A half-dozen policemen burst into Lin Zhengxu’s home and grabbed him as he awoke from an afternoon nap. After beating and kicking him, family and neighbors recalled, the policemen immobilized Lin’s arms by pulling his shirt halfway over his head. Then they tried to carry him off to jail. But the police had not counted on Lin’s friends and neighbors. After years of fighting back against the government’s seizure of their rice paddies and vegetable plots, they fought to help the man leading their battle. Neighbors rushed the policemen, witnesses recounted, yanked Lin away and spirited him into hiding. Within three days of the police raid, family members said, Lin had made his way to Beijing, nearly 1,000 miles north of this steamy city on the East China Sea.Full Story