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An hour or two ago, I went to CNN.com to check out the news on U.S. troops being brought home, when I saw the news about the death of the two year old infant Yue-Yue. A girl that was ran over by two minivans in the space of seven minutes, while over a dozen people walked and drove around her without helping or placing a simple phone call, feigning blindness and ignorance to the broken and bleeding child.

After watching the surveillance video of Yue-Yue’s accident (YouTube Video, NSFW, no blood can be really seen, but it’s graphic nonetheless), I was overcome with emotions. The first and foremost was of course, anger. Anger at the parents’ lack of responsibility towards their daughter, letting a two year-old walk around an active street without any parental supervision, especially due to the fact that the mother was within shouting distance and 15 seconds away throughout the ordeal, that the whole thing could’ve been prevented by a parent that actually cared enough for her child.

The first hit was an accident. An accident that could’ve been prevented on the driver’s part by turning on his headlights at 5:30 PM and a little more attention to his surroundings, but it was an accident nonetheless. The second that the driver realized that he had hit someone and indeed stopped for more than a second but made the conscious decision to keep driving and running over Yue-Yue a second time (and quite possibly caused the mass majority of the damages that eventually led to her death), however, was the second he committed a murder and became a man that calls for the return of death by quartering like the good ole’ days.

After the first driver, all the passerby became party to a murder by not helping Yue-Yue in any way. There were a few more cowardly ones that took a look and turned down the street before, and there were the ones who had the guts to rubberneck at a bleeding two year old, but not the humanity to start a cry for help that might’ve saved a life. I believe the second driver legitimately didn’t see her (Yue-Yue’s dark clothing, coupled with the lack of headlights, the rain and the fact that the second minivan didn’t change course at all, all indicates a general unawareness),

It’s ironic. Ironic that the second driver is the only one brought in for Yue-Yue’s accident (the first driver is still on the LAM), and that out of everybody captured in the video, he’s probably the most innocent one.

For many of us, the best part of YouTube videos are the mass of comments. This time, however, reading viewers’ comments only made me angrier at the general state of society. For example, the ‘top comments’ on the video I linked to above are as follows:

“I have 0 respect for chinese people right now” – TheRealGrandMoss

“FUCKING SICK WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THOSE CRAZY FUCKING CHINK BITCHES, AFTER I HEARD ABOUT THE CHILD PROSTITUTION IN CHINA I WAS LIKE WTF!? THEN AFTER I HEARD PEOPLE WERE EATING DEAD BABIES I WAS LIKE OMFG BUT AFTER THIS I THINK I’VE JUST GIVEN UP ON THE FUCKING CHINESE. GODDAMN SICK FCKS.” – wiibot15

The fact that the crime was committed in China should have no bearing on the response that should be given to the crime itself. The people in the video were committing a crime against humanity, and people who target the nation with their anger for the actions of the few makes me almost as faithless in humanity as the actual crime. And commenters such as 28aicirtap, who wrote, “I Hate Chinese. They don’t care about the kid. poor baby.” obviously couldn’t read the real-time text messages being received by the news station as the video played on. Text messages bearing messages such as:

“The two bastardy drivers, hitting-and-running is illegal. Hurry up and go turn yourself in!”

“Driving like this is like trying to kill people; should be shot. And the passerby should be severely disciplined by the media and the society, let them have a guilty conscience for the rest of their lives and not be able to raise their heads as men.”

And the reporter added in the end, “Two-year-old Yue-Yue should’ve been fine. If the first driver had stopped, if the passerby afterwards had looked after her, the child would be definitely in a different situation now. You’ve all seen this. Go look after the kid, give a hand, stop a car, call 120, would that have been so hard to do? Where is your conscience? News like this is disappointing. Very disappointing.”

Anyway. The whole thing should never have happened the way it did, and the responses shouldn’t have been as nation-specific as they are. When can we stop looking at a person and see not just their nationality or race, but just as other human beings? Gender/race/sexuality tags only helps us moving backwards, when we should all be united on a single front on issues as homo sapiens.

What are your thoughts regarding the Yue-Yue situation?