A dissatisfactory yearend VI

“Why dare you not answer?” the cop barked. “Come with me to the yamen.” That was the final order Zha Daren gave the boy.

An old Chinese saying runs: “To have natural compassion is only human.” Fundamentally, it is a universal truth. Those people who milled around the boy after he had been slapped by Zha Daren certainly were touched by compassion. But they dared not beg the cop for mercy to the sobbing boy. They knew Zha Daren couldn't be easily moved to show mercy. But if they didn't try to speak on behalf of the boy now, they wouldn't have any time left to beg for mercy for the poor kid. So one of them, who was a little bolder than the rest, came up to the cop and said, “Dai-lin, the boy didn't gamble...”*

“Pig,” the cop barked, “who asked to speak!”

Things were made worse now. Originally, Zha Daren didn't want to blame the boy, who was, of course, innocent. The sympathy shown by the milling crowd made the unlucky boy all the more unlucky. The police officer did not want anybody to interfere with his official duty. He did not have the heart of getting the innocent kid into trouble. But now that there was somebody who spoke up against him, the cop couldn't let the innocently started ado come to rest so easily. He was afraid he would induce a public misunderstanding if he just let the boy off the hook. He feared the people might think the boy was let go because of the protest somebody in the crowd dared to lodge. That would do his dignity as a police officer some great damage.

Zha Daren himself knew he would be wrongly victimizing the boy. But let it be, he thought, even if it were a wrong victimization. An officer simply had to be mindful of his dignity and authority. A boy thus wrongly victimized had to feel resigned to and sorry for his karma.

A police officer can never be wrong. That has been made a theorem. That is why a police officer can never do anything wrong. The boy must have done something wrong that must prove him guilty one way or the way and he deserves some form of punishment. As a consequence, the boy had to be taken to Zha Daren's police station for further investigation and made to admit to some or any incriminating fact under severe questioning. That is part of his official duty provided for by the law.

*Dai-lin is a Hoklo word for Dairen (大人).

The Lai He Fiction serialization, sponsored by the Council for Hakka Affairs, is provided by the Central News Agency.

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