Chinese police accused of brutality by kneeling on woman’s neck – next day she thanks their ‘sincere assistance’
- Furious reaction online to footage and woman’s claim of ‘near-death experience’ after calling police saying she had been ogled at hotel
- Police statement a day later says woman has been ‘educated on common law’, then she posts second statement praising officers
A video of a Chinese policeman pinning down a woman by the neck with his knee while she cries out in pain has caused a furious reaction online, with the police accused of being “shameless, hypocritical and evasive” and of trying to control public opinion.
The woman posted the video on social media on Saturday and accused the police of brutality, but it was swiftly deleted and on Sunday she posted another statement thanking the police for “their sincere communication and assistance”, claiming the issue had been resolved and asking people to stop commenting.
Identified by her surname Cheng, she had called the police after claiming a security guard at her hotel in the southern city of Shenzhen had been taking photographs of her, she wrote on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
However, the police then refused to allow Cheng to review security camera footage with them and threatened her with a stun gun when she refused to leave the room, she wrote.
Cheng posted a video showing a policeman pinning her down by the neck with his knee while she cried out in pain and tried to push him off. He was shown eventually letting her go after another woman tried to pull her out from under him, before grabbing Cheng by the hair as he pushed her out of the room. The video has since been removed from Weibo.