Team set up to probe cop-prostitute nexus
By Xu Chi |
August 24, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
An investigation team has been established by the Xi'an City Public Security Bureau in northwest China's Shaanxi Province to look into a case where policemen are accused of working with prostitutes to catch and fine their clients, the bureau announced yesterday.
The team was set up after a program by the Shaanxi Broadcast and Television Station stirred public anger. The program showed how policemen caught "Johns" and took them to a nearby police station from a shady massage parlor and then sent back the prostitutes to the parlor.
According to the TV program broadcast on Tuesday, a migrant worker surnamed Zhang told reporters that a masseuse of the massage parlor offered her services for a low price late one night.
But as they walked out of the parlor for their rendezvous, a plainclothes policeman caught him and fined him 3,000 yuan for engaging in illegal sexual activities, Zhang revealed.
"I felt like I was being scammed. I was just walking with that young woman on the street and we hadn't started anything yet, so how come the police knew that she was a prostitute and I was buying sex from her?" Zhang asked.
He said he was asked to pay the money and leave the station, but didn't receive any receipt for the fine. He paid another visit to the parlor some days later and, to his surprise, found that it was still open. The police had not taken any action.
Reporters of the TV station hid near the massage parlor for several days and a young woman working there told one of the undercover reporters that they offered all kinds of sexual services.
In the program, an unlicensed van carrying two policemen, one dressed in uniform and the other in plainclothes, would visit the parlor late at night. The two cops would catch a prostitute and her client, take them to the vehicle which then headed to a nearby police station.
But strangely, after the van took a young woman and her client away at about 10pm on August 10, the woman was sent back to the massage parlor just 15 minutes later. With the van parked near the police station, a man was recorded handing a wad of cash to another man in a police uniform.
The program was broadcast over 1 million times online with angry netizens asking: "Are cops working with prostitutes to make money from the Johns?"
In response, Zhao Xiaoqi, vice director of the Xi'an City Public Security Bureau, told media that an investigation team has been set up to look into the case.
"We have asked all police stations to identify the policemen caught in the program and to punish them."
The team was set up after a program by the Shaanxi Broadcast and Television Station stirred public anger. The program showed how policemen caught "Johns" and took them to a nearby police station from a shady massage parlor and then sent back the prostitutes to the parlor.
According to the TV program broadcast on Tuesday, a migrant worker surnamed Zhang told reporters that a masseuse of the massage parlor offered her services for a low price late one night.
But as they walked out of the parlor for their rendezvous, a plainclothes policeman caught him and fined him 3,000 yuan for engaging in illegal sexual activities, Zhang revealed.
"I felt like I was being scammed. I was just walking with that young woman on the street and we hadn't started anything yet, so how come the police knew that she was a prostitute and I was buying sex from her?" Zhang asked.
He said he was asked to pay the money and leave the station, but didn't receive any receipt for the fine. He paid another visit to the parlor some days later and, to his surprise, found that it was still open. The police had not taken any action.
Reporters of the TV station hid near the massage parlor for several days and a young woman working there told one of the undercover reporters that they offered all kinds of sexual services.
In the program, an unlicensed van carrying two policemen, one dressed in uniform and the other in plainclothes, would visit the parlor late at night. The two cops would catch a prostitute and her client, take them to the vehicle which then headed to a nearby police station.
But strangely, after the van took a young woman and her client away at about 10pm on August 10, the woman was sent back to the massage parlor just 15 minutes later. With the van parked near the police station, a man was recorded handing a wad of cash to another man in a police uniform.
The program was broadcast over 1 million times online with angry netizens asking: "Are cops working with prostitutes to make money from the Johns?"
In response, Zhao Xiaoqi, vice director of the Xi'an City Public Security Bureau, told media that an investigation team has been set up to look into the case.
"We have asked all police stations to identify the policemen caught in the program and to punish them."
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