China ends crime 'shame parades'
By Jane Chen |
July 28, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA will end the public shaming of criminal suspects by parading them through the streets, the People's Daily reported yesterday, after online commentators championed the case of two prostitutes.
A spokesperson at the Public Security Bureau in central Henan province confirmed the ban on the practice long used by local law enforcement officials.
Although the ban is meant to apply to all suspects, the "shame parades" have most often been used in periodic government crackdowns on prostitution.
Online activists launched a campaign to halt the marches this month after two suspected prostitutes were pictured barefoot, handcuffed and led about by a rope in a street in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong Province.
Netizens expressed outrage at a "humiliating" act and urged sympathy towards sex workers, according to Mop.com, a popular online forum.
"They would not become prostitutes if they did not have to support their younger siblings to finish school back in their home village," said a commentator identified only as "388943."
"I know sex workers who donated hundreds of yuan to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. They are also human beings. Where is the respect? What about human rights?" another post said.
An official and an officer with a police office in Dongguan have been punished after pictures showing the two alleged prostitutes going on a shame public parade sparked a wide public outcry.
The official with the Sanzhong Police Office in Dongguan City's Qingxi Town was disqualified for annual reward application this year and the officer was suspended from work for one month, yesterday's Guangzhou Daily reported.
They were not named in the report.
Lu Weiqi, Dongguan police's deputy director, acknowledged the officers had strayed from normal practice. He stressed the women in the pictures were not on a parade but confirming the prostitution site during police investigation.
Elsewhere police in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, published personal details of a woman and a man alleged caught during a prostitution crackdown at a local hostel.
Four years ago, about 100 prostitutes were forced to march in public in Shenzhen, also a Guangdong city. It was broadcast on television to showcase the government's crackdown on the sex trade.
A spokesperson at the Public Security Bureau in central Henan province confirmed the ban on the practice long used by local law enforcement officials.
Although the ban is meant to apply to all suspects, the "shame parades" have most often been used in periodic government crackdowns on prostitution.
Online activists launched a campaign to halt the marches this month after two suspected prostitutes were pictured barefoot, handcuffed and led about by a rope in a street in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong Province.
Netizens expressed outrage at a "humiliating" act and urged sympathy towards sex workers, according to Mop.com, a popular online forum.
"They would not become prostitutes if they did not have to support their younger siblings to finish school back in their home village," said a commentator identified only as "388943."
"I know sex workers who donated hundreds of yuan to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. They are also human beings. Where is the respect? What about human rights?" another post said.
An official and an officer with a police office in Dongguan have been punished after pictures showing the two alleged prostitutes going on a shame public parade sparked a wide public outcry.
The official with the Sanzhong Police Office in Dongguan City's Qingxi Town was disqualified for annual reward application this year and the officer was suspended from work for one month, yesterday's Guangzhou Daily reported.
They were not named in the report.
Lu Weiqi, Dongguan police's deputy director, acknowledged the officers had strayed from normal practice. He stressed the women in the pictures were not on a parade but confirming the prostitution site during police investigation.
Elsewhere police in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, published personal details of a woman and a man alleged caught during a prostitution crackdown at a local hostel.
Four years ago, about 100 prostitutes were forced to march in public in Shenzhen, also a Guangdong city. It was broadcast on television to showcase the government's crackdown on the sex trade.
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