Inconsistency Pt. 1 –or– Law, Without Force, Is Impotent

In Thursday’s 南昌晚报 (Nanchang Evening News), I read the article pictured below. It’s a story of two cousins (17 year-old Zhou Tao and soon-to-be 14 year-old Tang You Jin) who jumped from an 8-meter bridge into a river to save someone from drowning.


According to the article, on April 17th at approximately 7:20pm, as these boys were headed home over the Fu River Bridge on West Construction Road, they heard calls for help coming from below. They peered over the edge of the bridge and saw that a young girl was struggling to resist drowning. 毫不犹疑 – Without a moment’s hesitation – they jumped into the water to save the girl, who upon being dragged ashore, lost consciousness. They stayed with her until she came to, at which point they grabbed their clothes and returned to the bridge where a crowd had formed in nearly the exact spot where they had left their cell phones prior to jumping. During their brave rescue, they discovered, their phones had been stolen. …This is where the tone of the article changes…

The police were so disgusted by this disgraceful treatment of the two young heroes that they organized a task force not only to capture the person who stole the phones, but to return the phones to their rightful owners. This happy ending is, of course, thanks to the high importance that the police placed on the crime, as well as their unrelenting efforts in delivering justice. For those that can read Chinese, the article, in reference to the stolen phones, says, “警方高度重视…在警方的努力下, 两名见义勇为的好少年不但被警方找到, 偷窃救人少年手机的嫌犯也被警方抓获.”

Now let’s keep this idea of justice, safety, and rule of law in mind as I write part 2.