Police in three Chinese provinces take heat after ‘brutality’ images surface online

Police departments in three Chinese provinces were forced to defend themselves after images surfaced online apparently showing policemen beating up citizens.

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The photo shows a policeman lifted a woman by the collar and threw her on the pavement as dozens of fellow officers watched.

Published: 6:15pm, 27 Jan 2015Updated: 9:30am, 28 Jan 2015

Police departments in three Chinese provinces were forced to defend themselves on social media against rumours of police brutality after images surfaced online apparently showing policemen beating up and thrashing citizens.

A minute-long clip titled “Changyuan policemen beating up teachers”, was published on popular forum Tianya.cn, showing about a dozen uniformed officers dragging down a man even as he held up his arms in peace, then kicking him and beating him with batons. The officers were also seen arresting a group of men who were lying face down on the ground.

An accompanying photo showed a policeman having lifted a woman by the collar and throwing her on the pavement, her legs in the air, as dozens of fellow officers watched.

The internet user who uploaded the clip claimed in the post that both the video and photo showed the teachers from a high school in Changyuan city, Henan province, being assaulted.

They were reportedly holding a demonstration outside the local government compound against a decision to downgrade their high school to a technical secondary school, which would spell cuts to their funding.

“More than a dozen teachers were severely injured and taken to hospital,” the post claimed, prompting some mainland netizens to accuse police force’s brutality.

However, Changyuan police department quickly issued a response on social media, denying that any of its officers were involved and refuting the claims in the post. It said the video and the picture showed two separate incidents, involving police officers in two different provinces.