put it on the new one and to use the new photo for my card. And to make my card NOW. I wouldn't have to wait a week. As I was leaving coming out of the bosses office was the old guy from the elevator. Turns out (from my boss) he was high up in Immigration. He wasn't happy with Immigration Boy.

One of my friends was in Immigration the next week. No Immigration boy. We never saw him again. He was working at Immigration as his military service. I am hoping that they booted him into a regular army unit. Hopefully the most miserable one they could find.

And that ends this story.

... to be concluded in The Wrap Up ...

Part 3: After the blood falls

It still bothers me that my friends were stupid enough to break up our group ... but I digress.

Oh before I continue, I was remiss in my initial posting in explaining what KATUSA means. A KATUSA soldier is a Korean Attached to the US Army. From what I read they get the posting because of English ability. They work directly with the US military, not a Korean unit. It is considered a good posting if you can get it. KATUSA boy, who hated Americans and wanted to beat them up, was assigned to work with the US military.

Because of the eye injury, and general pissiness because he had lost, DongChim insisted on going to the police station and laying charges. Even he didn't know how serious the injury was at this point. This was how HE would save face. He wanted the fight just as badly as KATUSA Boy or he would have let it go. KATUSA Boy got the last hit in so now DongChim had to "save face". He stood in the middle of the road screaming but not in pain. It was in rage over the other guy getting the last hit. THAT is why he wanted the cops. Now he was yelling about compensation.

I went with him and BumSuk to the local cop shop. The odds of actually catching them seemed pretty slim to them. (Not to me but to the Koreans, you will find out why later.) They had run off. DongChim wanted his pound of flesh from them though. I stayed around until he told his story to the police and was taken to the hospital. They also talked to BumSuk but were not interested in me. Never even took my name or any information. It was around 3:00 in the morning and I had to catch the 6AM bus.

When I got back to the apartment I talked with my friends about what had happened. That is when we pieced everything together, from what had we understood of what had been said. I was informed of the assholes reason at the police station. They wanted to beat up Americans or at the least their Korean friends. I headed off to my room to shower and catch a little sleep. At this point I thought the story was over.

While I was home a lot more happened, that I wasn't told about. The third or fourth day I was home BumSuk sent an email lamenting the fact that they couldn't catch the guys because they didn't know them. To which I replied why not? Are you an idiot? (Time would show that yes he is but that is another story.) We know one of them works at Immigration. Thus, because of me, the saga continued. I don't know if I was wise to do that or not. It might have been better to just let it die.

The police showed up at Immigration the next day with our Korean friends. They ID'd Immigration boy and he was hauled off by the police for questioning. Being the cowardly piece of shit he is he quickly turned KATUSA boy in to the cops.

Have you ever dealt with the Korean police? You should read Metropolitician's tale of woe. I wasn't surprised by his problem because the same sort of bullshit happened to my friends. My eyes were really opened to just how much of a "law and order" country Korea is, that there is NO self-defense law, and that foreigners don't count.

The first thing the police did was ONLY bring in the Koreans involved in the incident, along with the ATTACKERS family members. Then they put them all in a room together. The family members of our antagonists proceeded to try and intimidate and threaten our friends into dropping the charges. The threats would continue outside the police station. The police even gave my friends phone number to the assholes families. They harassed our friends a lot. Of course the assholes lied to the police about what happened. Over the period of a month they would change their story 9 times. The police were considering charging our friends instead of them at one point. The ONLY reason they didn't was the eye injury. Throughout the whole month of "investigation" the police never once got the foreigners statement. One of my friends was told that our statements didn't matter.

This led to two more lessons. First, and this is an important one if you ever get into a fight in Korea. There is NO self-defense law. None. Nada. Zip. In the case of a fight the most injured party is the aggrieved EVEN if the other person started it. Even if you go to help someone, say a woman being beaten by a man. For the apologists who may be reading, yes the Korean courts did decide ONCE to rule in the favour of a KOREAN man who came to a KOREAN womans defense. ONCE. We aren't Koreans. Which is directly tied to the next lesson I learned.

Foreigners don't count. Even though we were witness/participants to what happened the police didn't want to talk to us. We were ignored and avoided. When everyone was hauled in for questioning it was everyone except the foreigners. When Hilda went to the police with a Korean to interpret and said "What about my statement?" She was told "You are a foreigner. Your statement doesn't matter. We have the statement of the Koreans involved." The Korean who translated for her knows English well enough that there was no mistake in translating what was said.

Immigration boy bears further mention at this point too. I don't know whose knob his mother was polishing but I heard she breezed into the police station like she owned it. The cops kissed her ass. This is why the gave out our friends phone numbers. He was actually doing his military service at Immigration when this happened which from what I was told is not an easy post to get. (Always nice when you have someone who hates foreigners working for Immigration. Kind of like having someone who hates Americans in KATUSA.)

... to be continued ...

Part 2: Never break up the group

As I mentioned, when we left the restaurant things continued. The two Fucktards must have gotten bored because they left at one point.

For some stupid reason that no one could ever explain to me everyone else decided to break up our group. DongChim REALLY wanted to fight Katusa boy. If it weren't for him we probably could have defused the situation. Everytime things started settling he would start raging and cursing at KATUSA boy. Then things would escalate again. I said we should stick together, especially since we now actually out numbered them. I was ignored.

Matt and Dave took BumSuk off one way. I was left with Hilda and DongChim. And what happened next was pretty much what I expected. The cowards now had a choice go after a group with 3 guys or 2 guys and 1 woman. They acted just like you would expect, they went after the group with 2 guys and a woman. You know Koreans are never braver than when they outnumber you. And now they had saw an opportunity to have 2-1 odds. (They don't count woman as a threat in a fight unless she is an adjumma. Ooops I mean a RUBY.)

The ninth time KATUSA Boy and DongChim went at it I said fuck it. Never tried to stop them. Have your one on one fight. It was a fair fight at first. A typical Korean on Korean fight. Lots of posturing before they came to blows. Then they just ended up grappling on the ground with no one having the advantage.

Of course, Koreans rarely fight fair when they can gang up on someone. While KATUSA boy was on the bottom of the grapple, holding our friend in place, two of his buddies started putting the boots to DongChim. Immigration boy started stomping on his back while one of the Ricetards tried to kick him in the head. I intervened then and sent the mook going for the head flat on his ass. He got up and ran away. (No idea where the other Ricetard was at that point. I think he buggered off when the grappling started.) Immigration boy also fucked off rather than face me. (I am not much of a fighter but I am a big guy so it puts people off. Usually I am able to calm things down without fighting.)

DongChim and KATUSA Boy were still grappling so I decided to end that and separate them. KATUSA boy was flailing around and started cursing at me. That is when Hilda, who had been watching from the sidelines, said that I should let our friend kill him. It turns out the piece of shit KATUSA coward had ran up to her at one point while I was trying to control DongChim, screamed "Go home you fucking bitch!" and PUNCHED her in the face. That was it for me. I drove my right fist into his mouth, had a nice gout of blood shoot up my arm. At that point he decided the fight was over. As they broke up he took the opportunity to sucker punch DongChim. He drove his glasses up UNDER the eyelid with the punch. Actually it severed part of the eyelid underneath. (Keep in mind we didn't know it was that serious at the time. We thought he had been cut around the eye.) Then he ran off like the piece of shit coward he is.

That was the end of the fight but not the story. I had already learned a valuable lesson. Most Korean men are never braver than when they outnumber you. There would be more lessons to come in the aftermath.

The next lesson was that Koreans are VERY poor losers. KATUSA Boy had lost the fight, because his friends couldn't help him, so he took the opportunity to sucker punch someone rather than just let it end. It allowed him to "save face". I lost but I got the last hit in. Then he could run away like a piece of shit coward but still brag to his friends.

Another lesson was how racist your average Korean is when it comes to pigeon holing foreigners. If you are white you are American. Later I would learn blondes were the exception to this rule. If you were blonde you must be Russian, and blonde women must be Russian hookers. All blacks are from Africa. All Japanese are evil. All other Asians are dirty and poor.

... to be continued ...

Part 1: Let the games begin!

As warned in a previous post this is a long story. While it is about the events of one night the repercussions were felt over a period of months. So I am breaking it up into sections. This is the first part. It is mainly the lead in to what happened.

My friends wouldn't want their names used so I am using fake names for them. They would rather forget it ever happened. I will never forget it happened or the lessons I learned.

Let me introduce my friends. First the "foreign" contingent (God only knows why but Koreans can't seem to have just friends, they must be pigeon holed as Korean friends or foreign friends. This should make my writings Korean friendly. :)) The Canadians Dave, Matt, and Hilda. The Koreans DongChim and BumSuk.

The antagonists were all Korean. They are Immigration Boy (sometimes called Immi Boy), Katusa Boy, fucktard 1, Fucktard 2, Ricetard 1, and Ricetard 2.

And now on the the story.

It was the end of my first year in Korea. I was supposed to be getting the 6AM bus to Incheon in the morning for a month home. Then I would return to start a new job.

A group of 6 us had gathered to celebrate my good bye. We sat around a friends apartment drinking and talking. We hadn't drank a lot, I wanted to make sure I could get up in time to get the 6AM bus. Well, Dave was a little toasted but he was in the happy drunk stage. Around midnight or so we decided to head out for kamjatang. There was a little shop run by a woman, her mother, and grand mother. Great place ... now gone. :(

The place was about half full when we got there. The largest group was 6 Koreans. One of them, Katusa Boy who was 7 sheets to the wind, decided to come over and make friends. There were no problems, he seemed to be happy drunk. He had latched onto Dave to be his new buddy.

A while later Katusa Boy's friends left. After a lengthy good bye he headed out too. A minute later he was back to inform us that we had to pay his friends bill. He started some BS saying Dave had said we would pay for them. He was politely told to piss off. Then he started getting mouthy, mainly in Korean. I understand some of what was said now but then I didn't. He was cursing us up and down. He moved towards Dave and made some threats while raising a fist. The two Koreans with us literally smacked him in the face. One on each side. It was kind of funny to see because it happened so fast and he was so shocked. His glasses popped up to his forehead.

Well, at that point his friends who were waiting outside started to come back in. Odds are he was sent in to provoke a reaction from us and it worked. (Our Korean friends never did translate what was said. They just said it was an insult that should never be used unless you are ready to fight.) This started a kind of see saw battle. They ran in yelling and threatening. Then they headed out with the adjumma screaming at them. Then some of them ran back in and left again. When we tried to leave they started in again. All in all there were 7-8 little incidents with someone being pushed down or around.

A little background on our attackers. No idea who 4 of them were but 2 stood out. One worked for immigration. All of us recognized him from their office. He was the main instigater of their group. Most of the time he stood back and egged his friends on in Korean, while telling us in English he wanted to stop them from fighting. How terrible it is. Basically a two faced piece of shit. He also knew we were not Americans. At one point early on I talked with him and he asked about where I was from. I told him that we were all from Canada (except the Koreans). He actually mentioned he saw us at Immigration.

The second guy was the one that came to our table to make friends. From what he told us he was in KATUSA. He asked the usual question about where we were from etc. So he also know that we weren't Americans before they started their bullshit.

I have mentioned that they knew we weren't Americans because it came out that the reason the decided to attack us was because they wanted to beat up some Americans or at least their Korean friends.

.... to be continued ....