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Fat cop, good cop? This is the scenario: you're a young woman bank teller in Harbin when a huge man enters in a brazen daylight robbery attempt and, in a rage, shoots your security guards dead.
This fellow is serious. He's made demands for a car and driver to take him to the airport. It's his only hope of making a get-away. Police negotiate by phone. Hours pass. Finally, the car is arranged. He knows he needs a guarantee, and he's decided to grab a hostage to join him. Sadly, Miss Teller, he's chosen you. The car and driver are waiting right at the bank's entrance. Terrified as you are, you've got no choice but to co-operate. You're in the madman's clutches as he pushes you out the large glass doors. Police who've got the place surrounded can't do anything to help you because the robber's got a gun at your head. Or can they? Just as you are about to get in the passenger's side door with the gunman right behind you, a massive man drops from nowhere, pouncing on the gunman before he can react. It's a police officer who had been on the roof of the bank's entrance. He's as big as the gunman, and he fights the man before wrestling his gun away from him. Then, other officers - husky, substantial men of girth - tackle the enraged robber/murderer/kidnapper and place him in restraints. It's a happy ending. You're saved. What's wrong with this story? Well, for one thing, such police officers of substance soon won't exist in Harbin. Seems the city fathers in the Northeast China town have decided any officers who don't fit their puny physical profile won't be deemed "healthy" and will soon lose their jobs. In other words, just a week or so after China received a visit by some of the world's greatest athletes - sumo giants from Japan - Harbin officials have decided that their police officers must fit an artificial physical profile to be law enforcement personnel. They want thin fellows, regardless of their other qualifications, to "look good" in uniform. So a former sumo giant, who had chosen to thin down 80 or so kilos, probably couldn't get a job in Harbin. He'd be told he's too fat and to go back to Japan. Even the average NBA player couldn't get a job in Harbin as a cop. The Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported this week that patrol police branch officers in the Harbin Public Security Bureau have a new rule that takes effect at year's end. It states police "men" with waistlines of more than 0.9 of a metre will be fired. The purpose is to encourage officers to do more physical exercise, according to officials, in order to be more qualified to perform their duties. This is a silly arbitrary standard that doesn't take into account genetics or the body types of individuals. For instance, a person from an Inner Mongolian family with ancestors from Mongolia may not be the same shape as a person Shenzhen with ancestors from Thailand. The idea of being physically fit is fine. Just do it the right way. Have the officers perform a fitness test. There are plenty of well-thought out standard tests to choose from. Just don't hold a beauty pageant for police officers, who, in general, aren't a good-looking lot. When you need a cop you're generally in a crisis, and you don't care whether he's fat or thin. You just need a cop to help you. And this rule is just not fair to the police officers of Harbin who've devoted their entire working lives to the care, welfare and safety of the people of the city. |
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