[Current & Culture] That Day at Seoul City Hall Plaza and Itaewon

The State Must Exist Like an Invisible Hand
Police Mobilized for Protests and Itaewon Overlap
A Situation Where We Lost What Should Not Have Been Lost

A few days ago, I attended a festival held at the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall. I was scheduled to give an outdoor lecture there. However, a day before, I received the following message: due to a planned protest, the venue would be changed to indoors. Indeed, as soon as I got off at City Hall Station and exited, I noticed several groups of protesters. It was said that three protests overlapped. There were people holding Taegeukgi flags, their opponents on the other side, and people wearing Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Minnocho) vests. And just as many police officers were deployed. I passed by them and went to a library near Seoul City Hall.

The library staff told me that the lecture venue had been changed back to outdoors. The plaza in front of City Hall was surrounded by protesters, and voices amplified by loudspeakers could be heard here and there. About twenty people who intended to participate in the event were seated, but it didn’t seem like my voice would reach them. However, since I felt I had to follow the organizer’s instructions, I replied that I understood and sat on the prepared chair.

When I greeted, “Hello, I am Kim Minseop,” someone from the Minnocho protest nearby also started greeting. Voices saying, “This is so-and-so branch,” “Our comrades’ struggle,” could be heard. It seemed several people had come, and the greetings continued. Ah, was I supposed to overpower those voices? When I raised my voice a little and asked if my voice could be heard by the people, they nodded affirmatively. Anyway, I was about to talk about labor someday. The protesters and I were not so different. They were holding a group protest, and I was doing a one-person protest. Since there was nothing to win or lose, I continued speaking with a somewhat louder voice than usual. We were each doing our work in slightly different ways. I felt like saying, “You keep up the good work too.”

After the lecture, I went to Cheongnyangni Station to take a train to Gangneung to go home. Suddenly, I remembered that it was Halloween Day and thought it might be fun to go to Itaewon, but I had children waiting for me every weekend. The next morning, I saw breaking news. It was reported that many people died in a crush accident in Itaewon. There had been several tragic deaths before. In 2009, seven people died when a fire spread incorrectly during the Hwawangsan Silver Grass Burning Festival. In 2014, sixteen people died when a ventilation shaft collapsed at an outdoor concert hall in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province.

However, although this could be said about any accident, the accident in Itaewon feels even more tragic. There were so many police officers at the protest site in front of Seoul City Hall, but it is said that 137 police officers were deployed in Itaewon, where even more people gathered than the protesters. There are assemblies that are reported, specifying who, where, when, how, what, and why they will gather, and there are unreported assemblies expected to have even more people.

Halloween Day has no organizer and, accordingly, no responsible party. However, administrative power should be devoted to public safety at events like this. Like an invisible hand, that is how the state must exist. Surely, next year, many police officers will be mobilized for this particular event. Although the cow was lost, the barn must be repaired, and as a line from a drama goes, those who don’t fix it won’t be able to raise cows in the future. However, I keep thinking about the number of police deployed at protests and how it overlaps with that day in Itaewon. We lost a cow that didn’t have to be lost.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.