In Fengtang Township, Huaiyang District, Zhoukou, Henan, the harvest season of the medicinal herb Atractylodes has come. However, for Ms. Wan's family, this was the beginning of a nightmare. On October 31, when they were harvesting their own medicinal herbs, they were suddenly robbed by hundreds of villagers.
The picture comes from the Internet
The video shows an aunt sitting in a field, crying out in pain: "My mother, the medicine has been robbed". Surrounded by villagers with bags, they were frantically picking up medicinal herbs. Ms. Wan revealed that this aunt was her relative, and she contracted this hundreds of acres of medicinal herb cultivation through a loan. However, for several years, due to various reasons, she has been in a state of loss, and her loans have been called on every day. When the medicinal herbs finally had the hope of a bumper harvest, such a tragedy occurred.
The picture comes from the Internet
Ms. Wan said that her family hired 30 people to collect medicinal herbs and 20 people to guard them, but they could not stop them in the face of the looting crowd. The crowd poured in like a market, all the good things were said, and the voices were hoarse, but to no avail. In order to avoid the situation from escalating, they did not even call the police in time. It wasn't until a worker snatched down an aunt's basket that the aunt sat down on the ground and said that someone had beaten her in an attempt to make trouble, that they had no choice but to call the police. When the police arrived, they shouted with loudspeakers, and the villagers reluctantly dispersed.
Ms. Wan said that there were 4 to 500 villagers who participated in the robbery, and about 20,000 catties of their medicinal materials were robbed, and the direct loss was nearly 200,000 yuan. She knew very well that the looting villagers were from the nearby village of Shiliba, but she said she couldn't find them. Even the remaining medicinal herbs in the field did not dare to continue harvesting. She hopes that the police can help them recover their losses, after all, for their family, this is also land contracted through loans, and they are under huge financial pressure.
It can be seen in the video that the crowd is like rushing to a market, trotting all the way under their feet, and their happy mood is indescribable. Among the people who participated in the robbery, they were all older, and about 80% of them were uncles and aunts. Relying on their age, they are rampant and domineering everywhere, in fact, to put it bluntly, these people just have the mentality of "disregarding face" to do things. Among them, there are people who carry bags, there are people who carry buckets, and anyway, there are utensils that can hold things at home, and I can't wait to bring them all.
The picture comes from the Internet
For the looting villagers, this is simply a pie in the sky, as long as the hands and feet are quick enough, the sharp-eyed people can pick up more from the ground and put them in their pockets, which is no different from picking up money. According to what is said on the Internet, seven or eight yuan a catty, why doesn't a person pick up a hundred and eighty catties, then a few hundred yuan in hand, why not?
But have these people ever empathized, if someone else is robbing something at your house, you can't stop it, it's useless to shout, and when you are helpless, that feeling of helplessness and despair? To put it bluntly, if it doesn't happen to you, it will always be news, and who can really empathize with the aunt who is sitting on the ground crying? This desperation can knock down a person, or even a family... The villagers present did not stop because of her crying, but worked harder to grab the medicinal herbs. Ms. Wan and her family tried to stop it, but their voices were drowned out by the cacophony of the crowd.
The picture comes from the Internet
Although one incident can be interpreted as an "individual case", and two incidents are only a "few cases", when similar incidents occur again, they have to be taken seriously and reflected on by the local authorities.
In less than half a year, there have been many incidents of collective looting by villagers. It is enough to see the inadequacy of local social governance and the weak legal awareness of villagers.
The participants in these lootings are generally older, mainly middle-aged and elderly. They seem to feel that they have the privilege of relying on the elderly, participating in looting with impunity, and in some cases even using deception to obtain ill-gotten gains.
Managing this behavior is a daunting task. These people are not afraid of public opinion, do not respect the law, and do not care about their own image, which has become a problem for social governance. We should consider establishing a system in which the children or relatives of such persons are held accountable and managerial. Just as children have guardians, the elderly should also have their own guardians. In this way, if the elderly are involved in bad behaviors such as robbery, their children will have to bear the corresponding legal responsibility and social responsibility. This will help reduce the occurrence of similar behaviors.
Solving this problem will not be achieved overnight, and requires the joint efforts of the local government, villagers and all sectors of society. The local government needs to improve the governance mechanism, strengthen the publicity and education of laws and regulations, and improve the legal awareness of villagers.