A possible abuse of police power is being investigated.
In Guizhou province, a Party chief and police officer are accused of handcuffing a 13-year-old girl last month after she allegedly splashed water on a government car. She was then paraded around town for 20 minutes — something they don’t even do with prostitutes anymore. Reports Xinhua:
A netizen told the story in a microblog post on Monday. The post claimed that a 13-year-old girl surnamed Rao accidentally splashed water on a car belonging to the township government on April 6, then she got involved in verbal and physical confrontations with government staff.
Police then handcuffed Rao and forced her to walk around town for about 20 minutes, according to the microblog post.
Take note of the word “accidentally.” Authorities claim the girl intentionally threw a basin of dirty water at the officials, and insist they only punished her with the cuffs (and 20 minutes of public shaming?) because she appeared older than her age.
The two under investigation are Kele township Party chief Yuan Zehong and township cop Chen Song.
We’ll have to wait to see what actually becomes of the investigation, but the message, hopefully, is clear to township-level officials everywhere: file this under DO NOT DO.
SW China officials suspended for allegedly parading handcuffed girl (Xinhua, h/t Tom Phillips)
Meh, there are a lot worse things that Chinese government officials do to 13 year old girls.