Comments on: Why would so many people support a police killer?

By: Cop Killer Yang Jia Lives On In Beijing Graffiti | chinaSMACK

Cop Killer Yang Jia Lives On In Beijing Graffiti | chinaSMACK — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:28:53 +0000

[…] Yang Jia was from Beijing. He became famous after he attacked a Shanghai police station and killed many police officers. There were many rumors why he did this and many Chinese people felt sympathetic to his crime. His trial was very controversial and many people think it was unfair. […]

By: exedrake

exedrake — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:22:32 +0000

He should have killed the rest of them. The past has shown us you can not trust the police. The police officers in today’s world get off on verbal and phyical abuse towards others.

By: Hemulen

Hemulen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:03:20 +0000

I think ABDE has a point on people wanting support the weaker part. But I would like draw the attention to the fact that there is a not-so-subtle double standard at work here. We do hear about Uighurs storming into police station and killing policemen every now ans then, but we do not see the same efforts to try to understand the viewpoint of the perpetrators here. Somehow there seem to be no need to explain Uighur violence.

By: abde

abde — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:36:04 +0000

They supported the police killer on the internet, mostly because he is like them, the underprivileged class. The internet opinion can only be described as class conflict. It’s not like they are particularly anti-government or pro-democracy. Mostly it’s the result of being anti-anyone-doing-better-than-them. The accusation of the police of being corrupt and unfair is only tagged on after they recognize that in this case the police is the strong party and Yang Jia is the weak party. With any news they read, they will immediately side with the “weaker side”, no matter what actually happens. That’s why in the Harbin police incident, there are people who supported the police. It’s not because the police were right or more sympathetic. That’s mostly because the died guy was rich and well connected or said to be such. Had there not been that rumor, then even if the student killed a police officer, there would still be no one on the police side.

Once I remember reading a story on netease about somebody getting killed and robbed of 2 million something yuan in their car. The comment is unsurprisingly unsympathetic. Mostly like, “They are too rich. They most have done something bad. They deserved it.”

By: peter

peter — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:06:05 +0000

L’aveuglement des dirigeants chinois dans cette affaire alors que l’injustice est flagrante ne me lasse pas de m’étonner et révolter.
Great work.

By: W.D.Box

W.D.Box — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:46:45 +0000

WGJ, the title question is purposely ambiguous. Did you actually read the entire post? I come away with a different view altogether. The question is “Why would so many people support a police killer?” And, I believe the answer is because the people do not trust the police based on its history of violence, corruption and cover ups. The article is more about the inept justice system and bad police work than labelling… my two cents only

By: wgj

wgj — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:28:39 +0000

I think the title question of this post is problematic — if not plainly wrong. It reduced the Wen Jia to a “police killer” and suggest that anyone who supports him supports his alleged killing of policemen — a suggestion that is highly debatable (and indeed being hotly debated for quite a while now) and not at all sufficiently argued in the body of the post.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:08:59 +0000

It’s just infuriating how the state treats its citizens and its own laws. This sort of injustice is however common in China. No wonder the people hate the govt.

By: W.D.Box

W.D.Box — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:08:57 +0000

Excellent work, kudos.