집회시위문화 개선을 위한 시민의식에 관한 연구

Abstract

Since the emergence of the Civilian Administration till LeeMyung-Bak Administration via the National and ParticipationAdministrations, the Korean society has not reached a consensus onhow to punish unlawful demonstrations, specifically because the policeis confused to control unlawful acts related to assemblies anddemonstrations and because governmental power and relevant sanctionshave been poorly exercised. Although lawless and violentdemonstrations should be judicially and rightfully treated without fail,the police sometimes feel some burden and cannot strictly deal with acase when suppressing and/or investigating an assembly anddemonstration. Furthermore, most of the people disapprove of protestors’unlawful acts but remain silent or inactive. Yet, they have a doublestandard since they are actively critical about excessive suppressions ofviolences by the police. At this juncture, this research is aimed to investigate into theawareness of citizens about the law enforcement of the police on sitesof assemblies and demonstrations. To do that, a questionnaire wasoffered for a survey to 603 people who were 18 years old or older andsampled from across the country in proportion to the ratio of their ageand sex in their residential areas. As a result, the findings concern whatKorean people think of the police law’s enforcement on assembly anddemonstration sites, that they think it is a loss to obey the lawenforcement, and how they feel about the consistency, fairness andobjectivity of the police’s law enforcement. It is also found that citizens’ awareness has been turned more positive about the law enforcement,compared to past days. Accordingly, various schemes are suggested to encourage citizens’cooperation for and understanding of the police’s law enforcement onsites of assemblies and demonstrations, with a view to contributing tothe enhancement of citizens’ trust in the law enforcement for the future.