Songjiang Shakedown

Today's weather: High = 26 Low = 20
Cloudy

This just in from the newspaper. I used to live in this neighborhood two years ago, somewhat connected with my last post as I would ride to work daily from there.

Let's just say that the public is not exactly happy about the urban management officials. These guys, aka "cheng guan" are like the police, but not exactly. They are mainly responsible for keeping order on the streets and cracking down on street vendors. The public wants cheap and convenient snacks. Demand remains strong for those street vendors, and the public is really not fond of the cheng guan. Neither am I, after repeated stories in the newspaper about the cheng guan beating up the little guys.

The public said enough is enough, took a protest to the streets in the thousands, and began torching police vehicles.

Accounts differ in the newspaper from one day to the next about what really happened. I guess we'll never know the full story, but it made for riveting reading nonetheless

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Account #1 - From the victim's point of view
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THOUSANDS of residents gathered in the streets in Shanghai's Songjiang District yesterday to protest after several urban management officials beat up a pedestrian over an alleged traffic dispute.

An angry crowd of witnesses to the incident began to gather in the area facing down the police and demanding that the officials be punished.

The confrontation later became more serious and lasted until after midnight with more and more residents and police joining in.

Motorcycles were set ablaze at the scene in Jiuting Town in Songjiang, according to witnesses and posts on the weibo.com last night.

Early this morning, Shanghai police confirmed that a protest had taken place but said that they were still unclear what had caused it.

More detailed information will be released today, they said.

The initial incident happened at about 3:30pm on Huting Road N near Husong Highway when an urban management vehicle had a traffic dispute with a pedestrian, witnesses said.

The vehicle was trying to run a red light while the pedestrian refused to give way, witnesses said. A quarrel broke out, during which about eight urban management officials jumped from the vehicle and started attacking the pedestrian.

The pedestrian, not identified, refused to leave and remained lying on the ground while a crowd of passersby gathered round him in support.

Police later cordoned off the scene with part of the Husong Highway closed after more and more people continuing to arrive.

"It was a mess," said a witness surnamed Yang who got off the Metro Line 9 in Jiuting Station at about 10:30pm.

"Thousands of people were gathering at the intersection and shouting for something which I didn't hear clearly as the scene was noisy."

Yang said bus lines near the Jiuting Station were also affected by the confrontation and many passengers were delayed at the Metro station.

Yang said she finally had to walk in the opposite direction to hail a taxi and take a detour to get home.


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Account #2 -- From the Cheng Guan's point of view
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POLICE have detained several people involved in a violent dispute between urban management officials and a motorcyclist that attracted a mob of onlookers who had to be dispersed by riot police in suburban Songjiang District on Wednesday.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau posted a statement on its website yesterday saying "they will handle the case in a justified way."

The bureau didn't give further details and didn't say how many people were detained.

Police said the case started over a traffic dispute involving a truck and a motorcycle at the intersection of Huting Road N. and Laiyin Road about 3:20pm. The dispute later turned violent and there are different accounts of what happened.

Urban management officials were in the truck, which lightly bumped a motorcycle that was going through a red light, said Tao Guoping, deputy Party secretary of the Songjiang District Greenery & Public Sanitation Administration.

"It was a tiny incident, but the motorcyclist wanted to make the most of it because we are urban management officials," Tao said.

The deputy said six of his officials, one officer and five assistants, were involved in the "body contact" and were at a police station last night as officers continued their investigation. The involved officials will be fired if they are guilty, Tao said.

Tao told Shanghai Daily the motorcyclist tried to hit one of the officials with a brick. The other five jumped out of the truck to protect the official and the "body contact" just happened, Tao said.

Witnesses said the motorcyclist was beaten up by the six officials and later started lying on the ground to attract attention.

Police soon arrived.

"He had agreed to go to a hospital for treatment and was about to get in an ambulance," Tao said. "But he was stopped by two of his relatives who insisted he make the case bigger by lying on the road to block traffic."

More and more people were attracted to the scene and started sympathizing with the motorcyclist lying in the middle of the road.

Eventually thousands of people blocked the intersection and some vehicles were set on fire. The mob demanded police hand over the urban management officials in the name of justice.

Riot police with helmets and shields were dispatched to the seen late on Wednesday night and the crowd was dispersed around midnight.