End incidents involving chengguan officers

Furious, people gathered quickly, surrounding a vehicle used by urban patrol officers, or chengguan, and attacking it with sticks, bricks and other objects. They even overturned an ambulance that came to offer medical aid to the injured.

This violent incident occurred after a clash between the chengguan officers and a vendor in Lingxi town, Cangnan county, Zhejiang province on Saturday.

It is the latest bloody conflict between the public and chengguan officers triggered by public outrage over the behavior of these quasi-police officers, a group that is widely viewed as being offensive in their enforcement of the laws.

According to media reports, the incident began when several chengguan officers demanded a street vendor stop selling gas stoves and other items, which they said were blocking the sidewalk. A resident, surnamed Huang, happened to be passing and began taking photos with his cellphone and then a clash arose when he declined to hand over his phone as demanded. Huang was punched to the ground and then kicked for more than a minute until he vomited blood, a Southern Metropolis Daily report cited eyewitnesses as saying. More people gathered, and angry onlookers surrounded the chengguan officers' van, bursting its tires and smashing its windows with bricks. According to an account posted by the local government on its official micro blog, the escalation of the incident was triggered by rumors on social media that the chengguan officers had beaten a man to death.

It is hoped that further investigations will be conducted to mete out deserved punishments to any lawbreakers, no matter whether they are chengguan officers who beat the passer-by or those who participated in the beating of chengguan officers and the vandalizing of their vehicle. However, the incident should also provoke reflection.

It is not uncommon for clashes to break out between chengguan officers and unlicensed street vendors and even between chengguan officers and passers-by who take photos of their law enforcement efforts. The latest incident follows media reports earlier this month that chengguan officers in Fuzhou, in Fujian province, beat an old man to death, an episode that triggered national outrage online. In 2008, a passer-by in Tianmen, central Hubei province, was beaten to death after he took photos of a clash between chengguan officers and a peddler, which also fueled nationwide anger.

Given the stained reputation of chengguan officers in China, the dissemination of any information about their misconduct, or even rumors, will easily ignite public fury and even extremist behavior. Those who intentionally spread rumors should be punished according to the law, but we should also consider why people don't trust chengguan officers.

And we should reflect on the way in which local governments deal with the clashes between chengguan officers and unlicensed peddlers. In the latest incident, the local government was accused of being too slow and not forceful enough in taking action to stop the escalation of the incident, which lasted from 9:00 am 4:00 pm. Facing a situation that was out of control, the local government was possibly at a loss as to how to respond, given that any inappropriate response might spark a more violent conflict. Experiences indicate that soft means and more self-restraint are better than tougher and forcible ones when dealing with mass incidents like this.

Flexibility and restraint are by no means a reflection of weakness.

It is terrifying to imagine the scene as thousands of people took to the street to attack the chengguan officers. However, what is more terrifying is why a minor incident escalated into a violent incident with the participation of thousands of people. Compared with previous mass incidents that usually occurred between two parties with direct conflicts of interests, such as ones involving land acquisitions or demolitions, the one in Cangnan occurred between chengguan officers and onlookers who had no direct conflict with one another. This should be a profound reminder to the authorities, that fairness and justice are the best medicine to soothe the rising social discontent and also the best stabilizer of social order.

Only through forcible administrative and judicial reforms, civilized law enforcement, as well as measures to promote judicial justice and punish corruption, can the government retrieve its weakened authority and credibility, eliminate public distrust and extremist sentiment and win the trust and respect of the public.