It's a real tragedy that Yang Wu, a migrant worker in Shenzhen, was a helpless witness to his wife being beaten up and raped by a member of a local police-assistant team and could muster up enough courage to call police only an hour later. While criticizing Yang's cowardice, we should not neglect the reasons behind this violent social phenomenon, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts:

A healthy society is supposed to provide full protection to its citizens, especially from bullies, and empower the weak. Such a society would make the cowardly strong and help them protect themselves and their legitimate rights and interests. Also, it would make the violent and criminal elements dread the law and learn to respect the legitimate rights of the weak.

Behind Yang's cowardice are certain ailments that plague our society. It may be difficult for people in socially marginalized groups like Yang to distinguish between a member of a police-assistant team and a policeman. They may tend to see a police officer in anyone that wears a police-like uniform. And a policeman is someone they cannot afford to resist.

Yang has said that two members of the police-assistant team were involved in the crime and that they always bullied people like him.

This begs the question: Are the perpetrators, who can simply be described as gangsters, fit enough to be members of a police-assistant team? And shouldn't they be punished?

Had society given enough strength and confidence to Yang, he would not have suffered such humiliation. So instead of condemning Yang as "the most cowardly husband", we should make sincere efforts to establish a fair and just society to improve the life of the poor and the weak, that is, people like Yang.

(China Daily 11/15/2011 page9)