On July 31, a Chinese netizen commented on the story of a police man who died of heat stroke last week while he was on duty.
“You should be fined for not resting while working in the heat. You deserve to die,” the comment by netizen ‘Zhizun bao’ @至尊宝 said.
The person has since been tracked down by Chinese authorities and has been arrested for “violating the administration of public security.”
The netizen is a 39-year-old man from Taizhou, which also happens to be the hometown of the deceased officer. The Jiangsu police state that the Weibo user was already on record for making ‘subversive’ comments on social media in the past. He will be detained for 9 days for his comments about the policeman.
The officer, who was named Qian Hua (钱华), was part of a SWAT team that was serving on patrol on July 28. Due to very high temperatures, he suddenly fell ill. The 50-year-old died on the scene.
The topic “Netizen detained for insulting civil police” #网民辱骂殉职民警被拘 became a trending topic on Weibo on August 3, initiated by Beijing News. Initially, news of the detainment was released through Weibo by the Jiangsu police.
Many netizens showed their support for the punishment. “Serves him right!”, a typical comment read.
“I don’t sympathize with these kinds of people, he should be taught a lesson,” others said.
When someone raised the matter of freedom of speech, another person wrote: “Freedom of speech does not mean you can just talk all the trash you like.”
But there are also commenters who express their worries: “If it was not a police officer he insulted [but someone else], then what would the consequence be?”
“So what if someone uttered two sentences. This is overly sensitive, people say things all the time, you can’t detain them every time,” another commenter said.
“We should all watch what we say here, or you’ll be turned in,” another person wrote.
By Manya Koetse
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