China’s Internet censors have ordered the country’s social media companies to block further sharing of a viral video that shows a toddler threatening members of the notorious urban management police squad with a long pole, telling them to leave his grandmother alone.
The officers are members of the Chengguan, charged with enforcing petty regulations and notorious for their violent tactics, which include beating a watermelon seller to death with his own weights. Controversies about the Chengguan include the murder of two officers during an interrogation, with the murderer becoming a folk-hero after his execution.
The child in the video is holding a metal pole twice his height, shouting “Don’t touch my grandma! Go away, don’t touch my grandma!” Onlookers laugh at the spectacle.
Chengguan local law enforcement officers have long been the target of public scorn for their tendency to use excessive force. In December 2013, four officers were sentenced in connection with the notorious case of street vendor Deng Zhengjia, who was allegedly beaten to death with his own measuring weight. Chengguan brutality has also incited violence from the public, for example when Ji Zhongxing set off an explosion at the Beijing Capital International Airport; Ji had for years sought compensation for a beating that left him paralyzed, and his disgruntled act of violence attracted widespread support online.
Minitrue: Don’t Hype Video of Toddler Battling Chengguan
[Josh Rudolph/China Digital Times]
(via Dan Hon)