As with many individuals who work in local government positions, the officers one meets on these bus routes are not reticent to speak of their role, providing someone takes an interest and actually asks them about their work. Indeed, as in this instance, they’re eager to inform, and they do so with politeness and professionalism.
The police officers are working in pairs: one
in front of the bus where residents board; the other is sitting in the back
seat. The one in the front is meant to deter people who might have a nefarious purpose
from getting on the bus in the first place. Their partner in the rear of the
bus keeps their eyes on passengers who might cause trouble once they do
board—for example, an argument that gets out of hand, pickpockets, and the like,
or someone who manages to board with, say, hazardous materials that aren’t
immediately apparent to the officer at the front of the bus. The officers
aren’t present to maintain order or civility per se, but to protect passengers
against possible threats.
The officers
are armed—which is to say, they say that they are 配备—“equipped”
or “deployed” with the means to handle problems. At the same time, they do not
seem to be carrying guns (武装的), though they
do have holsters, which appear to be holding mace and some sort of stun device
or a short truncheon. The demeanor of these officers is by no means threatening
or intimidating: They seek to convey their seriousness simply by their presence on the bus.
And they’re
not on every bus route, by any means. Thus far, police officers appear to be
riding only on some of the longer routes—ones that go across the city and start
from the far end, making many stops at subway stations that feed in from
Nanjing’s outskirts. One officer allowed that there was concern with “people
coming in from the countryside who have a gripe with the government” and might
wish to cause harm. There’s also a safety issue, he noted, with farmers or
laborers carrying gasoline, kerosene, or other materials that they plan to use
privately but which could cause a danger to bus riders or residents along the
same route. By placing officers on such buses, Nanjing city authorities clearly
hope to preclude such problems.
As with
everything local in China, there are larger issues about this situation that
deserve reflection.
For one,
there hasn’t been a public announcement of this new policy. But it appears to
be the result, one officer related, of incidents earlier this year in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chongqing,
when explosions occurred on public buses. Those events occurred some months
ago, however (March and April). So the decision to put officers on some bus
routes in Nanjing may be a grudging response to a central directive from
Beijing to do something--another example of the glacial nature of local
policymaking in China when Beijing itself tends to be sluggish in making
decisions. Nanjing officials might not be opposed to what Beijing wants, but
they’d like to have a clear sense of what precisely that is before acting.
It’s also
possible that officials here have information about discontent outside Nanjing
that’s become worrisome. With Beijing more focused on protecting the political
leadership from possible terrorism there, it’s been largely left to local
governments to deal with indigenous disgruntlement—an approach that some
officials in Nanjing prefer anyway, because they know their backyards better
and the sorts of threats they face aren’t usually large-scale anyway. The fact
that it’s only a few bus routes where police officers are riding—and evidently always
in uniform—hints that there may well be concern with something specific to this
area.
At the same time, according to Nanjing local news, there’s at least another reason for bus riders to be alert this summer: Women wear less clothes, and therefore (the story claims with dubious logic) there are increasing incidences of groping and other forms of inappropriate behavior by male riders on public transport.
Some
problems, it appears, aren’t local at all.
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