Saturday, May 31, 2014

Woman Beaten to Death in McDonalds in Shangdong

A female customer was beaten to death in a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan, Shangdong Province.

According to witnesses's account, a group of family members of friends started asking cell phone numbers from customers in a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Zhaoyuan city on May 28, 2014. When a woman refused to give them her cell phone number, the group was annoyed. The group of six men, women, and youth started beating the woman was a stool in the restaurant, then with an iron bar (until it broke). Although the woman was heard begging for her life, and willing to give her cell phone number, she was beaten to death after her head was smashed to pieces.

Many witnesses called the police, but they did not arrive until the woman was killed. The police did not stop the group beating the dead body, even after they arrived at the scene. The incident was covered up by the local police and the traditional media until someone uploaded a cell phone video to the Internet.

The video went viral instantly. Chinese netizens criticized the police's handling of this incident because:

  1. The tragedy took place in the most popular Jinbai Plaza in the city, and the nearest police squad is only 400 yards away. How come it took so long for police to respond?
  2. Why the group were able to ignore the police after they arrived at the scene and kept beating the obvious motionless body?
  3. In a police report which was released after the video had gone viral, the police stated it was a result of an oral altercation between customers of the restaurant, despite the video cleared showed that was not the case.
  4. The official report said the victim died in the hospital, while the video cleared showed that was not the case.
  5. The official described the incident as a brawl, while the video cleared showed that was not the case.
  6. The police refused to release the identities of the group.

Witnesses said the group was driving a Porsche Cayenne. The victim was said to be a 37 years old mother of a seven year old boy, who just got off her work shift in the plaza and was waiting to go home with her husband.

Many speculated the background of the group of six. However, more likely they are just some uncharacteristic 'common' wealthy people with some connections to the local government. Because it has grown to a national incident, the Party will not allow any questioning to its authority, not even under such extreme situation. The Party will see any reaction to people's demand a reflection of its weakness. Any demand of justice is seen as a challenge to the Party's ruling. Therefore, the Party will unfortunately see it the only way to survive is to side with the murderers.

And that's how things have been going in China.

It's a real terror, as a girl could be killed when eating a fast meal after work at the McDonald's in a busy city plaza a few hundred yards away from a police squad, just for not giving her cell phone number to a group of strangers.

In the mean time, the Central Propaganda Ministry has already identified two perfect targets: the McDonald's and the underground Churches. Millions of net police had been mobilized to post on the Internet claiming the girl's death was McDonald's fault. More are instructed to label the gang of six murders as preachers of underground churches who were collecting telephone numbers to spread the gospel.

As the Chinese social networks websites started blocking this incident, some Chinese netizens looked outside and asked President Obama to intervene by filing petition at the White House 'We the People' site.

No comments: