Cop-killer became online hero

Image by 2 dogs via FlickrYou remember the vicious attack on a Shanghai police station that left six police officers dead? That mouse is becoming a very long tail now the murderer Beijing resident Yang Jia has become an unlikely hero in the online chatter, reports Global Voices.
The affair has already developed into a major brawl between the Beijing police force - who are investigating the incident - and their Shanghai colleagues.

Another thing that remains is GenitalGate, the rumor/story flying around that Yang was beaten so badly by police last year when he was accused of having stolen a bicycle that his genitalia no longer functioned properly, and this was the reason for his revenge.

One of the key tends signaled: now key word filtering has become obsolete for the internet savvy Chinese, different government departments rely on a new strategy by creating their own buzz, disinformation on a larger scale, done by the 50-cent force, a group of quasi-volunteers who get 50 cent per comment, paid by government department. One of many voices:

Is this information reliable? I did a search, and the earliest I was able to find was an anonymous MySpace user who posted it on the evening of the 2nd. The story is very stirring, but to this day there hasn't been anything more substantial to confirm this. The number of people who have spread it around is quite high, and that alone has nearly made it irrefutable fact, apparently even Phoenix TV even believed it. I have one journalist friend who through his connections was able to see Yang Jia's handwritten statement, and even Yang Jia himself has never said anything at all regarding the area below his waist! He told me that GenitalGate was a lie, but to put that in the news wouldn't please viewers, and that's why he kept silent. Because of this, I despise him.

What complicates this situation is of course that two large bureaucracies, the Beijing and the Shanghai Public Security, seem to be on different sides, so I guess the 50-cent force would support whoever is paying them.