From the Readers

Prevent attacks on school kids

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-08 07:46

Most people will agree that the killer of kindergarten students deserved to be sent to the gallows. But a punishment rings if it cannot deter similar crimes.

The killer expected to get capital punishment for his crime. So will other attackers on children in future. But the memory of lives lost can be better honored if similar killings are prevented. The authorities must find out the real causes behind the string of violent attacks on schoolchildren and devise ways to redress the grievances of unhappy and unsatisfied people.

It would help, too, to examine the history of similar attacks in other countries. In 1927, in one of the earliest attacks on schoolchildren, a man, angry with an American town's authorities over a property dispute, planted a powerful bomb killing 38 elementary school students and 6 adults. Many property disputes between land holding citizens and local governments have provoked violence even in other countries.

The Chinese authorities, therefore, should guide people toward courts to settle property disputes against local government so that perceived intrusions upon property rights does not become a source of rage against society.

Mai Pan, via e-mail

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(China Daily 06/08/2010 page9)