Guangdong police officers have it tough. Told by drunk motorists that their “wife is a village elder“, getting outsmarted by jaywalkers on camera, and smashing BMW car windows to force drivers to take a breath test… it’s a stressful workload exacerbated by their nightly routine of silently driving around the neighborhood with the lights flashing. No wonder they always look tired when they show up late and tell two feuding parties that “I can’t help you… you need to work this out yourselves.”

That’s why it shouldn’t be any surprise that a total of 29 police officers died in the line of duty last year in Guangdong province. At a speech given by Deputy Secretary Luo Juan during Qingming Festival services at Silver River Public Matyr Memorial Square (picture below), it was stated that a total of 683 police officers have died in the line of duty since 1980, reported Nandu.com.

As seen in the graph that in no way depicts the horizontal mambo at the Blue Oyster Club, the deaths can be classified as follows: one from apprehending an “evil-doer”, five from traffic accidents, two from contracting cancer, and 21 from “sudden death due to overwork”.

In this last category, in which the majority are bottom-tier constables, the majority of officers that died suddenly had been working for over 24 hours. This has led doctors to make the declaration that the deaths are the result of stress and overwork.

In comparison, the state of Texas, which could be construed as the “Guangdong of the USA” if that title wasn’t already taken by Florida, had 13 of its police officers die in the line of duty in 2013, the majority of which were from violent means.

Before Guangdong police officers consider a coalition of peers that seek to address life-threatening workplace dangers, we all must admit: that is one nice commemorative ceremony.

Photo: Nandu