Four Chinese policemen are now under the strict public scrutiny as they failed to save a seventeen-year-old girl who committed suicide in front of them. The girl drowned while the policemen stood at the bank trying to dissuade her, without really trying to physically save her. The police officers didn’t know how to swim and didn’t bring any safety equipments with them.
The incident has compelled people to question the role that the policemen played in this unfortunate event. In light of online remarks blaming the four police for inaction and disregard, the public security organs of Wangjiang district, Anhui Province, answered in a media preparation on Saturday that their cops didn’t leave the girl to drown. They said that the cops didn’t know how to swim yet they actually made an honest effort to save the girl from drowning. In a video clip posted on the web, the police are seen standing on the shore, while the young girl out of a sudden jumps into the deep water.
Some netizens said that the police, who were viewed as “unprofessional” on the grounds that they didn’t bring any life-saving equipment, were only two meters away and didn’t do what’s necessary to save her.
But is this the only instance of negligence on the police’s part? Although it cannot be justified that the authorities dispatched 4 policemen who did not know how to swim, despite receiving a complaint that someone was trying to drown themselves, but the police brutality and nonchalance in China has a big history. Early in the month of September this year, Hong Kong police had experienced harsh criticism after a video of officials tackling a 12-year-old girl to the ground near a pro-democracy protestbecame a web sensation. Police say the young girl took part in an illicit gathering and officials utilized “minimum force” after she “ran away in a suspicious manner”. The young girl’s family stated that she was essentially out to purchase school supplies and got terrified when she was confronted by the police.
There are many instances of extra-judicial killings by the Chinese police. The police have been vested enormous powers by the ruling government and try their level best to propagate the ideals of the Communist Party of China.The Chinese disposition towards the Uighur Muslims is well known throughout the world, but the country has tried to cover up all the instances of the police brutality and extremism it unleashes upon the Uighurs. China was sharply reprimanded for its mass detention of individuals from the Uighur Muslim community at a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting on Tuesday — yet the nation pushed back, saying that the judgment was politically propelled. The Chinese police officers shot 12 Uighurs in the year 2009 and many since then. It is a symbol of oppression and fear within the Chinese marginalized communities.
Earlier this year, Times of India released a 2017 video where two Chinese policemen were seen roughly pushing and misbehaving with a woman who was carrying a toddler, they pushed her onto a pavement where she fell down with her child. The brief video shows a contention between a lady carrying her little child, and two cops. The lady moves towards the police and attempts to push him. The fight starts and the police officer tackles the lady and pushes her to the ground, sending the baby smashing down on the asphalt. A few people passing by come to rescue the little kid, however the official and his associate keep on wrestling the lady.
This started a debate where in the Chinese police authorities and their brutal powers were questioned. Was the woman an imminent danger upon them? Was there a reason to why she was dealt with so much force? Was the child in question completely disregarded by the police men? To these questions there are no answers except the fact that the Chinese police men are irresponsible and are blinded by the enormous powers given to them, and more often than not, they misuse these very powers.
There are countless cases where the police in China have willfully tried to subdue the popular voice. With the minorities they become all the more monstrous. What the police does with the Tibetans and the Uighurs is sanctioned by the state, but that doesn’t absolve them from the crimes they commit against humanity – all in the name of restoring peace, or rather, saving their own necks!