By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Police will not offer cash rewards to officers who arrest demonstrators protesting U.S beef imports, but will keep a controversial non-monetary voucher incentive system.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency had initially planned to give 50,000 won to officers whose detainees were arrested and 20,000 won for indictment or submission to summary justice. The plan was to ``encourage'' officers ``suffering from the severe stress of dealing with protestors,'' it said.
The plan, however, incited public opposition to police targeting demonstrators as objects of a cash hunt.
The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy warned that the incentive system will cause police to competitively search for detainment and arrest.
The Korean office of Amnesty International said, ``It's an international embarrassment that police consider protesters objects for hunting.''
Opposition parties also joined the criticism. ``Korea is not in a dictatorship era,'' main opposition Democratic Party spokesman Kim Yoo-jung said. The minor conservative Liberty Forward Party and the minor New Progressive Party also urged National Police Agency Commissioner General Eo Cheong-soo to resign.
``Arresting someone should be done through investigation. Excessive competition for arresting protesters might sidestep the legal process. Police should protect civilians,'' said Seo Bo-hak, a law professor at Kyung Hee University.
Web users flooded the police agency's Web site with critical comments.
Even police insiders are reportedly against the plan.
The leader of a non-governmental organization said, "Police have grabbed too many headlines by doing stupid things. It started with excessive suppression, establishing a crack squad that's been mocked as a revival of a dictators' toy, and dismissing the Seoul chief of police instead of the national police commissioner."
"Protestors are not criminals who automatically face arrest warrants, and the incentive plan projects the impression that police consider them criminals. That's not right.''
The National Police Agency took a step back Thursday, saying officers will be credited and get vouchers after reaching specific targets.
``The plan is reminiscent of Sea Story, a slot machine game which damaged tens of thousands of Koreans in 2006,'' the Association for Human Rights said ``Nothing has changed in the police plan,'' it said.