Hunan villagers spend nine hours beating up dog thieves, then turn on the police sent to rescue them

Two dog thieves messed with the wrong villagers. After being caught, they were tied up and subjected to a brutal beating lasting over nine hours, with the body of the animals they were alleged to have killed tied to their necks.

According to People’s Daily, the incident took place in Yizhang county of Hunan province. At around 7 a.m. on June 4, two men were allegedly caught red-handed with two dead animals they are believed to have killed for meat.
Shortly after an angry mob soon gathered and decided to take matters into their own hands. The two men were savagely beaten before they had the dead animals died around their necks.

Police arrived later that afternoon and pointed out that mob justice just wasn’t the done thing. As officers prepared to take the two suspects back to the police station, villagers stopped them and demanded 1 million yuan ($160,000) in compensation.
Presumably either the thieves or policemen said that the request was unacceptable, because villagers then turned on the policemen, attacking them with metal bars and smashing up their patrol car. Villagers blockaded the road with rocks and lay down in front of the police vehicle to prevent the thieves from leaving.

Only at around 6 p.m. that evening when local officials and additional backup arrived did the situation calm down. In a statement the local Public Security Bureau stated that their officers had been going about their work in the correct manner when they were attacked.
A few months ago in a similarly impressive display of vigilante justice, a 10-year-old boy from a Guangxi village was made to kneel, thrown in a pig cage, and finally dunked in a cold lake as punishment for stealing over 20,000 yuan.
By Dominic Jackson
[Images via People’s Daily]