Chinese police arrest, Marx brothers style

The following video of an action-packed arrest by Chinese policemen seems pulled straight out of a Marx Brothers movie.

The scene was shot in front of a health centre in the city of Hechi, in the south-western Chinese province of Guangxi. The video, posted on Chinese video portal Youku in April 2009, has been viewed over 3,5 million times.

Contacted by FRANCE 24, the Guanxi police declined to give further information on the suspect’s identity and the reasons behind his arrest.

Post written with Ségolène Malterre.

“Regular cops aren’t used to handling firearms and can be very clumsy with them”

Li Moral is a media planner in Beijing. This is his take on the video.

From the comments you hear at the start of the video, you gather that the person who shot it was about to get out of a taxi when the scene occurred. She got back in the car and began filming the scene on her cell phone.

The six men in uniform brandishing long sticks are “xiejing” (police assistants). They are part of the police force, but aren’t authorised to bear guns. In this video, only the officer in blue is authorised to use his weapon.

The policemen are trying to encircle a suspect who is brandishing a glass bottle. At one point one of the xiejing hits him with his stick, prompting the suspect to rush at the armed police officer in a fit of rage. The policeman completely looses his nerve and shoots at the suspect five times at close range – but misses him every time! The scene is so muddled it’s impossible to tell whether he missed him deliberately or by accident.

By law, policemen in China are only allowed to make use of their firearms in 15 specific cases including when they are under direct attack, which is the case here. As a result, most regular cops hardly ever use their weapons, and when they do they are very clumsy. It’s a bit of a running joke in China, actually.”