Ramsey Khalid Ismael — better known as Johnny Somali, the infamous American streamer arrested in Japan, Israel, and South Korea for his provocative behavior — has been imprisoned in South Korea.
I didn’t know that this guy kissed the Statue of Peace aka the Comfort Woman Statue in Korea for clicks. That’s pretty foul. That statue is dedicated to all of the women who were used as sex slaves by the Japanese in WW2. They have one in the DMZ. The tour guide told us how it depicts women who fought their whole lives for justice for what was done to them. It’s a striking piece of art.
Enjoy prison, you clown.
And to compound what happened to them, they were shunned by society at the end of the war as if they were spoiled goods. It took 50 years or so for the public to understand the depth of what happened to them and to begin showing compassion. The statues exist in part to commemorate what happened to the women, and in part as a sign of remorse for how they were treated by their own communities afterwards.
They have one in the DMZ. The tour guide told us how it depicts women who fought their whole lives for justice for what was done to them. It’s a striking piece of art.
I looked it up and it sits facing the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, a constant reminder to Japan about what they did.
Yes. The forcing of Korean captives into Japanese soldiers’ “comfort women” is a common sore point in geopolitics between both Koreas and Japan. Japan has refused to give a real apology, and occasionally South Korea and Japan have visible clashes over the topic.
You don’t really want to look up everything horrible he did. He belongs behind bars, at least for a while, if only so he can’t earn money doing horrible things.
The video I was unfortunate enough to see showed him preforming a lap dance on the statue, utterly disgusting human being that man is.
While I respect that everyone should have freedom of speech and expression, this guy was a complete moron:
Ismael was certain he wouldn’t be imprisoned, saying in a stream: "I know for a fact that I’m not going to go to jail. Not one day in jail. I’m going to laugh my ass off when all these motherf***ers are saying I’m going for 30 years, 20 years, five years, 10 years. I’m not even going to do one day, bro. They’ll give me a fine and say, ‘Don’t come back to Korea.’ You’re the one that’s going to look so dumb when I don’t get any jailtime or anything. Bro, I’m going to laugh like a f**king villain.”
Like, my God. “Don’t go shake those venomous snakes. They’ll bite you.” “No way, bro. They won’t even bite. Watch.”
Maybe he was getting legal advice from ChatGPT.
You’re absolutely right!
He did the same shit in Japan and only got deported and banned. He simply assumed Korea would be the same. Good to see Korea don’t play.
He needs to respect the laws of countries he visits. That comes before any expectation of “freedom of speech”. (I refer to speech specifically because a lot of Americans seem to act like their constitution is the gold standard that the entire world should adhere to, but not everyone agrees)
America itself doesn’t even adhere to it.
This is very true. I’ve got business past and present in many countries, and the US is by far the one we have to be the most careful to cover ourselves when dealing with.
What they’ve done is move all the stuff that a lot of countries’ governments would handle impartially through regulation or legislation, made them private civil matters, and called it “Freedom”. This incentivises people to file suits for anything they can think of, and those on the receiving end can end up bankrupted even when the courts rule in their favour.
Especially when it comes to hate speech and inciting violence, etc. Even America has restraints on inciting violence, but other countries definitely restrict things like hate speech, while the conservatives in America just go BUCK WILD with the hate speech and then have meltdowns when private platforms boot them for violating the TOS and they cry about their “free speech” and how “conservative speech” is being restricted, LOL.
It’s weird how conservative speech always needs to involve hate as its core tenet. These assholes are never kicked from these platforms because they were discussing tax policy or deregulating big business.
If he had bothered to read his passport it says plainly that you are subject to all local laws, and that their penalties are probably worse, but the US doesn’t care.
Freedom of speech and expression doesnt mean freedom from consequences
He’s obviously a sociopath.
I mean, I’m not going to go anywhere foreign and deliberately violate their laws.
I mean, he does have those things. I think that there is a widespread crisis of understanding of what those freedoms actually entail. To distill it down philosophically, freedom of speech and expression mean that a person with those freedoms can say anything they want and express themselves in any way they like, so long as those actions don’t infringe on the freedoms of anyone else.
There are no main characters, so everyone gets the same rights (for the sake of discussion; I know there are a million caveats here). Any right that everyone gets has to have borders around each individual, or those rights are auto-trampled by everyone else, for everyone.
This guy will have 6 months to reflect and learn that nuance. Let’s see if he does!
This guy will have 6 months to reflect and learn that nuance.
I suspect he’ll turn this into another spectacle. I’m more disgusted with social media platforms that continue to monetize his behavior
he’s been banned from pretty much all streaming platforms, including Twitch, Kick, Rumble, and Parti.
When you manage to get banned from both Kick and Rumble you really should be re-evaluating your life choices…
It would be really fucking rich… If they live-streamed him doing prison labor for 6 months.
I’d even pay to upgrade him to a north Korean prison labor camp
He’s a slimeball, but no human being deserves that.
I agree, I was hyperbolic
Calling him a human being is pretty generous.
I don’t think I’ve ever watched a streamer before and would happily change that to watch this.
I sadly guarantee you that the second he is released he will continue to be a POS.
But now convicted. Harder to get immigration approval anywhere. Unless he lies, which could lead to longer prison sentences.
Exactly.
One he finishes his sentence, he will be deported to the country of his citizenship, and his criminal record will prevent him from further travel to most places.
Never heard of this guy. But let me see if I have the basic jist of the story just from context of the headline, and that photo.
I’m going to guess he’s some 19 year old, who feels he owns the world. He feels he’s the main character, and totally untouchable.
So he goes off to these foreign countries, acts like an ass, and now he’s shocked to find out that other countries ALSO have rules, and laws, and also think he’s an asshole breaking their laws.
So basically this story’s TLDR, if I have everything right is basically:
FAFO
Having read half-ish of his wikipedia article, the only thing I’ll correct you on is his age, 25, otherwise that’s on point.
Even worse, jeez.
I vaguely remember seeing this when it came up earlier, and my impression was that the guy basically ran around doing offensive things and then making money by streaming video of it, so there’s maybe something of a broader misincentives issue.
I mean, we probably wouldn’t be talking about him right now if it didn’t work in terms of getting eyeball time.
Way to find out that being the hero of your own story doesn’t give you plot armor.
Or maybe if quantum immortality is real, he’s off in his own universe where it worked out for him while the rest of us take the “fucker’s getting what he deserved” branch.
Or maybe if quantum stillbirth is real, he died in a miscarriage and this is one of his infinite idiot ghosts.
hes desperate for clout, thats why the grift, but theres already too much competition out there.
Kudos to South Korea for doing what Japan wouldn’t. Maybe that’s what happens when the Japanese “justice” system, based on confession instead of evidence, meets a sociopath that lies faster than he blinks.
Japan could have put him in prison without trial until he confessed. They chose not to prosecute, presumably because they didn’t want him in the country for even longer.
Wow, I can think of quite a few more personalities and “influencers” and authors that I’d love to see go to a prison labor camp.
Benny Johnson, LibsOfTikTok, Bannon, Roger Stone, founder of the “Proud” Boys, Curtis Yarvin, Nick Fuentes…
The current US president also counts as a “personality” and “influencer”
I think that most of these guys know what radioactive lightning rods they are, and are savvy enough to at least understand that if they leave the safety of their domestic propaganda apparatus, they’re on their own in an environment likely hostile to them.
This guy’s apparently limited understanding of his role and where his bread is buttered thought he could make the same ass of himself over there as he did back home without consequence, and he was mistaken.
Unfortunately, I think most of those you listed, while dumb in a lot of ways, are savvy enough to know to keep a low profile when they go into enemy territory, which is essentially any place with a population higher than a bus.
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Every single one of these who commence public nuisance or harrassing behavior for publicity should be jailed in any part of the world only to show everyone their actions are shit.
Fucking finally. That guy is an utter turd.
Can any South Koreans with experience of ‘prison with labor’ weigh in? What can he expect to experience in there? How do you think he’ll come out of it? Will he have learned his lesson?
Not South Korean, I was stationed there for a bit and my flatmate was a Korean who went to prison for 14 days or so for some minor infraction.
He came back a bit traumatized by the ordeal. From what he described he could only sit on the ground. He’d wake up, go somewhere, and just sit all day. I think he was fed while sitting too somehow? At the end of the day he went back to bed and repeat it all again when he woke up.
He swore he’d change his ways and not break the law anymore so maybe it worked?
Sounds like it.
How likely is he to run into Koreans very upset with what he did?
A face that needs to hit a baseball bat over and over again.
I guess others already have.
I’ve never heard of this person before but he sounds like a trash bag.
Not exactly. Trash bags are useful
Finally a good news story.
Uplifting news
