Help Wanted: Busybodies With Cameras

[Liberal_in_LA]

Help Wanted: Busybodies With Cameras

SEOUL — With his debts mounting and his wages barely enough to cover the interest, Im Hyun-seok decided he needed a new job. The mild-mannered former English tutor joined South Korea’s growing ranks of camera-toting bounty hunters.

Known here sarcastically as paparazzi, people like Mr. Im stalk their prey and capture them on film. But it is not celebrities, politicians or even hardened criminals they pursue. Rather, they roam cities secretly videotaping fellow citizens breaking the law, deliver the evidence to government officials and collect the rewards.

“Some people hate us,” said Mr. Im. “But we’re only doing what the law encourages.”

The opportunities are everywhere: a factory releasing industrial waste into a river, a building owner keeping an emergency exit locked, doctors and lawyers not providing receipts for payment so that they can underreport their taxable income.

Mr. Im’s pet target is people who burn garbage at construction sites, a violation of environmental laws.

“I’m making three times what I made as an English tutor,” said Mr. Im, 39, who began his new line of work around seven years ago and says he makes about $85,000 a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/world/asia/in-south-korea-where-digital-tattling-is-a-growth-industry.html?_r=1

[MADem]

1. Jesus, let me grab my camera and move to South Korea!!!

That's a nice annual paycheck! There is a psychic price to pay, though, if you resort to turning in your neighbors:

For most infractions, rewards can range from as little as about $5 (reporting a cigarette tosser) to as much as $850 (turning in an unlicensed seller of livestock). But there are possibilities for windfalls. Seoul city government, for instance, promises up to $1.7 million for reports of major corruption involving its own staff members.

In a country where corporate whistle-blowing is virtually unheard of — such actions are seen as a betrayal of the company — turning in neighbors can also carry a social stigma. Mr. Im has not told his parents what he does for a living. But like many others in his line of work, he says he had little choice when he started tracking petty crimes.

Bang Jae-won, 56, an eight-year veteran of the trade, said he felt proud of the times he caught people dumping garbage at a camping site or exposed marketing frauds, one of which once bankrupted him.

“I regret the early, desperate days when I reported the misdemeanors of people as poor as I was,” said Mr. Bang, who turned to this work after he was told he was too old...“I don’t tell my neighbors what I do, because it might arouse unnecessary suspicions,” he said. “But, in general, I am not ashamed of my work. To those who call us snitches, I say, ‘Why don’t you obey the law?’ ”

[SpiralHawk]

2. Stoolies on the Make (R)

RepubliCons gonna luv them this idea -- giant step toward the Totalitarian Homeland they gasm about.

RepubliCons steal their way into the next eeelecTIONs and YOU could be Snapped & Slammerized for the ThotCrime of Lib Ideation.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Can you imagine OUR country even caring to prosecute law breakers?

( unless they are poor, or Dems. or have not greased the right palms).
Yet So. Korea, who theoretically imported our values, pays to find lawbreakers.

[Generic Other]

4. How is this different from Bev Harris pocketing money

from election machine problems in California? She got a huge settlement in one of those Qui Tam deals. Seemed kind of scummy of her at the time.