A police officer and the officer's family, who were mocked as "Are you Chinese public security?" at a protest over the shortage of ballots in the 9th nationwide local elections held simultaneously (the June 3 local elections), have filed a criminal complaint.
According to police and others on the 17th, a person surnamed Kim, an inspector with the 2nd Riot Police Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, and Kim's spouse filed a complaint with police the previous day against five men on charges including obstruction of the performance of official duties and insult.
The accused allegedly surrounded Inspector Kim in the early hours on the 6th, the second day of the blockade protest at the Olympic Park Handball Arena (the Songpa District ballot-counting site), followed for more than 30 minutes, and hurled abusive language and insults such as "Are you Chinese public security?" and "You're Chinese, right?"
On the 9th, Inspector Kim posted an internal police message titled "Where has police authority gone" and said, "It is time to reflect on where our human rights and self-respect stand now, and, if they have fallen unnecessarily low, how we can restore them."
Inspector Kim's spouse also said on social media the previous day, "I directly experienced how dangerous it is to mock someone and to consume unverified information as if it were fact," adding, "We did not proceed with the complaint to ruin someone's life, but I hope people realize at least once what the price of the hate game is."
Police plan to continue the investigation, including identifying those who were accused. Police are also currently investigating protest participants who allegedly searched the belongings of the women's junior national handball team in the Handball Arena area without authorization and confined and assaulted a reporter from a news outlet.