The Most Awesome Security Guard in Chongqing

(Tianya)  重庆史上最牛的保安（图集）  August 30, 2007

(Southern Metropolis Daily)  September 7, 2007.

A Tianya netizen (心碎快乐) pushed a post in which he claimed that on August 30, a freelance porter was resting next to a display window near the Guanyin pedesitrian overpass at Jiangbei district when a security guard objected to his presence because it affected the look of the place in a negative manner.  The two had a verbal dispute which escalated into a beating.  In the photographs taken, the tall and strong security guard kicked and beat the puny and weak porter.  Even after the porter was thrown to the ground, he was kicked a few times.

So netizens got outraged and began propagating these photographs all over the Internet.

According to some netizens, the local newspapers had reported this incident.  The security guard named Li hails from Jilin province and used to be in the military.  He has been a security guard for over a year at the "Future International" building.  The porter named Wu is 43-year-old and comes from Liangping county.  He has been a porter in Chongqing for more than 5 years.  After the incident, the local police station chief apologied to Wu personally and gave him 200 yuan in compensation.  This is so far unconfirmed.

Chongqing is very hot in the summer.  On the day before this incident, there was an orange alert when the temperature reached 37.3 degrees, tops in all the major cities of China.  The amount of electricity used was also a historical high on that day.  Therefore, the porters tend to choose the entrances to the air-conditioned malls to cool down.  But since August this year, the various malls and banks around the Liberation Tablet have turned away the porters.

Previously, a certain Chongqing media outlet had done an experiment.  When the reporter stood in front of the mall entrance and take in the cool air, nobody bothered him.  When he dressed up a porter, he would be chased away.  More than 80% of the local netizens opposed the "discrimination" practiced at the malls.

(Southern Metropolis Daily)  The inside story of the most awesome security guard in history.  By Tan Renwei (谭人玮).  September 11, 2007.

Since we reported on the security guard assaulting the porter in Chongqina last week, some netizens have challenged the authenticity of the photographs.  Our reporter has now contacted informed sources and have explanations for many of the doubts.

Doubt: The photographs do not appear to be taken by an ordinary netizen
Answer: They were not taken by an ordinary netizen.

The camera is a Canon EOS-1D professional digital camera, which is not what an ordinary netizen would own.  The photographer was actually a photojournalist with a local newspaper.

Our reporter consulted the pdf version of the newspaper on September 1, and saw the relevant record.  The reporter noted that the photographer was "a reporter with our newspaper."  An eyewitness also confirmed that the photographer was a journalist.

Doubt: How could the entire process be photographed?
Answer: The first photograph in the sequence was actually staged later on.

According to the eyewitness, the photojournalist only paid attention after the physical clash.  He filmed for one or two minutes until the security guard noticed him and then stopped.  At that instant, a police patrol came by and put a stop to the action (note: the blue-and-red light of the police car is reflected on the shop window).  That was the reason why the journalist did not go up to stop the beating.  The first photograph was simulated afterwards, and it was not as if the photojournalist was prescient.

Our reporter checked the EXIF data and saw that they were consistent with the description by the informed source.  The physical tussle were filmed bewteen 13:48 and 13:49.  The photograph of the porter resting on the ledge was taken at 14:22.  The photograph of the close-up of the swollen and reddish eye was taken at 14:24.

The news report at the local Chongqing newspaper did not appear on the Internet except for the pdf version.  According to that report, at around noon on August 30, at a certain photography studio at the pedestrian mall near Guanyin Bridge in Jiangbei, a security guard and a porter tussled with each other.  The reporter observed the action at the scene.  The incident took place at the entrance to the parking garage of the Future Internetional Building.  According to an eyewitness, the security guard and the porter grappled with each other.  According to a female worker next to the photography studio, "the porter was very pitiful.  He was screaming for help from the beating by the security guard."

At some time past 5pm, that newspaper's reporter went to see the security guard involved in the incident.  According to the security guard, his name is Li and he works at the Future International Building.  He said that he observed the porter yanking up his shirt and bare his top while leaning on the display window of the photography studio.  So Li went over and asked him to leave.

"I told him twice, but he kept his eyes clothes and gave no reactoin."  Li said that the porter was hurting the image of the commercial street so he went over once again to ask the porter to leave.  But the porter began to scream insults at him, calling him a guard dog.  Li got angry and moved in to pull the porter out.  That was how the tussling began.

That newspaper reporter then located the 43-year-old porter.  He claimed that his name was Wu and he came from Liangping five years ago to the central city to work as a porter.  Wu admitted that he was cursing the security guard.  The situation was that he had just finished an assignment.  Because it was too hot, he went to the window ledge and pulled up his shirt in order to cool down.  He fell asleep, leaning against the shop window.

At 3pm that afternoon, Wu went to the Guanyin Bridge Business District police station to file a report.  According to manager Lu of the Future International Building Management, he apologized to Wu with the mediation help by the militia police and he gave Wu 200 yuan out of humanitarian concern.  Manager Lu said that they are investigating the case further.  The police confirmed that the assaulter was a security guard at the Future International.