Public apathy emboldens criminals

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By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-14 07:46

I am ashamed of myself for being a bad runner. Two thieves I was chasing left me farther and farther behind, and ultimately vanished from sight. It happened last Monday after the two men stole a bag from an intern when some colleagues were having lunch in Shanghai's Yan'an Park and enjoying the first sunny day in about two weeks.

I called the police emergency hotline 110 before giving the thieves the chase. I rang up again to tell the cops about the whereabouts of the two guys before they gave me the slip. I was shouting for help along the way, too, crossing the busy Jinling and then Huaihai roads, and hoping someone would come forward to stop the robbers.

Frustrated at seeing the thieves slip away, I realized another colleague, once a police reporter, was right behind me in the chase. She was equally disappointed and her face showed it.

I was angry with myself for not working out enough lately. The thieves were much younger and clearly in better shape. I was also angry with the people on the streets. Most of them were young white-collar workers employed in those glitzy office towers on Huaihai Road. They did nothing even after hearing my cry for help, except watching the entire episode as if they were seeing it in a YouTube clip. The two thieves ran past them, but none bothered to even put out his or her foot to trip one of them.

During my childhood - 30 years ago - plenty of Shanghainese would have joined such a chase, and given the thieves a good thrashing once they were caught. I remember following some adults once, even though I was by no means strong enough to stop a criminal.

Painfully, such a fact is only memory now. Society today is different, and people indifferent. Most people nowadays are apathetic to such crimes. Those who respond bravely make headlines because it is rare to come across such persons.

About 10 days ago, 30-year-old Xu Hua was seriously wounded by gangsters when he tried to stop one of them from picking the pocket of a customer at a McDonald outlet in west Shanghai. Shockingly, most of the other people in the shop remained indifferent. The pickpocket and his accomplices were emboldened because they knew too well about the passivity of the public. They stabbed Xu, cutting his kidney muscle and an intestine, in front of all the customers.

Incidents of such lone heroes and an unsympathetic public have broken people's hearts many a time in the past years. It is true that thieves and other criminals could be dangerous. But they would be less bold if confronted by a brave crowd.

I was also angry with the cops on Monday. The operator at the police hotline insisted that I answer useless questions at that critical moment when 10 seconds could make a big difference. Their slow reaction gave the two thieves ample time to flee the scene.

A police motorcycle reached 5 minutes after the thieves had fled, or 10 or 15 minutes after I had made the first call. Part of the problem, I realized later, was that the cop who reached the scene was from Huangpu district. Though Luwan district, where the thieves were heading, is just a block to the south, no cop came from there because police follow a code of conduct and don't like impeding into each other's areas.

The story didn't end there. A few hours later, someone found a wallet in People's Square. It contained the intern's ID, bank and public transportation cards. But the bag, a camera, a notebook and money were gone. Do thieves follow some code of conduct, too?

E-mail: chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn