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Q: child abuse in public
I just saw something shocking and I feel like crap for not doing anything, but my question is what should i have done?
I was just on the subway, and the doors hadn't long closed before I hear shouting from the guy in front of me stood next to the door with his son. I think he started by hitting his son (with a fist) on the kids arm but i didn't really see. When I turned to look he kicked his son on the back of the legs/arse quite hard. I'm not very good at guessing ages but his son was still a kid, maybe came up to my chest in terms of height, so maybe 10 ish, maybe younger.
Anyway I was just in shock. I couldn't believe he did that on the subway. I was like "WTF" to my gf and she said pretty loudly that she would call the cops if he did it again. No one else said or did anything. The car was full of people and no one said anything apart from an old man who got told to shut up from his wife.
After maybe 3-4 mins the guy started again and hit the kid with the back of his hand again on the kids arm. Again no one said anything. I literally had no idea what to do.
One women i think was filming it on her phone which does fuck all. I asked my gf and she says theres no laws against it. Even if it got bad and the police got involved I'm pretty sure he would just get a warning.
What should I have done? Got into a fight with his dad? Cos that's what would have happened. If a Chinese person had said something it would have escalated into a full on argument, but as a foreigner I'm pretty sure it would have ended up in a fight. Now I don't care about getting into a fight; the guy was short and fat so i could have definitely taken him, but would good would it have done. The police would get involved, and obviously its the foreigner whos wrong, plus the guy would have just taken it out on his son at home.
Im really down now. If that had have happened in England I would have kicked this shit out of his dad, but as a foreigner in China what should I do in a public place where none of the locals say or do anything? Even if I just said to the guy "dont do that" it would have kicked off cos I'm the nosy dirty foreigner.
I seen similar. People stood around gawking. Cop looked over at me, weiguoren, and grinned. Chinese people don't give a fk about people.
Watch the ebikes speed on the sidewalks at nite with no lights. no one cares if they smash a little girl into blood and bones. not sure why it is that way, but that is the way it is.
I've seen that sort of thing before but it wasn't in a subway and it wasn't a dad that beat the kid. I think I already mentioned before but the worst beating I've seen was early in the morning around 8 o'clock or earlier a kid and I believe her mom or aunt was dragging him in the dirt, ripping the clothes off his back and smacking him on the back hard while striking him in the arse with a broom stick. I heard nothing but laughs and giggles and the boy screaming. I'm not sure what that kid did but it was serious enough where the mom or aunt enjoyed beating him in public and laughing about it.
Problem is, you beat the tar out of "daddy" and when he gets home, he will REALLY make his kid pay, only this time, you wont be there to protect him.
so basically theres nothing i could have done that would have been the right thing to do?
GuilinRaf:
For the life of me, I cannot think of anything. Cops would do nothing and the kid would suffer even more getting home. I do hope that someone much smarter than me can come up with something....
best thing stay out of it, especially now. this is china. it would be seen as "foreigner attacking chinese"
mattaya:
Yes we know we know you're chinese....so your saying that a foreigner like me should do nothing?
crimochina:
hahahahahahahaha OMG a chinese guy with a great sense of humor. (at least this time)
This sucks. I will have a real issue when I see it happen while I'm there.
Here at home, I do open my mouth. I do call the cops. I do something, whatever I can. I even followed some woman in my car while talking to the police until they stopped her.
I've been thinking of what I would do in China, how I would handle it. I keep coming back to the face thing. I do understand I'm in a different world, and that anything I would do could potentially land me in jail. Again, at home... no big deal. In China, I'd be willing IF I truly believed it would do some enlightening.
But... especially if you know Chinese, you could say something loud enough for everyone to hear it: What kind of man is so weak he has to hit/slap/beat/abuse a child?
Pick on someone your own size. Something they would lose face over. If you could do it... sly-like, bonus.
crimochina:
gz you will see it often. i never saw it anywhere else. luckily.
ambivalentmace:
you tell the man in chinese that he is as good at beating kids as japenese are at raping chinese girls, this usually gets their attention.
It seems like there just isn't ever a right thing to do in these cases.
Whip out your phone, yell and make noise draw their attention.
