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Police officer sacked for kneel-down lynch law

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-20 19:59

TAIYUAN: A senior police officer in north China's Shanxi Province has been dismissed for intimidating six young men who injured his son in a brawl, police and disciplinary sources said Thursday.

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Wang Jiansheng, deputy director of the Linyi county public security bureau, was also put on probation for a year within the Communist Party of China (CPC), said a spokesman from the public security bureau in Yuncheng City, which administers Linyi.

Wang's act had damaged the police reputation and undermined the Party's authority among the public, the CPC disciplinary commission in Linyi concluded after an investigation.

The officer had been told by the county public security bureau to withdraw from handling the brawl case late last month. The bureau suggested mediation or detention of five to seven days with a fine for the seven men if mediation failed.

However, Wang invited the young men to one-on-one fights with his son. He threatened to use his police powers to harrass them unless they agreed to fight or kowtow to his son.

Under the coercion, six of the men, accompanied by their parents, knelt before Wang and his son to "apologize."

Being forced to kneel is considered as a serious humiliation in China.