Brazilian Beaten Up For Stopping Thieves As Chinese Stand By
“Only when everyone helps each other will thieves know that they must pay a price to commit a crime here, but the current situation is completely the opposite. With this experience, if I were to run into a similar situation next time, I won’t nor dare to help.”
—-Brazilian Mozen
“These thieves all carry knives on them, and what more there were around 10 people in the entire gang. Yesterday allowing a laowai to face these thieves alone is indeed quite embarrassing for Chinese people. If there is a similar situation next time, I will definitely call my coworkers and together act to stop it.”
—-Neighbor Li Liang
An incident where our countrymen have stood by watching while a laowai rendered aid has once again happened in China, this time in Dongguan.
Two evenings ago, on the crosswalk in front of the Dongcheng Haiya department store entrance in Dongguang, a woman had her bag thieved. A Brazilian man acted to stop it, unexpectedly being beaten up by the thief’s gang in revenge. During that time, dozens of passersby were on the scene but no one attempted to help. Witnesses say that less than 30 meters away were two on-duty public security personnel, the two of them refusing to intervene because the incident was outside of their jurisdiction.
This kind of experience has left the Brazilian man rendered assistance disillusioned and while receiving medical attention afterward said he would not help nor dare to help the next time he encounters a similar situation.
Violently beaten for stopping pickpocketing
The area near Dongcheng Haiya Department Store is known as Dongguan’s “golden shopping corridor”, with lots of foot traffic and bustling with activity.
Two evenings ago at around 7:30pm, Miss Zhu who lived behind the Haiya Department Store put on her gym clothes planning to go to the Heping Gym across the street to exercise. As she reached the middle of the crosswalk, the light turned red, so she stopped [at the center island of the road]. Suddenly, Miss Zhu heard a disturbance behind her, and when she turned around to look, three men had already come to blows behind her, with one of them being a slightly plump foreigner with slightly curly hair also wearing gym clothes.
Miss Zhu says her first reaction at the time was that this laowai is really something, even daring to come to China and pick a fight with Chinese people. However, just as she was still thinking of watching the fuss, several of the people beside her told her, “that laowai is being beaten because of you.” These pedestrians said a thief had pulled open the gym bag Miss Zhu was carrying to steal something, that a lot of people had seen but didn’t dare make a sound, and only this laowai acted to stop it, only to be attacked.
Very quickly, the outnumbered laowai being beaten ran to the first floor lobby of the Junhao Center opposite the Haiya Department Store. Heping Gym membership department employee Li Liang (pseudonym) who was at the time in front of the lobby doors marketing membership cards saw that as the laowai rushed into the lobby, three thieves chased him down, with one of the thieves carrying a stick/rod, raising it and whacking the laowai on the head, while another thief pulled off his leather belt and whipped the laowai on his back and both arms with the metal belt buckle. Yet another thief had randomly picked up a broom and pointed the head of the broom at onlooking passersby ordering the onlooking passersby to all “get lost.”
Li Liang says the entire beating probably lasted 2-3 minutes, the laowai unable to fight back at all, only able to stand there and take the blows, and after only 3-5 blows his head started bleeding, covering his eyes, with blood on his clothes and shoes. Li Liang also says there were at least over 30 people on the scene, no one daring to act to help, and only when those thieves had left did people go forward to ask if [the foreigner] needed help.
Onlookers have made the laowai disillusioned
The first person to go forward to ask if the laowai if he needed help was Xiao Tang (pseudonym), a teacher from Dongguan Songshanhu Middle School. He at the time was on his way to go eat at a nearby KFC, and just happened to run into this beating. Teacher Tang had has been robbed before, so he particularly hates thieves, wanted to go forward and help, but at this moment, he saw that no more than 30 meters in front of them happened to be two on-duty public security personnel. Teacher Tang rushed over to ask them to help, but unexpectedly the public security personnel said: “That isn’t our jurisdiction, we can’t do anything about it.” Failing to persuade them, Teacher Tang could only helplessly go back.
Teacher Tang said, “I really regret stopping to get the public security personnel rather than rushing forward immediately to help.” Afterward, Teacher Tang and Miss Zhu took the laowai whose faced was covered with blood to the nearby Donghua Hospital for medical attention.
Yesterday morning, after getting over 10 stitches on his head, this laowai who had been beaten expressed to this reporter his disappointment. He calls himself Mozen, is 27 years old this year, is from Brazil, and has been in Dongguang engaged in the shoe trade for 3 years now. Mozen says he was preparing to go work out at the time, and as he reached the crosswalk, he noticed someone beside him pointing from which he saw in front of him a thief in the act of thieving from a bag and instinctively went forward to stop this behavior.
Mozen at the time was carrying an umbrella in one hand and some assorted items in the other hand, so he used his umbrella and tapped the thief’s arm. After tapping twice, the thief finally stopped his thieving, turned around and began chasing and attacking Mozen. Mozen says he thinks the thief attacking him is very normal, but he thinks no one helping him is very abnormal. “Because this society needs people mutually helping each other. I’m always around Junhao Business Center, so essentially most people at the center all know me, yet not a single person helped me, so this makes me feel very disappointed, very disillusioned.” Mozen believes that only when everyone helps each other will thieves know that they must pay a price to commit a crime here, but the current situation is completely the opposite.
Spring Festival he had tackled a thief before, but with this experience, if he were to encounter a similar situation next time, he won’t help nor dare to help again.
