ED Indiscriminate stabbing at Incheon mart unnerves public
A 50-something man, seen in this CCTV video with knives strapped to his hands, stabbed eight people at a hypermart in Incheon, Korea, Tuesday. Yonhap
Government should reevaluate, shore up crime monitoring system as attacks rise
A man whose appearance bore the hallmarks of a typical Korean middle-aged "ajeossi," including a windbreaker and baseball cap, stepped into a hypermart in Namdong District in the city of Incheon, just west of Seoul, on Tuesday.
This man, however, had two large knives strapped to his hands as he went over several floors in the large supermarket to attack people at random. He stabbed eight people, seriously wounding a 19-year-old who received an emergency surgery after going into cardiac arrest. The man said he looked for those who looked the weakest.
If not for the knives, there are few who would have imagined such violence from a stereotypical middle-aged man or envision him indiscriminately stabbing bystanders.
The attacker was also wearing an electronic monitoring anklet. On the day of the attack, he had followed the schedule, meeting with his probation officer as well as outside advisers on alcohol addiction and mental health.
The man had a criminal record, having been sentenced to four years in prison for the attempted murder of his former wife in 2015. He was ordered to wear the ankle monitor through 2029, as he was assessed as being at high-risk for violence.
Subdued by citizens and now under police investigation, the reasons behind the shocking rampage must be verified — for the moment it looks like a rage-driven case of assault without a focus for the attack. Korea, well-known for its safety, has seen more of these crimes in recent years. The presence of an electronic ankle monitor can become mere gadgetry when there are an insufficient number of probation officers and counselors to manage cases, who tend to be socially isolated or facing personal failure. The man in Incheon said that he wanted to make known to society that there was nowhere to voice his complaints.
The purpose of electronic ankle monitoring is to prevent crimes, especially repeat crimes by people who have already committed offenses. Monitoring of their whereabouts, however, has to be combined with a probation officer's oversight, rapid responses from police when necessary and the ability to protect potential victims.
The device alone will not provide safety. The government must take this opportunity to systematically review the system so that the ankle monitor, probation officers and police responses all go hand in hand. Some reports note that a single probation officer oversees up to 20 cases at a time, including people who have committed serious crimes such as murder and sexual assault. The number of probation officers should be raised in order to ease the burden on a single officer and ensure the proper management of cases.
The tragic incident happened during the daytime, when people were shopping, having lunch and going to the movies at one of the large hypermarts in the neighborhood — a venue for social outings. When these events occur, it ratchets up public anxiety and nervousness about the state of safety in Korea, as it did with a previous stabbing attack at Sillim-dong, Seoul, in July 2023 and in Bundang, just south of Seoul, in August 2023.
The top post at the National Police Agency remains vacant, with no one having been appointed despite it now being President Lee Jae Myung's second year in office. With police and prosecution reforms largely completed, filling the commissioner general's post would be one way to inject momentum to reassess and revamp the existing crime monitoring system to ensure the safety and protection of the public.