Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This viral video seen over 13 million times in two days shows a Chinese policeman punishing two teenagers by ordering them to repeatedly jump back and forth across a pedestrian crowd barrier.
Traffic officer Xu Yong said the two men, who were both around 20 years old, leapt over the pavement barrier in a bid to unlawfully cross a road at a section not marked by a pedestrian crossing – a punishable crime in China.
They were spotted by patrolling officers at a junction in the city of Luohe in Central China’s Henan Province on 16th November.
But the two young men reportedly did not admit to the unlawful-crossing offence, saying they jumped over the barrier as a form of exercise because they were “cold”.
Officer Xu, therefore, decided to punish them by making each of them jump back and forth across the barrier 20 times, with footage filmed by amused passers-by having since gone viral online.
Officer Xu said: “We generally choose not to issue fines for similar offences if we can help it.
“In this case, they did not recognise that their stunt endangered traffic safety as well as their own personal safety.
“They claimed ignorance and said they jumped over the barrier as a form of exercise because it was cold.
“I decided to punish them this way in order for them to have a better understanding of our traffic laws.
“They recognised that what they did was wrong and promised to be law-abiding citizens.”
The incident took place amid city-wide safety campaign aimed at stamping out nine forms of ‘uncivilised traffic behaviour’ between on 25th October and 31st December.
The nines types of punishable offences include: running red lights, wrong-way driving, unlawful use of non-motorised vehicle lanes, failure to give way to pedestrians on zebra crossings, failure to use zebra crossings or jumping over pedestrian barriers, unlawful pedestrian use of motorised vehicle lanes, unlawful parking, use of unlicensed taxis, and littering on roads.
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