Police and Protesters Total Blockade, Blanket Arrest Could Only Worsen Situations Violent protest and brutal crackdown have become another chicken-and-egg dilemma in Korea, one of whose images abroad is street demonstration. The police blame protesters for resorting to increasingly violent means of expressing their complaints, while protesters attribute it to law enforcement officers' overreaction and unnecessarily rough handling of them. A case in point was the clash in front of the City Hall last weekend, during which observers doubt the good sense of protesters. Organizers of the commemorative rally say they couldn't help encroaching upon the space, as the police refused to permit them any for their event. But such an excuse cannot free them from criticism not least because a democracy calls for its constituents to repect other people's rights as their own. Likewise, the demonstrators should refrain themselves from exercising violence, however hare it may prove to be. Resorting to violent means erodes any popular support even for their otherwise justifiable causes, while providing an excuse for the police to conduct brutal crackdowns. So the biggest enemies of any protests could be the habitual users of violent methods among their participants. That said, the police tactics leave considerable room for debate. The law enforcement authorities, which also include the prosecution, apparently are acting like "once-bitten-twice-shy" victims of last year's prolonged public protests. Hence their extremely tight application of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration, which itself is subject to controversy on possible violation of the Constitution that guarantees the public's right to hold meetings and express their opinions. So much so that the police arrested any group of two or more people who chanted - anti-government - slogans and waved flags last weekend. They also reportedly haven't approved any application for assembly by progressive groups in recent months. Such a total blockage of all assemblies critical of the government brings us to the 1970s and '80s, during which any criticism of the government was reason for autonomous imprisonment. Government officials and conservative media attack protesters against heavy-handed rule as anachronistic, but there was never a time over the past two decades or so that reminded people of the rules under general-turned-presidents than now, as far as the freedom of expression is concerned. When the ruling elite try to close all outlets for oppressed complaints of the general public, increasingly feeling alienated in a society of a rapidly widening gap of wealth, its eventual explosion will be far more violent, damaging and long-lasting. President Lee Myung-bak and the governing Grand National Party need to know Korea could become like, say, Greece or Thailand, if they fail to let people vent their disgruntlement effectively. Albert Camus, describing the birth of republican political system, once said, "The people opted for disorder instead of social injustice." The French novelist's saying should be a wake-up call for any government that has to nip any critical rallies in the bud.