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Police show their softer side to a homeless man
Print Edition
A homeless man, known as “Master Li,” who lives under an elevated metro station in downtown Shanghai, was approached by the police recently — not to drive him away but to offer him a job as a parking assistant.
In fact, Li, who is 49, had been voluntarily doing such a job at Zhongtan Road Station for two years when the metro police officers discovered him as a result of Shanghai running a city-wide campaign to restore traffic order around metro stations.
“I didn’t ask for any return, nor do I ask for anything now,” he told Shanghai Daily yesterday. “I’m only satisfied with doing good deeds.”
Li, a native of Danyang city in neighboring Jiangsu Province, was sentenced to prison on three occasions for theft before he began living on the streets. He asked not to be identified by his real name.
The bridge at Zhongtan Road Station provides him with shelter from the rain, but the messy parking of bikes in the free-of-charge parking space where he lodges annoyed him.
Out of his need for a tidy place to rest, he found himself moving around bikes there every day. “Some unfriendly bike riders told me it’s none of my business,” Li said.
But it turned out that parking the bikes neatly into rows not only helps himself, but also makes space for pedestrians, commuters and firefighters at the exit of the metro station.
Li said it was the only thing he was able to do to return kindness shown to him from nearby residents, who brought him clothes, bedding and even cooked food.
Officer Wang, who works for the police station serving Shanghai Railway Station Metro Station, said officers were surprised to see Li tidying up the bikes a few months ago.
“We had never seen a vagabond dressed in rags helping with parking,” he said.
Wang said the police officers “missed out on him” previously because a parking company was responsible for the parking space and vagabonds were under the radar of city management team members.
Li, meanwhile, told Shanghai Daily that he had never thought of getting a job via the police because he was “ashamed of himself.”
After talking to the parking company, the police officers helped Li to get a part-time job at the company as an official parking assistant.
He now works five to six hours every day during the morning and evening rush hours.
“My job has been made much easier in recent months as I have put on a uniform,” he said. “People are also obviously more aware of the parking rules and less likely to park just anywhere when they see the whole parking space is in order.”
Apart from his parking assistant duties, Li also works part-time in a restaurant on daily basis. With the help from the parking company and the community in this area, he has made his little spot under the bridge a home.
“Among all vagabonds, I fare the best,” “Master Li” said with a proud smile.
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