Rights

Our apartment is on the corner of two pretty busy streets. We hear all sorts of comings and goings. Many times I hear people yelling but when I look out I can't tell if anything unusual is going on. Today was a little different. I heard some yelling and looked out. There were a few guys around a cart on the far side of the street. One guy was on the ground (maybe sitting) and another it looked like, was under a cart. Another guy was yelling at him. He was dragged out from under the cart and they had his hands behind his back. The guy that was sitting was handcuffed too. I guess I missed seeing the actual arrest. Three or four guys put the two handcuffed ones into the back of a silver mini van. Then they took the less cooperative guy out of the van (the one that was under the cart). They brought him to the side walk. They were not gentle with him at all. He was not fighting them but they were pretty mad at him. They slapped him some and I even saw a few kicks thrown in. We watched it some, and then decided to video it. I am not sure why. We did manage to get a few still pictures but you can't really tell what is going on.

The guys doing the slapping and arresting were wearing plain clothes but we think that they were police because they had real handcuffs. Normal citizens do not have handcuffs in China. Eventually some uniformed police came in police cars and took one "criminal" away. They also videoed and took pictures of whatever was inside his cart.

It was really weird . As an American it was disturbing to see the guy getting hit and kicked but he was caught
doing something bad. The criminal justice system here is very different than in the States. There are no Bill or Rights, Miranda Rights, or Innocent until proven guilty. But we really feel safe here. I don't fear for the kids like I sometimes do in the US. There are few repeat bad guys here. Bad criminals (murders, rapists, drug dealers, corrupt government officials) don't get second or third or fourth chances.

We enjoy many rights and privileges as Americans. Sometimes we forget that other countries do not share our views about what rights people should have. Today was a reminder that this is NOT America and this country can be VERY different than home.
This is the cart that was involved some how. There is a box in the back that they opened and took pictures of.