Police should have upheld the law rather than words of local officials

A MAN WHO VISITED A HOSPITAL in Shexian county, North China's Hebei province, two months ago, was so disappointed with the food in the hospital canteen that he poured out his disappointment in an online post. Because of that, he was detained on Wednesday by the county police on the grounds he had disturbed public order. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

After the case was exposed on the internet, the police in Handan, under whose jurisdiction the county falls, conducted an investigation and announced that there were no legal grounds for the decision of the county police.

The head of the county police station concerned has been suspended and the officers who handled the case have been removed from their posts. The county police have also been ordered to extend a formal apology to the man.

Yet the conclusion of the investigation by the Handan police that the man's detention was improper still fails to answer the question of why the man was detained for his comments more than two months after he aired his discontent with the hospital food.

It turns out the authorities of Shexian county held a meeting on their 100-day action plan to boost the county's economic growth on Saturday, three days before the man's detention.

The 100-day action plan requires the police to "make an all-out effort over the next 100 days to make the county more harmonious and safer".

No wonder the notification of the man's detention issued by the county police quotes the 100-day action plan's requirement word for word, as well as the county economic meeting's call for "quick action", before boasting that it had detained the man for disturbing public order.

Thus it is not difficult to perceive that the county police pursued the case simply to show they were fulfilling their duty as required by the action plan.

That the grassroots public security department is always at the local officials' beck and call, irrespective of the law and facts, is worrisome because, if unchecked, more similar cases will be concocted.