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Don’t give to amputee beggars but call police
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A CITY in southern China is cracking down on forced begging after a media report revealed that people had been kidnapped, mutilated — sometimes by amputating limbs — and sent to the city to beg.
Police, civil affairs and urban management staff in Dongguan City are probing organized crime and individuals involved in organized begging.
Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television reported on March 13 that a man from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region went missing 14 years ago in Dongguan when he was with friends. He was recognized in 2010 by his cousin as an amputee beggar in Dongguan, one of 3,000 beggars in the city, according to the report.
It said the man had been kidnapped and woke up to find one of his arms and a leg had been amputated. He had been confined to a dark room while his wounds were treated by a stranger. He was later forced to beg. Beggars like him were tightly controlled by criminal gangs, the report said. When his family rushed to Dongguan to find him, he had disappeared and was never located, it said.
The cruelty, as the report revealed, is beyond imagination.
Disabled beggars squatting on street corners in many big cities are nothing new, in fact, they are quite common. Few of us call the police when we encounter them and many, myself included, toss coins to them.
Be part of the change
I hate myself for doing this because I know that the 1 yuan (16 US cents) I give as charity never helps the beggar but probably funds the manipulators and gang masters behind them.
An editor in my newsroom once told me he met two amputee beggars along Nanjing Rd W., at two different intersections. Both of them had twisted and withered left legs that were tied to their back with ropes. They were lying on the ground and moved themselves along on skateboards.
The editor immediately called the police and waited at the scene until officers arrived. He is one of the very few among us who attempted to do something about the atrocity.
But many others turn a blind eye to disabled beggers. How could a person, lying on the ground with twisted limbs tied behind them, actually move such a long distance in crowded downtown streets? Where do they go at night? Few of us ask the question. The sight of these people is so distressing that it’s easier to toss a coin to show our kind hearts.
In some places, such as Dongguan, some police tell passersby to call the local civil affairs bureau to deal with beggars.
Veteran beggar Wang Xiuyong, who spent dozens of years in Dongguan, told Southern Metropolis Daily that the ring leaders reached deals with some policemen: If they didn’t make trouble, the police would not interfere with their begging business. He also said that some abandoned children, street children, were mutilated and forced to beg.
I’d say Oliver Twist was fortunate but there are too many Fagins nowadays who are unpunished.
Starting today, I won’t toss a coin, but immediately call police when I meet an amputee beggar on the street.
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