Lesson 33

ment.
    The Wenjia Street neighbourhood residents' committee runs a public security committee together with committees on mediation, publie health, and women's affairs.

    " They all look inconspicuous, yet their functions are great," cammented a public order official from the Ministry of Public Security.
    The official's comment is understandable. since the neighbourhood committees have proved to be an effective approach to maintaining public order and ensuring public safety at a time when professional police are in short supply.
    In the Wenjia public security committee, for instance, in addition to six directors, there are 138 residents who act as amateur police for the neighbourhood.

    Except the six directors, who receive 45 yuan monthly from he government, the neighbours work voluntarily. They form a small but sensitive security network in their community.
    Among the 138, 54 are retired workers or older housewives, whose job is to take turns guarding the 42 courtyards of houses in the community.

    According to Ran Yuzhen, the committee director, the whole community has been divided into 35 groups, with 62 people appointed to be group leaders.
    " Every community member is involved in the security work," said Ran.
    Safety is maintained in a number of ways.
    First, patrols by professional police.

    Second, daily inspection tours around the community by six committee directors.
    The directors keep a log of their observations while inspecting the neighbourhood.
    Third, guarding of courtyards and houses by the retirees and housewives.
    Fourth, installation of burglar-proof locks.
    "Safety is possible with the participation o# every member in the community involved in the security work," said Ran.

                           Additional Information

    Lu Xiuli was not boasting when he said he was a top-notch policeman. "1 catch thieves. I know their tricks and always make a big haul. "
    Lu. 42, works with the Criminal Investigation Department of the Municipal
Public Security Bureau of Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He heads a special task force to catch thieves and pickpockets on crowded buses and other public places.

    "The thieves are very much afraid of me," he said. "Whenever they recognize
me, they run off as a rat fears a cat. "
    With his long experience, Lu can recall from memory the names and nicknames of more than 1,000 thieves or pickpockets in the city. He can list their physical characteristics and knows their haunts and tricks of the trade. He always carries a small notebook with information about major suspects. This has helped him spot them when they are on the prowl.

    Typical pickpockets are unemployed urban youth aged between 18 and 25, Lu said. They have grown up and are quite independent of their parents. But they do not yet have their own families. And they do not care much about the consequences of their activities.
    Their targets are usually tourists or travelling traders from outside the city, not only because these people often carry a lot of money but also they are only transients who know little about local conditions. Thieves usually avoid locals for fear that they may come across them some other day and, even if they were not caught in the act, they may be recognized sooner or later.

    "I have learned to spot pickpockets on a crowded bus by the distinctive ways they move," Lu said. Many pickpockets on a bus choose their targets when passengers expose the location of their wallet as they take out money to pay the fare. The pickpocket edges towards his victim asking, people to make way as if he wanted to get off the bus. But he stops next to the target and raising one hand to grip the overhead bar, slips the other into the person's pocket and deftly removes the money using only index and middle fingers.

    Pickpockets are usually not dangerous criminals, but sometimes Lu has to fight them face to face in a life and death struggle. Because he has shown no mercy in dealing with thieves, many of them are waiting for a chance to take their revenge. Some even threatened him. "Don't be too harsh on us or sooner or later we will settle with you," warned one.

    But Lu is not to be intimidated. "I'm a people's policeman and will never recoil in fear before enemies," he said. "To protect t

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