Sometimes it's what they don't do.

Brazilian beaten by thieves for stopping crime, as dozens of Chinese and 2 chengguan look on

As a pickpocket snuck his hands into a woman’s handbag, a Brazilian man intervened to stop the theft. His act riled the thief and his two accomplices, all of whom ganged up to assault him with sticks and leather belts. About two dozens of passersby stood by and watched with folded arms. Two uniformed men patrolling several meters away, who were later found to be chengguan (city management officers), refused to step in. The Brazilian said he was “very disappointed and chilled.”

The head of the chengguan office later said to the media that chengguan have no authority to restrict individual freedom. Therefore, the two chengguan who did not intervene were not at fault.

According to local newspapers in Dongguan, Guangdong province, Miss Zhu, on her way to a gym, waited at a crossroads for a green light, when she suddenly heard noises behind her. She turned around to find several men, including a foreigner, getting into a street brawl. As she watched with much interest, onlookers told her that the foreigner was beaten exactly because of her; a thief unzipped her bag and was going to steal from her at the intersection. Many people saw it but kept mum anyway for fear of revenge. The foreigner was the only one that bothered to step in.

The foreigner, apparently outnumbered and overpowered by the thugs, ran into a shopping center to seek refuge, according to Li Liang, a solicitor at the entrance, before they arrived at his heels. One of them cudgeled the foreigner in the head. Another lashed his arms and back with a leather belt. A third one yelled abuse at all onlookers, “F**k off!”

Li Liang witnessed the entire process, which lasted about three minutes. He said there are at least 30 people at the scene, but no one had the nerve to stand up to the thugs. Not until the thieves left did people come to him and ask if he needed help.

The Brazilian, identified by the local media as Mozen, said, “Only by working together and helping one another can we let thieves know that they have to pay a price for committing a crime. But now things have taken the opposite course. Having this experience, I will not and dare not offer my help next time I am in a similar situation.”

Li Liang said that anyone would be afraid if he is to confront the thieves, each one of whom is believed to carry a knife, but if people worked together, the thieves would have been daunted. “Looking back, leaving a foreigner alone to these thieves is really a disgrace on Chinese people. If it happens next time, I will ask my colleagues along to stop them.”

Mr. Wang, who works nearby, disagrees, “When the foreigner was beaten, even the two officers who saw it clearly didn’t stop it. What are we ordinary people expected to do?” Mr. Wang, said that the key to public order lies in the police rather than in ordinary people.

http://is.gd/BgvTm8

 A sad situation indeed. reminds me of the toddler that was run over a few months ago and subsequently died with many people just walking past the kid not willing to help.   

It happened in a very nice shopping district in DongCheng.  From what my wife read on Chinese sites, the incident started in the crosswalk between Haiya Department store and Carrefour.  The Brazilian poked the thief with an umbrella to interrupt his attempt at pickpocketing.  He didn't realize that the thief had a couple of friends mixed into the crowd.

Apparently, there's a gang of about 10 thieves working the area and they've been getting more and more bold over time.

The good news is that some arrests have finally been made.

Terrible. Sometimes I really hate China

I'm always tempted to make a big list of these stories about the plight of Chinese society and just reeling them off next time one of my classes starts going on about how Chinese people are....

I interrupted a thief in Xi'an back in 2005, on the escalators of a supermarket.

He followed me into an ailse, put a key up against my eye and told me he'd kill me. A little aiyi told him to stop. He buggered off, but him and his mates were obvously tailing me around the store for a while.
Scared the shit out of me at the time.

I cannot honestly say that I would physically intervene if I saw a guy, foreign or otherwise, getting beat by a group of thugs. I would call the cops for sure. This isn't really the same as walking past an injured child on the side of the road, as people don't put themselves in harm's way by helping a child who has been hit by a car. A lot of people get killed trying to be heroic, and it is true that lots of theives do carry knives and will use them if they have to. No way would I have gotten in the middle of that.

Chen guan aren't police officers either. Should they as, government workers, felt obligated to do something? Maybe. Chen guan do not carry weapons though and and they actually don't have the power to arrest people. Should they have called the cops? Most definitely.

This is a sad situation, but I don't fault any of the onlookers for not intervening. We also don't really know if anyone pulled out their cellphone and called 110 or not, which, imo, would have been the only smart thing to do.

Sometimes taking pictures/video and/or calling the police is the best option.  Still, that urge to put on a mask and a cape to become a Defender of the City must sometimes happen to other people too.  (It's not just me, right?

Another problem can also arise when you walk into the middle of a bad situation.  What if there had only been one thief and he was being beaten up by 3 or 4 people from the crowd after he'd hurt someone else?  Walk in during that and you could end up helping the wrong side.


I came into a really weird one once.  There was a guy getting. . .  too physical with a girl.  There were several other guys standing around who were talking with him and they seemed to be offering advice rather than objections.  My wife was there and she couldn't figure out very much of what any of them were saying (must have been some local dialect).  I didn't want to get into a fist fight with 1-4 guys, but couldn't stand by.  I did my best to try to get between the guy and the girl.  She promptly tried to throw herself under a passing car.  The guy at that point seemed more intent on restraining her.  My wife tried to call 110, but since it was shift change time, there was no answer.

I did my best to keep myself between her and the road, but also made it plain that I wasn't exactly thrilled that the prior restraint on this suicide attempt had been excessive.

When the situation finally calmed down enough (girl not leaping in front of cars, guy only keeping a modest grip on the girl in case she decided to run into traffic again), we finally left.  I still don't feel good about it, but short of gluing myself to the couple for the next few hours, it was all I could do.

Apparently the Brazilian in the news article in the OP received 100,000 RMB and donated it to a local orphanage. This info comes from a FB page of a guy I know casually. He didn't say who (or what entitiy) gave the guy the money.

That's good to hear.   I hope he kept a few kuai to pay for getting any cuts and bruises cleaned up.

So, anyone ready to help me with some very special gear to ruin a pickpocket's day?  Anyone any good with simple electronics?

In Thailand I caught a guy trying to steal from my bag in broad daylight in the middle of Bangkok. I felt a nudging on my back as I was waiting for a bus and turned around to find a guy's hand in the front pocket of my backpack.

I was absolutely furious and screamed 'what the f**k are you doing?' as I turned around to confront him. I'm afraid I saw the red mist and pushed the guy and kept pushing him and inviting him to try it again, as a bemused crowd of Thai people looked at the 'farang' going mental. My girlfriend at the time managed to calm me down, luckily, as I think if I'd gone any further and hit him I could have been in serious trouble (foreigners are treated about as unfairly there as laowai are in China). I am a hothead when it comes to things like that, but on reflection I have decided to really stay calm in future and make a real effort to avoid all kinds of trouble.

It's hard to say what you would do in a situation where you see a woman or child being victimised as EL described above. I am also of the 'caped crusader' ilk and would probably try to do something. Is it really worth it? No, but it's so hard to control those instincts.

Of course if it is my own wife or child, then all bets are off. Their assailant is going for an extended stay in hospital, and I am heading for serious jail time!

Hey Rimmer,

Come on down to DG and we can get matching super hero costumes.


I had an old woman try to get her hand into my pocket in Italy once (if I hadn't had a 100 Euro note in that pocket, I'd have let her spend some time searching ).  She was very angry when I stepped away from her so that she couldn't have access to what she seemed to think was her money.

A fiend of mine witnessed a pickpocketing incident on a bus some years back.  He told me that a thief was trying to steal from a passenger when he was spotted by another passenger.  Subsequently, when the other bus passengers were alerted, a few of them confronted and beat up the thief.  His accomplices (am sure there were as I was told that these thieves work in groups) did not come forward to help.

As you can see, unity usually works especially when you are in a bigger group.  I am definitely disappointed with this recent news that people just stand by to watch rather than help.  Actually, all it takes is one person to come forward and others will follow suit, just like the Beijing case where the British was beaten up after a man came forward and others joined in.

In any case, try not be a hero in a foreign country especially in China.  Look, even the Cheng guan did not intervene despite being public officers as they have their own laws forbidding them to do so.  Back in my own country, I would without hesitation intervene. Here, I will choose to be a follower, allowing a local to step up first. 

Actually, once I was eating at a hotpot place and had my bag on a chair next to me and a thief ran off with it. A Chinese friend of mine ran after the thief, caught up with him, punched him in the face and the thief dropped my bag and ran off. He'd been throwing stuff out of my bag all along the road as he ran looking for money but didn't find any. My friend found my passport lying on the ground. Luckily for me, my friend caught up with him before he got to my cash -- I'd just been paid for the month that very day.

So sometimes Chinese people participate in acts of amateur superheroism too. 

Actually, once I was eating at a hotpot place and had my bag on a chair next to me and a thief ran off with it. A Chinese friend of mine ran after the thief, caught up with him, punched him in the face and the thief dropped my bag and ran off. He'd been throwing stuff out of my bag all along the road as he ran looking for money but didn't find any. My friend found my passport lying on the ground. Luckily for me, my friend caught up with him before he got to my cash -- I'd just been paid for the month that very day.

So sometimes Chinese people participate in acts of amateur superheroism too. 

That's a good story.

Do you think your friend would be interested to join myself and EL in creating a band of masked crime-fighting heroes? 

English teacher/superhero...errr...the amazing Grammar Man and his side-kick, Apostrophe Boy???...Though it would not be a bad idea...I have, albeit belatedly, come to the simple but obvious conclusion that the chengguan, bar none, are all incompetent, useless, fascist bullies and, should I ever see someone beat eleven kinds of crap out of a chengguan, I will merely walk by and do nothing...mean-spirited, unpleasant and not very Christian of me, indeed...but then again, I am not a Christian...