Society
Peddler kills city-image coordinator in scuffle
By Gao Changxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-19 07:33
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SHANGHAI: Disputes between urban management officers, known as chengguan, and peddlers often end up as bloody stories. Chengguan are well known for beating peddlers, but this time, the story is the opposite.
On Sunday, a peddler stabbed a city-image coordinator, assistant to chengguan, to death at about 7 pm at the exit of a subway station at Hongkou stadium after a fight broke out during law enforcement.
The coordinator, surnamed Ju, about 40 years old, was stabbed in the left chest right below the heart while he and another female coordinator were on duty, and trying to drive away the peddler who was allegedly blocking the traffic of the subway station.
Ju was declared dead at the scene by doctors.
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The case is now under investigation.
A staffer in a hotel right next to the subway station who witnessed the incident said he heard someone shouting, "Let go of my stuff" and then ran out to see what was happening.
"When I got out, the officer was covering his left chest with his hand, speechless, and the peddler was held by another coordinator and a subway security staffer was obviously shocked by what he had done," said the man surnamed Zhao.
The officer was then laid down on the ground by his colleague and about 20 minutes later, the police and people "wearing white clothes with plastic bags covering their head", tried unsuccessfully to revive the officer, and then covered him with white blanket. An ambulance came another 10 minutes later and took his body away.
"A big bloodstain was left on the ground, which was later cleaned up by cleaners from our hotel," Zhao added.
The Shanghai government launched a campaign named "600 day action" in July last year, aiming to give the city a better image during the upcoming Shanghai World Expo, in which urban peddlers and hawkers are listed as a "stain" on the city's image.
City-image coordinators in Shanghai are to some extent assistants to the city's urban management officers, who manage the city. Chengguan have gained a notorious image nationwide for their brutal treatment of street vendors and protesters.
Last year, Nanjing in Jiangsu province saw a major standoff between college students and chengguan after some students were forcibly prevented from selling goods on the street. It caused a large-scale protest among local students.
In January 2008, a construction executive in central China was beaten to death after he used his mobile phone to film a clash between chengguan and protesters over garbage dumping.
A pilot project currently underway in Beijing's Shunyi district aims to reduce violence among peddlers and chengguan.
The program requires inspectors to first take photos or videos of the illegal operation, then report the evidence to relevant district officials and set a deadline for the officials to rectify the problem.
