shameful
This is shameful. According to one of the English-language newspapers, several mothers are bringing babies in strollers to protests. In this case, the mother put her child in front of water cannons that were being used on crowds that have become increasingly violent (hundreds of people - protesters and riot police - have been taken to the hospital. From the reports, several of the riot police left with pretty serious injuries).
I am without words. When the protests were mostly peaceful, that is one thing, but to put your child in danger? For this? Horrible.
From Brian.
Oh, and the riot police? Are kids serving their mandatory military service. And according to Wikipeadia (yeah, I know, not the most valid of sources, but still...) receive very limited training before being put in pretty stressful situations.
(Dear Mom, this is happening in Seoul. Seoul is very far away from where I am.)
2 comments:
We saw a bunch of the riot police when we were up in Seoul on Saturday. Alex, Ty and Jongwon went to watch the protest and said it seemed almost like a festival of sorts. They got a pic of moms with baby strollers... there are lots of kids at the protests in general, so it is distressing that they might be put in harm's way.
For the most part, they described the protest as peaceful - and looking at their photos, it was. Just a lot of people milling around and hanging out. It seems that it was only later on that things went ugly.
I've been in peaceful demonstrations of thousands of people where a dozen or so folks decided to flip over a car and burn it. So, guess what gets on the news? The 4,000 people who are chanting and holding hands or the 10 people who are being jackasses?
I hear what you are saying, and it seems like during the day it is very different from what is happening at night. Still, it IS happening, the leaders of the protest aren't coming out against it, and a woman putting her child in front of water cannons is significantly different from a family day out at the protest. There is no question that the protests are becoming increasingly violent, and if one of the children DOES get hurt, they will blame the people trying to control the crowds rather than the parents who aren't doing their job. I find THAT to be grossly negligent.
And all of this over a non-issue that is the product of propaganda.
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