From Kunming to Nanning: Multiple dealers and city governments conflict, why street livelihoods repeatedly hit enforcement

From September 8 to 13, Yunnan Kunming, Hainan Sea Point, Guangzhou Nanjing and other places continued to appear city governments, police evicted street dealers and sparked conflict on-site video. overseas China's collective protest recording project "Yesterday" will publish multiple land images, in the picture you can see the scene of law enforcement officers evicting operators, encircling stalls, dragging people and dealers and law enforcement disputes.

These locations are hundreds or even thousands of kilometers apart, but there are highly similar conflict structures: on the one hand, small merchants rely on mobile stalls, night markets or roadside operations to maintain their income, and on the other hand, the city administration and police forces that undertake governance tasks such as town halls, roads, unlicensed operations. What really deserves attention is not the simple question of “can the merchants take advantage of” but where the boundaries of executive power are when the city administration enters the stage of seizure, forced displacement and even police intervention.

* Multiple conflict concentrations occurred, indicating that it was not an accidental quarrel between individual dealers and law enforcement officials

The “Yesterday” project records that between September 8th and 13th, in the cities of Kunming, Seychelles, Nanjing and other cities, conflicts were triggered by the deportation of dealers. Combined videos retained live clips of multiple locations. Because these short videos came from different photographers, it is currently not possible to restore the full precedent consequences of each event only by images, but it can be confirmed that the street management of multiple locations has seen a clear confrontation within the same period.

For stallers, street operations are often low-threshold ways to make a living, with income directly dependent on whether the day can be settled; for the city administration, stall operations can involve transportation, municipality, food safety, noise and resident complaints. The two interests are not naturally uncoordinated. The conflict is often repeated, because governance is rapidly jumping from “determining time and region” to “clearing up and seizing,” and operators feel they lack a stable, affordable alternative business space.

China's current regulations do not require all street operations to be banned.

The State Council's "Unlicensed and Unlicensed Management Measures" clearly stipulates that in the places and times designated by local governments at or above the county level, the sale of agricultural by-products, everyday life supplies, or engaging in civilian labor without the need for permission in accordance with the law, does not belong to unlicensed and unlicensed management.

This means that local governments can’t just “allow occupation” and “all-out” options. By defining night markets, early markets, convenience displacement points and limiting operating time, they could establish rules between road order and residents’ livelihoods. The problem is that if cities only retain high-cost shops and commercial streets, but constantly compress low-cost operating space, the most vulnerable operators can only end up returning to the streets repeatedly and then in conflict with law enforcement forces.

The most likely to exacerbate conflict is the lock-in, seizure and forced evacuation

Once the street enforcement law involves the seizure of three wheels, goods, furnaces and business tools, the buyer is not caused by a verbal warning, but may directly cut the source of income. The Administrative Compulsory Law therefore sets out a clear procedure for seizure, seizure: the enforcement authority must have laws, regulations authorization, the seizure object should be limited to the property involved, the administrative authority should also produce and deliver the decision and list on the spot, indicating the reasons, grounds, deadlines and administrative review and litigation.

The meaning of this procedure is specific in the street scenario: when a dealer faces more than a dozen uniform workers, the forces of both sides are completely unequal; if the items are taken directly but there is no list, if the law enforcement basis is only verbal, if the operator does not know where to get their goods back, the so-called administrative administration is very easily experienced as unilateral compulsory.

After the police intervention, the nature of the incident changed

Public security law enforcement and public security law enforcement duties are different.When there is a body conflict on the scene, obstructing the execution of functions, suspected of public security violations, public security organs can intervene in accordance with the law.But police appearance also means that when people take control, summon or other measures, there is a corresponding public security or criminal legal basis.

The multi-site video has caused concern because some images show police and city officials jointly appearing in the evacuation operation. What the public sees is that the number of law enforcement officials represents an absolute advantage is drawn with a single or minority of dealers. For this scenario, the most controversial thing is not to delete the video after the incident, but to let the law enforcement basis, law enforcement recorders data, detention lists and punishment decisions be obtained by the parties according to law.

The “city image” cannot be the reason for the unlimited expansion of law enforcement

Large-scale activities, the creation of civilized cities, the repair of municipalities, and traffic governance often become the reasons for centralized cleaning and flow management, but the relevant system of the State Council itself also requires local reserve space for reasonable convenience.

The Ministry of Justice in the interpretation of the "Method of Non-Documented Operations" clearly suggested that we should fully consider the reasonable needs of the masses to produce life and reserve system space for entrepreneurship and livelihoods.In other words, urban order is not only a clean street, but also includes the real need of ordinary people to get income at a low cost.

If local authorities encourage “flexible employment” while not providing stable, clear, and low-cost legal business space for small businessmen, and then using centralized law enforcement to drive them out of the streets, there will be clear internal contradictions. For many retailers, they are not challenging an ambitious urban planning, but just selling a car of fruit, a pot of snacks or some daily goods that night.

* Multiple events leave four common responsibilities:

• whether the local authorities have determined sufficient areas and times for the commercial operation, and not only prohibitive provisions;
• whether the city authorities have issued decisions and lists of property in accordance with the law when seizing vehicles, goods and business tools;
• which specific violations are based on when the police intervened and controlled personnel;
• whether the parties could obtain complete law enforcement records after the conflict and reconsideration, litigation and other procedures for remediation.

These questions are more important than “the dealers shouldn’t listen to the city governor,” because they determine whether administration is rule or power governance.

From Kunming to Seychelles and Nanning, street dealers conflict has repeatedly emerged, indicating that urban management can not only rely on more law enforcement to solve when conflict occurs. What can really reduce the next pull is stable business space, transparent law enforcement standards, documents issued in accordance with the law and a complaint mechanism that can really play a role.

For those who rely on a three-wheeled car or a foldable table to make a living, the degree of the rule of law of urban governance is often not reflected in the ambitious legal slogans, but in whether the city administration can clearly tell him before moving his goods: which rules you violated, what powers I handle, where your stuff is going, and where you can complain.