"Coercive Investigations Must Absolutely End"
"Unrelated Women's Crime Investigation Team Faces Mockery and Insults"
A man in his 20s who was accused of a sex crime while using an apartment gym was cleared of charges, and the head of the Women and Youth Investigation Team at Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station in Gyeonggi Province revealed his name and released a statement. The issue arose because the case was handled by the 'Women and Youth Violent Crime Team,' but the criticism has been directed at the 'Women and Youth Investigation Team.'
On the 1st, a post titled "This is Detective Kang Dong-ho, Head of the Women and Youth Investigation Team at Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station" was uploaded on the blog of 'Detective Kang Dong-ho.' Detective Kang said, "First and foremost, I offer my apologies to the man in his 20s who was harmed by this incident and to the public," and added, "After countless deliberations and hesitation, I decided to write this because my team members, their families, and children are suffering greatly due to this, and as the team leader, I could no longer just watch."
According to Detective Kang, Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station has both a 'Women and Youth Violent Crime Team' and a 'Women and Youth Investigation Team.' In the case of the 'Dongtan Gym Bathroom Incident,' since it was a sex crime case involving an unidentified suspect at the time of report, the Women and Youth Violent Crime Team conducted the investigation. However, the current organizational chart on the Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station website does not list the Women and Youth Violent Crime Team, leading to the unrelated Women and Youth Investigation Team receiving criticism.
Detective Kang stated, "Despite thousands of news articles pouring out due to this issue being a matter of national interest, not a single article has mentioned the name of the team responsible for the coercive investigation that caused the controversy." He continued, "Instead, the unrelated team has had not only its team name but also the real names of four members exposed in thousands of articles, receiving various mocking posts and insults."
He said, "The Women and Youth Violent Crime Team cowardly hid behind the Women and Youth Investigation Team, who were suffering from cyberbullying," and added, "When we heard that the case closure notice sent to the man who was falsely accused was issued under the name of 'Women and Youth Investigation Team 1,' all our team members were shocked and cried for a long time." Detective Kang said, "That was the moment when the Women and Youth Investigation Team 1 was confirmed as the party responsible for this case," and "Since then, all our team members have had their personal information exposed, and due to cyberterrorism acts such as various insults and mocking comments directed at their families, we are deeply concerned that one of our members might take extreme measures."
Detective Kang also emphasized, "Taking this incident as an opportunity, coercive investigation damage, like in the case of the man in his 20s who was falsely accused, must absolutely be eradicated, and the investigation of sex crimes should not be hindered due to mistakes made by police officers conducting coercive investigations." He stressed, "Cases where others are mistakenly suffering for what the actual parties should bear, like what happened to our team members, must end, and cyberterrorism caused by unconfirmed speculation must also stop."
Furthermore, he said, "We ask that the cyberterrorism against our team members cease, and we plan to hold criminal and civil liability for cyberterrorism through various communities, posts, comments, and media articles that publish our team members' real names."
Meanwhile, the so-called 'Dongtan Gym Bathroom Incident' began on the afternoon of the 23rd of last month when a woman in her 50s reported that a man was secretly watching her while she was using the women's bathroom next to the gym in an apartment in Hwaseong City and engaged in sexual acts.
At the time, the man denied the allegations, but the police showed an attitude as if they had already identified him as the culprit and spoke to him informally, causing controversy. Eventually, on the 27th of last month, the woman in her 50s confessed to making a false report, bringing the case to a close. Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station canceled the man's booking and booked the woman on charges of false accusation.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
