Manhandled vendor sues chengguan

Concerns about conflicts triggered during the law enforcement process of urban management officers, also known as chengguan, have been upgraded as new stories have burst out in the pass few weeks.

Li Shengyan, the street vendor who was grabbed by the neck on March 6 in Guangzhou by a chengguan officer told the Global Times Thursday that she has filed a lawsuit against the local chengguan bureau and police office.

Urban management authorities in Guangzhou Thursday released to local media a 16-minute video of the March 6 incident, the first time that Guangzhou urban management authorities have released law enforcement video files.

In the unedited video clip, a group of chengguan ask the 22-year-old vendor to move as she was selling her wares illegally on the street, but she didn't comply. They started quarrelling and the vendor threw a piece of fruit at the chengguan. One of the crew grabbed her by the neck and as the vendor struggled she tore the sleeve of the chengguan's shirt. The video ends after the police arrived, Nandu Daily reported.

The incident caused a public outcry since the chengguan fought with the vendor in front of her crying, frightened 18-month-old daughter.

The officer involved was hired temporarily and not qualified to enforce the law. He was suspended.

Li said she threw the fruit at one of the more than dozen officers because he appeared to rush toward her and she thought he was going to beat her. She said she was going to move as the chengguan requested but asked them for time to finish peeling fruit a customer had already paid for.

Li's lawyer, Sui Muqing, told the Global Times Thursday that they are suing the chengguan for intentional injury and the local police for unlawful detention.

Another conflict involving chengguan occurred on Saturday in Yingshan, Hubei Province, where the owner of a temporary building he had illegally built slashed to death a chengguan officer who was dismantling the structure, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.

The next day a street vendor stabbed an urban management officer seven times in Guangzhou, as citizens at the scene stood idly by. The wounded officer is likely to be disfigured and damaged muscles on the side of his face will hinder his ability to chew.

Zhou Qingan, a professor of communications with Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the media, especially social media platforms, often sensationalize conflicts between chengguan and street vendors, sparking unnecessarily public concern over chengguan's improper law enforcement. He said society needs to address how chengguan officers can better coordinate with different interest groups.