I’m not sure how I feel about this development. If you’ve ever been to China, you’ll know that there are always more than enough police, security guards, and military personnel around that one never feels entirely unsafe. That sense of security is, of course, in many ways illusory, although it is a cliche to say that this is because the police themselves are the more worrisome threat. Indeed, police indifference seems to be the more serious problem, as was the case one day about ten years ago when I saw a man with a massive head injury ignored as he staggered down the road in front of the public security bureau (not their job!) and subsequently honked off of the road by a police cruiser.
No doubt this move has little significance for those already intent on thumbing their noses at the powers that be. These people are only too aware of the semi-concealed power and potential violence of state security forces. But if Chinese police are to become more armed, how will this change the way they are viewed by everyday folk? In my experience and that of most under most circumstances, Chinese police are not threatening at all, though they may be profoundly annoying in certain capacities.
I do realize that this is not the experience of every foreign resident and local. I don’t have dark skin. I don’t tend to wander the streets at night in a drunken state. And I haven’t been doing anything (intentionally) illegal or (obviously) politically threatening. Still, that police don’t carry weapons makes them seem less threatening than your average officer in any given Canadian city. If you’ve noticed as I have the increasingly robust, armoured look of police uniforms (not to mention weapons array and the physique and demeanour of officers themselves) in recent decades, you’ll know what I mean. A City of Edmonton police officer for good or bad just looks and often acts like someone not to be messed with. This isn’t to say that you’re more likely to run afoul of police in Edmonton than the average Chinese city. Of course that depends largely upon a combination of who you are*, what you’re doing**, and what officer you happen to cross paths with that day***. Still, I would much rather run afoul of an officer with no gun (and maybe a notepad) than one with a pistol, taser, club, bullet proof vest, and cruiser with 400 (?) horsepower under the hood.
All of which begs the question: is Edmonton really that much more dangerous than Shijiazhuang?
___
* race, class, gender, age, homeless vs. not, etc.
** protesting, stealing, j-walking, loitering outside the public library wearing dirty clothes, collecting bottles with a stolen shopping cart, stealing investors’ money
*** for example, if you are an average Edmonton semi-homeless person riding a bottle-collecting bicycle and your are trying to use a crosswalk blocked by a right turning police cruiser, you should not make the mistake of mentioning to the wrong officer on the wrong day that he is committing a traffic violation. Said officer might turn on his lights, drive down the wrong side of the road in order to apprehend you for…something or other. Like I said, wrong officer, wrong day.
China’s Police Will Carry Guns Unlike Any Others – China Real Time Report – WSJ.
via China’s Police Will Carry Guns Unlike Any Others – China Real Time Report – WSJ.
Lorin. If you can edit at your end, the end of the last sentence of para. 2 above should read “not overbearing” instead of “generally overbearing”.
An interesting observation on the police in China. I had the same feeling when touring and never felt threatened by them. I would have felt much more anxious if there were none present. That being said, when we watched them bundle a few people off the street (down by the temple where you dropped us off that day) they certainly seemed to have random authority to just grab people.
Now, as for the implied threat of many Canadian Police officers. I have really noticed this, particularly in the past decade (I retired from the police in 1994). On my retirement most police in BC were still wearing blue uniforms and our cars were most often a shade of blue, hence the name of a police magazine “The Thin Blue Line”. The colours were soft and not at all threatening. We carried guns and batons, but the appearance was generally not overbearing.
As the AIDs epidemic became a widespread, some officers began wearing black leather gloves, even in the heat of summer, while on patrol and making a ‘routine’ stop. To me this seemed to me to be overkill and gave off the wrong message in most situations. But, police officers, like most people, tend to follow fads. Black gloves became one such fad and it stuck.
Still later, for some unknown reason, the uniforms changed to all black, then the cars went black. Add to this more gear (such as you have mentioned) and the whole image is one that even makes me feel uncomfortable. The police magazine today could easily be called “The Menacing Black Line”.
Having been in Vancouver a few times when there were large crowds and a lot of police, the officers clearly looked menacing and this is from the point of view of a veteran police officer. The strangers in the crowds did not bother me in the least. Many gave a wide berth to the police whenever possible. Sad.
Why the police followed this path of threatening colours I have no idea. Perhaps it is tied to the general threats of terrorism and fear of crime that has been fostered over the past 10-15 years. In my view, the police have have built an impressive wall between themselves and the public just by changing the way they look.
I am glad you brought this up as I have been thinking of writing a short post on the subject of how the image of police in Canada is changing.
Harold
Thanks, Harold. As a note, Edmonton City Police only recently went back to black/white cruisers, apparently for safety reasons. The interceptors in particular are very muscular in a very Robocop kind of way.
I should add that I certainly don’t begrudge the focus on officer safety; that seems a valid motivation for some of the changes made, and no one should under-estimate how difficult the job can be (I don’t need to tell you that). By the way, I had a look at the most recent BMW bike they are using now. Definitely an awesome machine.