Loving the homemade flamethrower. Great idea!

I didn't see any looting, everyone was organized, and they weren't attacking innocent bystanders.

Oh wait, this wasn't Los Angeles after Rodney King.

The title was suppose to be a pun, O'Reilly. It's not a contest


Interesting point though. If you argue that a riot specifically aimed to inflict civilian property damage & casualty is also a protest, then the lines of 'protesters' and 'militants' kinda blur out.

One could argue that terrorism = protest = Los Angeles Riot ??? "-\0_o/-"

Context:
"1st Mobile Regiment's 1st & 3rd Company(1001st, 1003rd Mobile) of the South korean Combat Police corps against a very pissed off protest group in South Korea, 2002"

Does anyone have the specific news article?

yea right, if anyone even attempted that here they'd have 1,000 cop bullets in every part of their body imaginable. shit people here get shot and killed for much, much less.

Is that right qruel? But I thought freedom was worth fighting for. Worth dying for. You know, worth going to Iraq for.

Freedom defined today is different than defined in yesteryear. An ignorant pet in a cage or a city apartment considers itself happy and as far as it knows, it is free. Just as we live within the confines of our government, which strives to retain power and wealth for the few who maintain control over it. We live our lives, too busy working and making ends meet to bother with protest. Too busy, immersed in our petty forms of entertainment to bother ourselves with forming a future for ourselves free from 'big brother'. It is just as the government prefers it.

You can either join the crowd of happy ignorants, or join the crowd of enlightened, yet unhappy dissidents. Which life you choose is entirely up to you.

The USA needs to realize that it is NOT a free country. Though, yes it is better off than many other nations in the world. That does not make it perfect, nor does it mean things should not change. It also does not mean that the current 'status quo' will be maintained. Nothing is forever. Change does happen. For better or worse.

You're right qruel. If anyone did that they would most certainly have caught a bullet. Not only are they threatening the officers' lives, but those of others around them.

And now that I've watched more of it, that is absolutely the worst riot control squad EVER.
You don't break formation, you don't use your shied as a weapon (where are their batons) and you certainly don't just run off and leave a gap in the line. Riot control is very much akin to the techniques of the Spartan soldiers. Not that 300 Bullshit, but the real kind.
And yes, I've had full training in riot control.

Looks like high speed footage of the ninja parade to me...

I think it's interesting to compare protests here and protests there.

Asia: police through rocks (that is what I saw, right?).
USA: police shoot tear gas and rubber bullets.

Asia: Having a gathering is enough reason to start trying to corral and disperse the group.
USA: police will often find a reason to employ force to break up a demonstration, but always claim there is a good reason that involves public safety.

Asia: Seemed like a fair fight at a few points there.
USA: the last time we saw an almost fair fight here was Rodney King and that was simply because of the sheer numbers involved.

The Asain police don't seem very well trained in how to handle the situation or very confident that they can control it. Maybe we've all become much more conformist here or maybe the government has become adept at controlling demonstrations, but I don't recall seeing a protest like that here with as much passion as those men displayed since the civil rights movements. Most present day protests here all you see is the police controlling the situation and minimizing the power of the crowd.

Wow... Not the video... Some of the comments. I'll let you guys get back to it, I just wanted to say that if you REALLY want to see some serious S. Korean demonstrators, look up videos of the student riots in 1991. I was there at the time and it was unbelievable. What was the best way to get your point across? Light yourself on fire. Yes, light yourself on fire. Now THAT is political activism.

Making peaceful protest impossible makes violent protest inevitable.

1. Most of the time squads are ordered not to carry batons because they inflict mortal wounds and casualties. So they have to do with shields, tear gas. and water hoses.

2. This is also because Korea has had a violent history of firing guns onto protesters back in the 1980's when President Jeon Doo-Hwan led a military coup to take over the government. And while in power (1980-1988) he ordered his army to shoot down student protesters with tanks and army men.

Since then (which is still within last 20 years), civilian casualty is considered a trademark of a tyrant. Hence no guns, no batons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan

But also they consider this man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee a national hero, who did the exact same thing, but in early years)

3. Korean protesters usually don't expect or WANT a peaceful solution until the end of conflict. And they're not afraid to fight, since KNOWING that the police will try to avoid inflicting casualties as much as possible. Police can fight back only when they are attacked first and are in danger of being injured themselves. That's why protesters always gets to taunt the police, because if they do show any kinds of harsh abuse, that goes right on to the front page news with the bold letters saying 'POLICE BRUTALITY' or 'TYRANNICAL SOCIETY'. They also usually have 'all or nothing' mentality, and are not willing to negotiate. Only when they are arrested and defeated they usually calm down and start talking.

4. This is also to demonstrate 'what they're capable of'. The longer they put up with this charade, 'stronger' their voice gets. In their mentality, the stronger you prove yourself to be, the more likely the government would listen to you, because now they have have an edge in negotiation, threatening them that they'll just go back to the streets and riot again, causing as much damage as long as possible. So they almost always put up a fight, trying to never shying away from using force.

the only time i have been close to this was a sit-down protest outside the houses of parliament in london during the vote to go to war in iraq.
the police just fenced off the area, didn't let anyone else in (including news cameras) and waited for everyone to need the toilet and leave. i did consider pissing on a policeman but thought it might have been a little unwise.

anyway, what struck me about it was that they didn't strike me. they just waited for me to go away. it was on the news for about 3 seconds. and the rest is history.

sometimes i think the right to protest only exists so they can get on with whatever evil shit they like and say "we allowed you to protest, so now STFU"