According to the description on a video recently posted to Youku and translated by chinaSMACK, a street peddler was recently beaten up by uniformed staff from the Shichahai Integrated Management Office in front of his nine-year-old daughter, whose pleas of “Stop beating my daddy,” “I’m begging you,” “We’re sorry,” and “You can go ahead and take the stuff,” were ignored.
To help his 9-year-old daughter gain some practical work experience during her summer break, Mr. Tian, who lives near Shichahai [near Beijing], took his daughter to East Qianhai to practice peddling lamps on the street. [While doing so] at around 9 pm on July 25, [Tian] was beaten by people in uniforms similar to that of security guards. To prevent the wares they were peddling from being confiscated by chengguan city management, Mr. Tian had printed an explanation on an A4-sized piece of paper: “I am an elementary school student, learning about society, challenging myself, [hoping to have a] happy summer vacation, and I hope city management uncles can be supportive. Thank you!”
Other chengguan who were at the scene apparently did nothing to stop the beating. One can barely see anything in the video — it’s basically just a child screaming, which can get kind of distressing after a while — but the takeaway is this: the officers involved in this scene are either heartless or slaves to the law.
We’ve seen chengguan harass parents in front of their young children before, to say nothing of group beatings, etc. We could repeat the mantra here, but you probably already know it. Better luck next time not soiling your reputation, guys.
UPDATE, 7:40 pm: Via Xinhua:
A father has denied that a Thursday incident at Shichahai was a deliberate attempt to attract public attention to violence perpetrated by local law enforcement officers.
Tian Yudong, who said he was accompanying his daughter to experience life, told the Global Times on Sunday that he had no connections with The Beijing News and he would like to face his doubters.
Tian and his 9-year-old daughter had a physical confrontation with scenic area management officers, at Shichahai while they sold things by the street side on Thursday. Tian and three officers were injured in the conflict.
City Management Beats Father In Front of Crying Daughter (chinaSMACK)
