XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 11/18/10

Thursday, 18 November 2010

China sentences woman to labor camp for Twitter post -

A Chinese woman has been sentenced to a year in a labor camp for retweeting a Twitter post that mocked Chinese protesters who smashed Japanese products during a recent demonstration, her fiance said Thursday.

On October 17, Cheng Jianping, under the username wangyi09, added a few words to a message written by her fiance, before resending it on Twitter.

Eleven days later on the day the couple had planned to marry, Cheng's fiance, Hua Chunhui was taken away by the police from his office in the southeastern city of Wuxi.

Although he was released 5 days later, Hua hasn't seen Cheng since. He learned from her family that she was taken away by the police from in front of the couple's apartment on the same day as his arrest.

Cheng, 46, was sentenced to one year in a Henan Province labor camp for disturbing social stability.
Cheng also has supported imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo on Twitter.
Hua said that the tweet was simply meant to be satire, with no intention of inciting anti-Japan sentiment. The Twitter message mocked young protesters who smashed Japanese products during a recent demonstration and suggested they smash the Japan Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.

"This is ridiculous and a typical case of censorship jail," Cheng's lawyer Lan Zhixue said. "People should not be put in jail due to their sarcastic words."

Lan Zhixue and Hua have appealed Cheng's case to the Henan Provincial Department of Justice and People's Court, asking for medical parole for Cheng, who suffers from high blood pressure. The appeal also asks that she be removed from the labor camp.

Cops bust seven men playing chess in upper Manhattan park - squad of cops in bulletproof vests swooped in -

Drop that bishop and come out with your hands up!

A squad of cops in bulletproof vests swooped into an upper Manhattan park and charged seven men with the "crime" of playing chess in an area off-limits to adults unaccompanied by kids -- even though no youngsters were there.

"Is chess really something that should be considered a threat to the neighborhood?" Inwood resident and mom Joanne Johnson wrote Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after the raid.

"This incident is an embarrassment to the officers from the 34th Precinct who felt that it was necessary to use their badge and authority to issue such a random summons."

The knights in Kevlar armor gave all seven suspects desk-appearance tickets.

The chess tables where they were ticketed for "failure to comply with signs" are in a fenced-in area where posted notices read: "Adults allowed in playground areas only when accompanied by a child under the age of 12."

Police said the rule protects kids from pedophiles or others who might want to harm them.

A police source added, "It’s the broken windows theory . . . small things can turn into bigger things. Some citizens may see it as police harassment, but God forbid something happens to a child, people would be complaining, Why didn’t the police enforce these rules? That’s what they would be griping about."

Yacahuda "Y.A." Harrison, 49, one of those chess aficionados, said he saw those signs months ago and "asked the [Parks] ranger if we had permission to be there."

"The ranger said, 'Oh no, that's fine, that's only written for pedophiles.' "

Since then, he said, parents have welcomed him and the other players -- and even had their kids take chess lessons from them.