I wrote this -
Police, Pushing and Videotape
You would assume China to be a police state. I always did.
You hear the term so loosely bandied about in the States (about the US), by so many hardcore leftists, that you would be ready to see just about a free for all on the streets of China. Given that China is considered to be a few rungs below the US on the freedom ladder, shootings, beatings, or at least something involving whips would be par for the course in a communist haven. But none of that happens here.
What happens here, for non-political disruption, anyway, is arguments and videotape. In a scene that happens with such frequency that it can no longer be considered “weird”, a yelling match between tens of police and tens of citizens, will often happen while one or two of the police officers are videotaping it.
This brings up an interesting and abstract sidebar. To what end are they videotaping it? Who is going to watch this videotape? If it is such a “police state” is a thing like “evidence” even necessary at a trial? Is there even a trial?
The first time I saw such an altercation was in front of a multi-million dollar shopping mall called “Coco Park”, in Shenzhen. This is a place where the ultra-rich buy Levi’s jeans at two hundred bucks a pop. As with all places in Shenzhen (perhaps the world leader in exclusivity shopping and gated communities), there is a near-militaristic drive to keep out the “riff-raff”.
The offenders in this case were, from what I can gather by evidence being tucked into the back of a mini-van, selling stuffed animals in front of Coco Park. The police did not approve.
I was walking home from work, at about nine thirty at night, when I saw two forces locked in a violent embrace. It took me a second to wrap my head around it, because at first glance I assumed it was some sort of large street brawl. But then the uniforms began to give something away. One side was surely The Law.
My Chinese is horrible, so I couldn’t understand what was being said, but all languages, at least to some degree, can be discerned by decibels.
At first, I figured I had stumbled upon some special moment in time, that which when the violence breaks like a crescent wave. But it wasn’t the case. It very much reminded me of the game tug of war, but without the rope - two large masses of people struggling for supremacy, devoid of any mitigating factors save for brute strength.
Then I saw the video camera and began to wonder.
One of the police officers was holding a very small digital movie camera, one of those jobs where the display screen protrudes perpendicularly. He was off to the side a few feet, and not in the tug of war. The greatest surprise, however, was that the “bad guys” won. They actually got all of their merchandise and were able to drive away.
China is a country whose total population outnumbers the US by over a billion. That’s with a ‘b’. I’m not sure how these people could ever be found, so long as they didn’t want to be, and I’m not sure where the videotape comes into play, but, more than anything, it made me wonder about America.
To date, I’ve seen this video phenomenon on multiple occasions. I’ve seen the police filming beggars. (They must have been begging without authorization, or in the wrong area, because begging is as common as honking in China). I’ve seen it twice at a small restaurant, just beside my house. That restaurant scene drew quite a crowd both times, although they are still up and running as I write this.
I understand that, when it comes to protesting in Tian An Men Square, China is a completely different story, but these small differences are puzzling in their own way. What would happen in America given this same scene? Would the police have an argument and perhaps be persuaded to leave (like the restaurant near my apartment)?
Nothing in my experience would cause me to wager that way. The next time I’m in America, or at least discussing it with someone, and I hear the term “police state”, I won’t think the same as I would have a year ago, at least not in a relative sense.
