Frequent assaults on policemen get concerns (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-10-08 21:15
As assaults on policemen get increasingly frequent, Chinese scholars call for
adopting comprehensive measures to tackle the situation.
The latest statistics of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security show 23
policemen sacrificed their lives and 1,803 others got injured while performing
their duty in the first half of this year owing to violent reactions while they
carried out arrests, handling affairs that disrupt public order and enforcing
traffic rules and regulations.
On April 22, policeman Peng Heping and some security personnel in east
China's Anhui Province headed to a kiln site to stop fighting between two groups
of people. Although he had made known to the people in the fighting he was a
policeman upon arrival, one group of mobs stroke him with iron bars, sticks and
bricks on the head and killed him.
On May 30, Yunnan policeman Yuan Dong and a colleague were assigned to arrect
a checkpoint on the highway to stop and seize several robbers of motorcycles.
And robbers stabbed Yuan to death.
On September 9, policeman Tan Jianxi in central-south Hunan Province was
besieged and beaten by some 30 villagers when he was probing an underground
gambling operation. Two other policemen who came to his aid were, too, beaten by
the villagers. After that, several hundred people assaulted the local police
station and injured five policemen.
Ruan Qilin, a professor with the China University of Political Science and
Law, said attacks on policemen fall into three major categories. In the first
category, perpetrators tend to resort to violence, attacking common folks as
well as policemen. In the second category, perpetrators attack policemen to vent
their frustration over the legal establishments. In the third category,
perpetrators might have use violence to protest against what they regard as
unjust law enforcement.
"We should adopt varying approaches to tackle different circumstances,"
acknowledged Ruan.
The police force should strive to foster an image of being just and efficient
and build a harmonious relationship with the general public. That's the premise
for winning the support of the public and a way to reduce the cases violent
resistance in their law enforcement.
Wu Heping, a spokesman with Ministry of Public Security, called on the public
to lodge their complaints over the law enforcement activities of the policemen
through legal means.
Meanwhile, Prof. Wang Shizhou from the law school of elite Peking University,
said while ensuring policemen exercise their authority within the confines of
law, the society should also foster ideas to respect and protect the policemen.
"Respecting the policemen is respecting the state authority. Protecting the
policemen is a means to protect people themselves. Supervising the policemen is
to ensure that public right of the nation is not abused," said Wang.
Wang and a few other scholars suggested amendments should be added to the
existing laws or legislative and judicial interpretations be made to
specifically outlaw and increase penalty over assaults on
policeman.
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