Throwback Thursday: When Beijing Pointed Fingers at a "Criminally Active" Restaurant
Throwback Thursday takes a look back into Beijing's past, using our eleven-year-strong blog archives as the source for a glance at the weird and wonderful of yesteryear.
China is no stranger to using public shaming as a form of punishment. Just think of the giant roadside screens that display jaywalkers who try their luck scrambling over busy intersections or netizens who post videos online as a way to shame subway man-spreaders, fighters, and litterers.
A decade ago, the methods may have been a little different but the intended result was the same. Back in 2007, we reported on how Beijing police decided to take the public shaming game in an interesting direction: combatting crime by publicly identifying the places it happened most frequently. Specifically, restaurants.
In order warn patrons of the understood presence of petty criminals, a yellow notice was hung at the entrance of one KFC restaurant close to the International Exhibition Centre which read: “Criminal activity is more common at this restaurant” (刑事案件多发饭馆 xíngshì ànjiàn duōfā fànguǎn). It was claimed that two to three thefts occurred at this particular KFC every month.
The article also noted that despite there being plenty of other fast food restaurants nearby, and therefore by default thieves likely to be operating elsewhere too, the yellow board was exclusive to KFC.
Restaurant representatives claimed that such a public notice violated their corporate interests and had a negative impact on business. Police, on the other hand, claimed that over the 10 days that the sign had been hanging, it had not impacted the flow of customers going into the restaurant. They added that the managers had actually instructed them on where to hang the sign, so as to be more aesthetically pleasing, and didn't have a problem with its existence at the time.
According to the safety requirements, the restaurant was also supposed to provide safety guards on the premises, because who doesn't love eating in the presence of enlisted security?
From the vantage point of 2018, it's still unclear as to how effective the infamous sign was, nor do we know how long it stayed up, but we do hope it encouraged at least a few diners to be more vigilant about guarding their personal belongings.
While you're archive digging: Why not say Merry Christmas to these foreign detainees!
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Images: Health.sohu, Turner.com
