On Feb. 29, a man in eastern China was caught on video viciously kicking a small boy in the back after he accidentally knocked into the man’s daughter in a playpen.
The children were playing in a shopping mall playground in Dongying, Shandong Province. In the video, the three- or four-year-old boy accidentally bumps into the little girl, sending both to the ground. The girl’s father quickly stands, walks over to the prone child, then gives him a heavy kick to his lower back before returning to his bench.
Shortly thereafter the man’s daughter can be seen comforting and hugging the boy, who is lying on the floor and clutching his back in pain. Another child also helps him.
Shanghai-based Peng Pai reported that the father denied having kicked the boy, despite the clear video evidence. When the boy’s parents arrived at the scene to figure out what was going on, he cursed them, saying “so what if I kicked him?”
The video was widely circulated on WeChat, the Chinese social media platform, and enraged netizens fed the man’s image into an online “human flesh search.” They found his work address and phone number.
In the early morning of March 1, local police announced on their Weibo social media account that the man, surnamed Li, had had his identity confirmed and was “detained in accordance with the law.”
