Finally, a quick way to get famous in Shanghai

From Reuters:

Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday.

Offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists would be snapped at selected intersections and their images put in regular columns and on special television programmes set up by police, the Shanghai Daily said.

The scheme had come under fire from lawyers who said public humiliation was too steep a punishment for jaywalking and warned of defamation lawsuits against police.

"It's a principle of law that a penalty should match the seriousness of the crime," Liu Chunquan, a local lawyer, told the paper.

What? Are they really going to post pictures of offenders in the papers and on TV and forget about the Internet? Really, they might as well go all the way...

Addendum: The idea of shaming jaywalkers is not all that new in Shanghai. Read this, this and this.

Comments (6) [rss]

maybe locals will finally grow some thicker skin and just not care so much about "face"

In unrelated news, newspapers will now be required to print a minimum of 20,000 pages a day, and all TV shows will be at least 50 hours long.

There about about 900 other jokes here, but I need to save my energy for dodging those cameras that await me this afternoon. It's so humiliating getting snapped doing something totally accepted by everyone! What's next, pictures of people breathing? eating? wearing playboys? Classic SD, classic response, cooked to perfection!

Here's a famous news flash, Fergie is about 3 months pregnant. Saw her at the DNC concert at the Fillmore in Denver and she has a fairly firm, round stomach and seemed to unconsciously rubbed it quite a few times.

They could never do that here in NY. Not that the police care much about "innocent until proven guilty" or that the "punishment fits the crime" but it would be a status symbol to have your photo everywhere. The kids would crowd the streets!

How about a competition, where Shanghaiist awards a prize to the first Laowai who makes it to the news (with proof!) this way!

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