China police urged to shoot arm-hacking bag-snatchers

BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese official has urged police in
a booming southern city to shoot motorcycle-riding purse
snatchers before they chop off the hands of victims who resist,
a Hong Kong newspaper said on Thursday.

Three Chinese police officers were awarded 10,000 yuan
($1,250) each after they shot dead a robbery suspect and caught
two others, Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers said.

The killing drew praise from Zhang Guifang, deputy party
chief of southern Guangzhou in charge of public security, who
advocated lethal force to combat the city’s high crime rate.

“Facing hand-chopping gangs, officers should dare to
shoot,” Zhang was quoted as saying in Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Pao
newspaper, referring to knife-wielding bag-snatchers.

“Otherwise, it will be a tragedy for both civilians and
police,” he said.

Crime has soared along with the economic boom of Guangdong,
which borders Hong Kong, in the past two decades, with
motorcycle-riding bag-snatchers bent on making speedy getaways
often hacking off the hands or arms of victims who hang on to
their purses and bags.

The barbarity of the attacks when attempting to steal
anything from cell phones to earrings to purses has caused
public outrage and fear across the province, media said
earlier.

To ease the “grave situation,” the province’s high court,
prosecutor’s office and police bureau issued guidelines in
February authorizing violent purse-grabbers to face stiff armed
robbery charges, as opposed to the lighter sentences for
ordinary theft.