My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 386

“In such cases, it looks like a no man’s land. But that’s only how it appears externally.”

Criminals already have a firm grip inside, preventing outsiders from entering.

“We believe these guys are operating outside our surveillance area. If they were under surveillance, the police would have known before things got this bad.”

‘Of course, someone higher up must be protecting them.’

But this time, we can’t just blame the higher-ups for protecting them. It’s not about protecting them for their sake alone. If we make a big deal out of it, the police will try to cover up the case at all costs to protect themselves.

So, this time, we need to let the police take them down directly to root them out.

“That’s right. Real organized crime doesn’t let thugs run wild.”

“The reason protection money exists in the first place is precisely that.”

“Are you defending criminal organizations?”

“I’m not defending them. Protection money was originally a kind of vigilante activity fee. That’s how it was supposed to be. In the past, South Korea’s public safety was a mess.”

In the past, the police in South Korea were not a public protection organization but a regime protection group. Operating like that, normal public safety activities were impossible.

“People had to survive on their own in such places.”

For example, let’s say someone is causing a ruckus in a bar. What happens if you report it to the police? The police will probably come but just tell them not to cause too much trouble and send them back.

The problem is that this isn’t a one-time thing. Even if someone is drunk and disrupting business, all the police can do is persuade them to leave.

“But not organized crime.”

They threatened them enough to sober them up, or even used violence to keep them away.

“People don’t realize it, but troublemakers cut down sales by at least 30%.”

Knowing that, building owners are terrified of troublemakers.

“And organized crime has exploited that gap.”

At first, they try to establish themselves by helping to drive out those guys. They don’t provoke the merchants much at that time.

If you report it to the police, everything will fall apart before they can establish themselves.

Rather, they appeal to the idea that they are helpful. They call those who constantly cause problems ‘drunk ruffians.’ They’re not violent offenders, but they become violent offenders when they drink, so-called bad drunks.

“Then, they get co-opted by the local police, and when they think no one can touch them, the story comes out.”

They demand protection money. Only then do the merchants realize it, but even if they report it to the police, the police are already under the control of such organized crime, so they never move first or indict them.

“Is that the flow?”

“Crime, like society, has an ecosystem. If even one thing goes wrong in the middle, the criminal organization can’t move.”

For example, if a bar owner actively demands punishment for a drunk ruffian, refuses to settle, and files a civil suit, will those drunk ruffians go there? They won’t go.

Drunk ruffians know their drinking habits are bad. But they want to drink, so they crawl into places that are easy to handle, even knowing it.

“An ecosystem……”

While Yoon Tae-min was muttering like that, Park Do-joon went to the map on the wall, visually checked the location, and pointed to one place.

“It must be here.”

“Right?”

“What makes you think it’s here?”

“It’s a red-light district.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s a red-light district. It’s a place overflowing with money and filled with drunks. Alcohol and violence are like inseparable needles and thread.”

There’s no organized crime in such a place? No way.

“Basically, such places are bound to attract flies.”

But if there are no flies, it means there’s something that eats the flies.

“That’s certainly true.”

Even Lee Ji-soo had to admit it. And Yoon Tae-min asked, as if suspicious of the two people’s opinions.

“Can’t the police secure public safety? Logically, the police should secure public safety in such places, right?”

Park Do-joon scoffed at that. Well, someone who doesn’t know much about the police’s work might think so. But that’s only based on non-experts.

“The police’s main job is not prevention but post-incident handling.”

“Post-incident handling?”

“Yes.”

“So, there’s no reason for the police to prevent it?”

“That’s not it. The area of work itself clearly includes the prevention of accidents or crimes. But the problem is that realistically, there’s neither the capacity nor the time to do that.”

The police’s manpower shortage is not a problem that has arisen in a day or two. The police hire many people every year, but most avoid field positions. In a way, it’s natural. Who would want to go to a difficult and dangerous field position?

So, some people quit even before they start working when they are assigned to field positions. Even then, for political reasons, they don’t hire the male personnel desperately needed in the field and only increase the number of female personnel like crazy, so the field is screaming from a lack of personnel.

“That’s clearly a sexist statement.”

“That’s a political term. When a robber stabs you in the gut with a knife, will they stab you with a box cutter instead of a sashimi knife because you’re a female police officer out of pity?”

“That’s…….”

“Moreover, this is a red-light district. It’s the most intense and dangerous area.”

It’s a red-light district where people fight while drunk, wield weapons, and some crazy bastards even run people over with their cars when they get angry.

In fact, one of the most avoided workplaces for the police is the red-light district.

“Sufficient personnel control to prevent incidents from happening in such places? I wish there was such a method.”

If there was such a method, it would be actively applied to all red-light districts across the country. The problem is that there is no such method.

Unless the customers in this neighborhood are all polite and well-behaved, the chances of that are not high.

“Wait a minute.”

Park Do-joon turned on the road view [a feature in Korean map apps similar to Google Street View] and checked the stores in the area. And he said with conviction.

“This is not such a well-behaved place. Rather, it’s a more intense and dangerous place.”

“Why?”

“Even from the road view, there are quite a few places suspected of being prostitution businesses.”

“So? Why is that dangerous?”

“Most of the customers will be the primitive type.”

What does that mean again? Yoon Tae-min tilted his head, not understanding the words. But Lee Ji-soo had already learned from Park Do-joon once, so she knew enough.

“A bar with many prostitution businesses means that even if extreme emotions or sexual desires appear, they can be easily resolved. In short, it also means that those types of people are likely to gather and play.”

“Isn’t that all the same?”

“No. Have you ever seen a prostitution business in Hongdae [a vibrant and trendy district in Seoul]?”

“That’s…….”

There are no prostitution businesses in the commercial district called the main street in Hongdae, at least. Why? Simply because it’s expensive? No. It’s not a place where those types of customers come.

It’s a place with a strong image of men and women gathering to party and date, not a so-called 19-rated [adults-only] entertainment district.

“But this place has all sorts of places. Most of the customers here are likely to be male. And the police can’t stop those customers from the start.”

They can come out after a problem occurs and take them away or stop them, but that’s it. In such places, the limit to preventing disturbances or drunk ruffians in bars is too clear structurally.

“But the fact that there are no major problems means that someone is strongly controlling the place.”

“Even if those guys control it, they don’t call the police?”

“It becomes like that over time. There’s a saying, ‘the rule of troublemakers.’”

“The rule of troublemakers?”

“Yes, if you leave troublemakers alone in a store, only troublemakers will come there.”

For example, let’s say you leave a troublemaker alone. That person has been refused entry to other bars or restaurants, so they only come to that place.

The problem is that the person hasn’t fixed their habits. Rather, it’s closer to finding a sucker who will accept their habits. From the business’s point of view, they accept it because they’re still a customer. But imagine someone getting drunk in a restaurant, picking fights, harassing female customers, yelling songs, and overturning the table.

Will other customers go to that place? Unless it’s a really great restaurant, they won’t go.

Even if it only happens for one day, it’s a disaster, but what happens if it happens often? Of course, regular customers will drop sharply, and only troublemakers will remain. And troublemakers attract troublemakers.

If they know they won’t be retaliated against for acting like idiots there, troublemakers will gather there once the word gets out.

From the business owner’s point of view, they can’t help it because customers are precious, but it’s a vicious cycle in the end. Eventually, only troublemakers remain, and the store goes bankrupt because of those troublemakers.

“Does that apply to the area as well?”

“Troublemakers say they made a mistake because they were drunk, right? Sorry, but that’s not the case.”

“It’s not?”

“Yes.”

They made a mistake because they were drunk? If they know that, ordinary people usually restrain themselves from drinking.

If people around them try to force them to drink, they draw a line, saying they have bad drinking habits and cause problems if they drink. So, people around them don’t try to force them to drink. Even if they’re strangers, once they cause an accident after being fed alcohol, they won’t drink together from then on.

“But these guys go and drink even alone.”

“Why is that?”

“Alcohol, you see, is not a rudder. To put it bluntly, it’s closer to oil.”

“Oil?”

“It doesn’t have the power to change a person’s direction.”

A good person becomes a dog when drunk [a Korean expression for someone who behaves badly when drunk]. Strictly speaking, that’s not because they become a dog when drunk, but because that person is likely wearing a mask of being a good person on a regular basis.

Alcohol acts as a kind of oil that releases a person’s brakes. That’s why, from ancient times, family elders would have a new son-in-law drink heavily.

The moment they get drunk, their true nature comes out. If they’re the type to swing their fists when drunk, they’ll be the type to swing their fists when they get comfortable over time.

“It’s not that they can’t control themselves, but that they don’t want to control themselves. But that works for the police, but will it work for gangsters?”

They see the same guys getting drunk every day, right? Even if they do that, would they really be gangsters if they wield violence while taking their circumstances into consideration?

“So, once guys get badly hurt in an area, they avoid that place.”

“That’s right.”

When gangsters send them away, do they say, ‘Don’t ever come back’? Or do they say, ‘If you ever catch my eye again, I’ll gouge your eyes out’? Of course, it’s the latter.

And the human survival instinct is terrifyingly sensitive. As long as they know they’re the type to do that, troublemakers don’t go there.

They don’t go if they forget the way to go after drinking heavily, and they can’t go without drinking because they’re too scared when they’re sober.

A Professional Profiler