There is a "blue wall of silence" in America that...inhibits police officers from implicating other police officers. The Mafia "inhibits" ratting by more persuasive means. In the investigating that I did into Bian Zhongyun's murder I thought frequently of the police blue wall of silence. I had such a case. An officer fractured the skull of a handcuffed woman with his nightstick. It happened in broad daylight. It happened at the end of a horrific police car chase in which officers were injured and their vehicles damaged. It could not have been a more favorable case for an identification. But no police officer would say who did it. "I was a couple of car lengths away;" "I wasn't looking." In every manner one can imagine, there was a reason why the officers couldn't id. They all could have id'd. It was the blue wall of silence. I knew who did it. But I needed whatcha call "evidence." Never did get it.
Like that police case, the Passion of Bian Zhongyun was witnessed by dozens, perhaps hundreds. Broad daylight, too. Period of hours. Perpetrators known to the witnesses. I have never heard of a murder committed in front of witnesses who had such "theater seats." There are dozens, or hundreds, of girls at that school who saw those who beat Bian Zhongyun to death. Jung Jang told me one time "Everybody in China knows Song Binbin was involved." I honestly do not think she was, not "involved" in the sense of throwing a punch. However I would agree 100% with Ms. Chang if the statement were just slightly different: "Everybody in China knows who did it."
To bring these two strands together, it may be, it may be, that it is easier in these cultures of silence to confess than to "rat." Especially in China where there is no threat of prosecution. My friend Zhou did! I was able to identify one act of violence that Song Binbin could be held legally responsible for. She led some Red Guards into a house, they were "Smashing the Four Olds," and one of the guys with Song punched the man so hard in the chest that it knocked him down. Song as leader approved and had a "fierce" look on her face. Under those facts Song would be guilty of burglary and held responsible for the punch as a "principal." Maybe Song could admit that.
There is one person I was able to identify in print as having laid a hand on Bian. Maybe Liu Tingting could admit to that.
A thousand confessions, a million, nobody implicating anybody else. Maybe individual Chinese could do that.
Like that police case, the Passion of Bian Zhongyun was witnessed by dozens, perhaps hundreds. Broad daylight, too. Period of hours. Perpetrators known to the witnesses. I have never heard of a murder committed in front of witnesses who had such "theater seats." There are dozens, or hundreds, of girls at that school who saw those who beat Bian Zhongyun to death. Jung Jang told me one time "Everybody in China knows Song Binbin was involved." I honestly do not think she was, not "involved" in the sense of throwing a punch. However I would agree 100% with Ms. Chang if the statement were just slightly different: "Everybody in China knows who did it."
To bring these two strands together, it may be, it may be, that it is easier in these cultures of silence to confess than to "rat." Especially in China where there is no threat of prosecution. My friend Zhou did! I was able to identify one act of violence that Song Binbin could be held legally responsible for. She led some Red Guards into a house, they were "Smashing the Four Olds," and one of the guys with Song punched the man so hard in the chest that it knocked him down. Song as leader approved and had a "fierce" look on her face. Under those facts Song would be guilty of burglary and held responsible for the punch as a "principal." Maybe Song could admit that.
There is one person I was able to identify in print as having laid a hand on Bian. Maybe Liu Tingting could admit to that.
A thousand confessions, a million, nobody implicating anybody else. Maybe individual Chinese could do that.
