beasts and natives alike

E SENS’ side states, “It is neither true that he was arrested during his probation period nor that he smuggled.”

As news got out that E SENS was arrested for smoking marijuana, his fans who had been looking forward to his album ‘the Anecdote’ were sad and disappointed.

On April 8, [a representative of] the Seoul Western District Prosecutor’s Office revealed, “On April 6, E SENS(real name: Kang Minho) was arrested without a warrant at his home in Mapo-gu, Seoul, for a breach of the Narcotics Control Law,” and various media were scrambling to report these news. However, the problem is that aside from discussing E SENS’ fault, a few [media] reports were apparently false. The parts in question are “[he was] arrested during his probation period” and “it was uncovered that he smuggled marijuana.”

To verify the two statements, we went to the representative of E SENS’ agency Beasts and Natives Alike. First, we asked him if it was true that E SENS was arrested during his probation period. The first time E SENS was arrested for smoking marijuana was in 2011, and in April 2012 he was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison with a probation period of 2 years by the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office. And according to E SENS’ agency, his probation period already ended on April 20, 2014.

For your information, sentencing someone to probation means that the punishment is delayed for a certain time [the probation period] and if that legal delay has passed, the punishment becomes invalid. However, if the accused commits another crime within that period, the delay is canceled and the person has to serve their sentence. In E SENS’ case, that sentence are 1 year and 2 months in prison which were delayed for two years. So just by taking a look at the time when his sentence was passed, one can find out that the arrest this time around did not happen during his probation period. If he was arrested during the probation period or not is quite an important difference. To be exact, E SENS was in fact arrested while the last case was still being investigated.

The pictures show articles saying that E SENS was arrested during probation period

The next question is if it really came to light that he was smuggling marijuana. As expected, according to Beasts and Natives Alike’s representative, it is not true. He revealed that although it is true that E SENS admitted to smoking marijuana, him smuggling marijuana is not true at all. If that is the case, then why did reporters write those things? There is a high possibility that E SENS’ case being investigated along with people who actually supplied and smuggled marijuana caused an accidental, or deliberate, mix-up on the reporters’ part. As a matter of fact, since the case this time around is still being investigated, it cannot not be a serious problem that articles were written saying that he was smuggling marijuana as if it was a fact.

It is right to criticize him for clearly breaking the law, putting aside issues like “Is marijuana actually harmful for the body?” or if it is right that the law treats marijuana the same as hard drugs. Nevertheless, it is nothing but a dereliction of duty as a so-called reporter to spread false information by writing an article without even confirming any facts (none of the two reporters who wrote the above articles did), especially in the case of a sensitive issue like this which has to be adressed factually and objectively. It is impossible to hide one’s bitterness about the fact that it is widespread among the [South Korean] press to copy others’ articles. One false word or sentence can kill a person.

Meanwhile, E SENS is currently being investigated and under arrest due to smoking marijuana while the last case was still being investigated and due to the concern that he might show unpredicted actions, feeling ashamed [about being involved with the police / breaking the law] as a celebrity.

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Source: Kang Il-gwon for Rhythmer
Translation: hiphopkr