Liu Shinan

Put guard not customer in danger

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-25 06:57

After I wrote a column last week commenting on the killing of a bank customer by a security guard in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, some readers wondered what happened after the shooting.

The police detained Zhu Honglin, the guard, and have been investigating the case. An official finding is yet to be announced. What another guard involved in the event said, however, is indicative of the root cause of the incident.

Interviewed by CCTV last Thursday, Zhao Daxiang, one of the guards, said Ji Cheng, the customer, and his friend behaved in an "extremely dangerous manner" as his fellow guards were escorting a huge sum of cash through the bank lobby to the armored car waiting outside.

He cited moves by Ji and his friend as "most suspicious" - Ji "suddenly moved just as our men appeared (from inside the office) with the money"; and Ji "put his hand in his jacket".

When the CCTV reporter said the moves could well be interpreted as normal actions, Zhao answered: "That's because you are not in my profession. If you were, you would also act (as we did)."

He said a bank robber would try to appear harmless until the last minute. "We can only rely on our own judgment ... we can only assume a more serious action ... (otherwise) we could be killed in a few seconds."

Zhao's words revealed the principle he and his fellow escorts would follow in responding to a possible emergency: Assume the most serious consequence when in doubt and act before the suspect makes a move.

This is the key to the problem.

When a security guard is faced with a person whose behavior appears suspicious, how should he judge the action? There are two possibilities: The person is up to something dangerous or is unintentionally acting in a questionable manner. Zhao and his colleagues prefer the first assumption.

Then there arises the question of what the guards should do. If they wait for the suspect to move first for instance, take out a gun, they run the risk of being shot. If they act first, they run the risk of killing an innocent person.

It seems, according to what Zhao said, Zhao and his colleagues would choose the second alternative (in fact, his fellow guard Zhu did so). "If Ji really took out a gun from his jacket, then it would have been me or Zhu Honglin that was shot to death," Zhao said.

This may be understandable for it is human to cherish one's own life, but is disgustingly unethical.

They should absolutely choose to risk their own lives since they have chosen to be security guards.

I have no access to the conduct codes of the profession of security guards, hence no comment on these codes. But if it is as Zhao said, I would say, "Let the profession go to hell."

In the April 7 event, Zhao did try to stop Ji but apparently acted in a wrong manner. He told CCTV that he said to Ji: "Stop moving. You bet I wouldn't dare shoot you?"

Those provocative words obviously infuriated Ji, who continued walking and was killed by Zhu. If Zhao had shown some respect to the bank customers and used friendlier words to dissuade them from moving, the tragedy could have been avoided.

What caused Zhao and his colleagues to be so arrogant? Let's hear what he said to Ji: "Don't move! We are carrying out gongwu." "Carrying out gongwu" is a term used only by law enforcement personnel with gongwu meaning a government mission.

Zhao and his colleagues obviously regard themselves as government officials though they are only employees of a commercial company - the Shenyang Finance Escorting Center.

It was reported that the company is connected to the Shenyang police.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/25/2007 page10)