My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 315

The original plan to gather only about three police officers for the briefing evaporated, ballooning into a large-scale event with ten high-ranking officials and over forty police officers.

“This is just great,” Park Do-joon sighed. The sudden withdrawal of personnel like this meant an administrative vacuum.

With all the police in this area mobilized here, it meant that in case of an emergency, there would be no one to respond.

Seeing the high-ranking police officers flocking in, eager to get their pictures taken with Seven Days [likely a celebrity or a high-profile case], Park Do-joon clicked his tongue.

“Can we really pull this off?”

“We can do it! Let’s go, let’s go!”

Even the police officers organizing today’s event were more concerned about making a good impression on the higher-ups than the core purpose of the event: preventing school violence.

“Oh? Detective Park? Where are you going?”

“Just going to do some surveillance around the area.”

“Surveillance? There are police officers everywhere around here.”

“That’s why it’s an opportunity.”

“Opportunity?”

“Something like that.”

Park Do-joon said that and slowly moved away from the group. Behind him, he could hear grumbling and quiet backstabbing about how he viewed the organization, but Park Do-joon didn’t pay much attention to it. It wasn’t worth it.

“No achievements? That can’t be right.”

Lee Chang-man and his superiors had stuck him in this place to block his achievements, but achievements could be made.

School violence prevention?

There was no way one event like this could prevent it.

“‘Stop School Violence!’ Really? What a joke.”

Unfortunately, school violence couldn’t be stopped with mere awareness campaigns.

More precisely, harm continued to occur even during the awareness process.

“They don’t know anything about the psychology of crime… Ugh!”

Of course, awareness campaigns weren’t bad. In fact, they had to be done. But awareness could only prevent normal people from going down the wrong path; it couldn’t bring those already on the wrong path back to the right one.

Criminals were aware of their crimes, whether consciously or unconsciously.

In the case of school violence, they might think they were just playing around, but that was just a rationalization. Trying to shout ‘School violence is bad! Stop school violence!’ at those who had already rationalized their actions wouldn’t work.

When a crime was ongoing, it had to be stopped first, and then guidance should be given. If only guidance was given without stopping the crime, the perpetrator would try to rationalize their actions after the crime, making it ineffective.

“The best way to eliminate school violence is through fear.”

If you commit school violence, your life will be ruined. There had to be that fear to deter the criminal behavior.

The idealist’s saying, ‘Students must be saved,’ was only true in situations where no additional victims were being created.

At the point where victims were being created, salvation was impossible. Rather, those idealists were not interested in the victims. They were only interested in the perpetrators.

“Anyway, those bastards must be holed up somewhere around here.”

Park Do-joon slowly began to walk around the school.

“There’s no way the bullies would participate in that.”

Awareness event? It was a kind of show. Shouting ‘School violence is bad!’ at that place wouldn’t have any effect, but it would only make the bullies feel bad.

Because it reminded them of their criminal behavior.

“Is this a good thing, then?”

If three police officers had come forward and shouted ‘Stop school violence!’ as planned, they would have been annoyed and just slept or wasted time.

But if high-ranking people came, the story would be different. The school wouldn’t just let them sleep and would try to control them. And since those guys didn’t like that situation, they would slip away and try to hide.

Of course, the school would know that too. But it was obvious that they would pretend not to know because it looked better to have those guys missing than to have uncontrollable guys sprawled out, since even the school couldn’t control them internally.

Because schools were more obsessed with their reputation than protecting victims.

“Hmm, not here.”

Park Do-joon walked around every corner of the school, looking for places where the bullies might be hiding. And soon, he found them gathered in a warehouse behind the school building.

“Ah, damn it. This is so annoying.”

“What are those cop bastards doing, crawling in here?”

“Hehe, isn’t it funny? ‘Stop School Violence!'”

“It’s funny. Hehe, isn’t it funny?”

It was obvious that they were very dissatisfied with this event.

And the faint smell of cigarettes.

“This is just great.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue and headed towards them. But Park Do-joon’s slow steps had to quicken the next moment.

“Isn’t it funny, you sons of bitches!”

Immediately after the thud, the sound of someone falling came.

“Ugh!”

“You little shits, you thought you’d be comfortable today because the cops are coming?”

“Look at them. Funny. On one side, the cops are shouting ‘Stop violence!’ and on the other side, these idiots are getting beaten up.”

Park Do-joon approached and looked at them from the corner. About fifteen guys were standing over five students.

The student who had just fallen was coughing and unable to get up, and the student who appeared to have kicked him started to rant.

“Hey, you. Aren’t you getting up? Do you want to die? Should we see you die today? Huh?”

“N-no.”

“Hey? Hey? Is this bastard crazy? Who are you talking to informally!”

“Cough! …No, sir.”

“Is he the one you picked on today?”

Four people were frozen, and one was being beaten intensively. And fifteen people were watching and snickering.

“This is just great. Tsk, tsk.”

It was obvious without even looking. Usually, school violence didn’t target groups. Because then there was a high possibility that the group would work together to report to the police or resist in some way.

Instead, they would target only one person and leave the rest alone. Then the victim wouldn’t report out of fear, relieved that they weren’t the ones being targeted. Because they might be next.

“Fifteen people… It looks like all the bullies are here.”

There weren’t many students these days. Even this school only had about 200 students from 1st to 3rd grade combined.

Of course, there were also thugs under those bullies, but if those thugs were missing, there would be a big gap in the numbers, so they probably couldn’t leave, and only the real bullies gathered there.

And they brought the kids they were going to bully.

By doing so, they could feel a kind of psychological superiority, denying the existing order and feeling that they were superior to it.

‘And there’s no way the teachers don’t know about this.’

They must have done a headcount and known that not only the bullies were missing but also some students had disappeared. But they didn’t even think about looking for them.

They knew they weren’t bullies and expected they were victims, but they didn’t want to make the problem look big in a situation where high-ranking people had come.

Because the high-ranking people couldn’t know whether there were 200 or 300 students, they were obviously trying to ignore it and just get through the event.

“But I can’t just let it go.”

Park Do-joon clicked his tongue and slowly moved his body out of the corner.

“Stop it.”

“What?”

“Who is that guy?”

The bullies looked at Park Do-joon with an annoyed expression.

“In the old days, they would at least be scared when an adult showed up.”

“What a load of crap. Mister, mind your own business and get lost.”

“I saw what you guys are doing, how can you say that?”

Park Do-joon said, looking at the victims trembling in the corner. All five of them had bruises on their faces, and the one who was targeted was even bleeding from the mouth.

“I said mind your own business and leave.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Kids these days are scary, mister.”

“Sorry, but I can’t leave.”

Park Do-joon reached out to pull the victims out. Then the guys who were crouching on the edge slowly started to get up.

“No, mister. You’re really not listening.”

“We can’t take responsibility if you die because of it.”

“Sorry, but I have to take these kids to the police station.”

At those words, the bullies’ eyes turned fierce.

“You really have to die to come to your senses.”

“Haa!”

Park Do-joon shook his head at those words.

“I didn’t expect kids who do this kind of thing to be smart, but…”

“Is this guy crazy?”

“That mister is going to regret it when his head gets chopped off.”

As many as fifteen people. They were numerically superior, and realistically, high school students weren’t that much weaker than adults. So, they slowly surrounded Park Do-joon and the victims.

“You guys, grab that bastard.”

“What?”

“If you don’t grab him, you’re dead. Got it?”

The bullies even threatened the victims to grab Park Do-joon. Some brought wooden sticks from nearby, and some took out switchblades from their pockets and started clicking them open. And when Park Do-joon looked at them, they sneered.

“Why? Do you regret it now that you see it?”

“Well, you look like you have some money, so if you give us some as an apology, we might let you go.”

“Money…”

Park Do-joon smirked at those words and said.

“This might be worth some money.”

Park Do-joon slowly took something out of his pocket. Then, as soon as he took it out, he pulled the trigger into the air.

Bang!

The bullies froze when they heard the gunshot.

‘That’s right.’

No matter how much they pretended and acted tough, they were just kids. Even real gangsters would stop resisting when the police took out a gun. Because they knew that if they charged then, they would really get a hole blown in them.

How could these kids have ever seen a gun?

“You little shits…!”

“Are you guys stupid? Well, you must be stupid. That’s why you don’t know I’m a cop.”

It was a police-hosted event where outsiders had entered. And there were police officers everywhere. Who would be taking a walk in a high school, in a dark place like this, at this time?

“Well, I have enough reason to fire a warning shot.”

In a situation where there were as many as fifteen people threatening with knives and wooden sticks, firing a blank was a sufficient reason for a warning shot.

“Of course, it might be different for you guys. The police must be going crazy right now, right?”

They couldn’t have missed the gunshot and must be rushing here like crazy. Since they were gathered inside the school anyway.

“Which will be faster, you guys running away, or the police coming? Ah, before you run away, you’ll have to kill me first, right? If you can’t kill me and the victims, they’ll know all your faces. Do you want to die? Try killing me.”