health care isn't all the news
You know, I think Chinese courts might actually rule in favor of vigilante action. It's a story straight out of Les Miserables. A farmwife tried to organize 24 local farmers against a village head who was taking their land, and for her troubles she was imprisoned and beaten. She caught TB in prison, and her 13-year-old son was expelled from school. He took up a life of petty crime, got caught, tried to kill himself in prison...and eventually met a vengeful farmer who offered him a thousand yuan and a knife. The young man walked into a meeting room and stabbed the corrupt official in the heart.
Now he's on trial for murder, and his younger brother (one child policy, ha) heard an old legend about a vigilante who killed a corrupt official. The hero's righteousness was proven by 10,000 petitioners who spoke for him. The little brother has already collected double that number. Just a few months ago, the country roared with approval when a young woman killed a lecherous official in self-defense. She was acquitted.
The country definitely has a Les Mis instability to it these days. The official government stats show over 70,000 "mass incidents" per year. Corrupt officials look the other way while infant formula is adulterated with poison. They steal land. They get rich while hardworking farmers scrape by on pennies a day. Try Googling "China official execute corruption." In the backcountry, however, peasants have said for centuries, "Heaven is high and the Emperor is far away." People will wait for reform, but not forever, and not while strongmen get rich. Acquitting a few vigilantes could be an easy way to scoop up reform cred, and fear of retaliation could rein in the worst offenders. So about this boy: you can either make him an insanity defense or crown him a martyr.