Hubei man killed for recording protest with his camera phone

Troubling news has emerged over the last day regarding the tragic killing of a man in Tianmen, Hubei province.

Clashes started last Monday over a failed promise by the city government to move a garbage dump away further away from a residential area. About fifty or so chengguan (城管) or 'city managers' were called in to control the crowd.

Wei Wenhua, a manager at a local government-owned construction company with no apparent connection to the protest, was driving through the area when he stopped to get a better look. At this point he took out his camera phone and began recording the incident. Once the chengguan noticed his presence, he was yanked out of his vehicle and then brutally beaten unconscious over a period of ten minutes. He was carted off, along with other injured protesters, and died en route to the hospital.

Xinhua is reporting that over a hundred people being investigated in the incident and 4 have been detained, some of whom are high-ranking city officials. Expect someone to take the fall for this one as this is a story that has sparked outrage throughout the Chinese blogosphere and revived talk of disbanding the chengguan. You might know the chengguan as the urban pseudo-police force used to scare away migrant workers and DVD salesmen. Apparently, this isn't the first time that they've been cited for abusing their authority.