'Beijing's Finest' offer new hope to beleaguered pedestrians

I recently experienced my first, and hopefully last, ride to a Beijing police station in the back seat of a police car.

I had not run afoul of the law, rest assured. I had been running, however, and I'd had a run-in with an electric scooter that nearly ran me down in a crosswalk.

In the aftermath, I recalled with trepidation the words of a fellow expat upon my arrival in China nearly five years ago: "Never get in a dispute that involves the police. You (as a foreigner) will lose."