Social order officers' violence hits home
A Shaanxi city's 'temporary workers' stamp on owner of bike shop, but critics say this problem is far from temporary
Stories about chengguan - officers employed by city urban administrative and law enforcement bureaus - beating up street vendors are nothing new, but when a video showing one in Yanan , Shaanxi , stamping on a vendor's head was circulated online last week, it sparked surprise and anger.
Eight chengguan, who are meant to maintain social order, took five bicycles from a bike shop while patrolling a street, saying they were obstructing a road. The dispute developed into a fight between the shop owner and the officers, which was recorded by an onlooker and put online.
The shop owner suffered injuries to his head, his chest and a shoulder. All eight chengguan were fired, and two were detained for assault, the city government announced on Wednesday.
However, the authorities' claim they were all "temporary employees", and not official civil servants permanently employed by the government, triggered another round of criticism.
The Modern Express called it an underhand way to distance the bureau from its black sheep.
The central government has repeatedly said that local governments should strictly control the employment of temporary workers, especially those who enforce laws and regulations. So how did the temporary workers involved in the attack in Yanan get their jobs? The Modern Express asked whether some cadres had breached rules and given jobs to relatives and acquaintances.
The brutality of the chengguan in the video made people suspect the agency had employed gangsters to beat up misbehaving citizens, knowing it could easily fire them once they crossed the line, it said.