Blog 4: Police: Fatal southwest China bus fire was arson, Teresa Lindsey. 02/28/2014 2:55 p.m.

Summary:

The article entitled “Police: Fatal southwest China bus fire was arson” discusses an incident that took place in southwestern China when a bus was set on fire. A suspect was taken into custody. The man’s full name wasn’t released but he has been identified by his family name of Su. The man was reportedly very suspicious of his wife’s infidelity and set the fire on the bus which killed six people and injured 35 people including the suspect. After he suspected his wife of being unfaithful he lost his mental bearings and took it out on society and decided to harm innocent people. Police in the southwestern city of Guiyang, took the suspect into custody and he did confess to setting the fire on the bus. He stated that the “he lit the gasoline that he took onto the bus”. CCTV said the suspect suffered minor back injuries from the fire. The bus caught fire near an elementary school and it was reported that about 50 people were onboard the bus at the time of the fire. An eye witness saw some sparks flash in the middle of the bus and the bus engulfed with black smoke and a middle-aged man jump out the window of the bus. The bus only took minutes to become engulfed with smoke and flames. This doesn’t look like an isolated incident, just last year; a Chinese man set fire to a commuter bus killing himself and 46 others. In 2009, a deadly bus fire killed 27 people, including the arsonist in the city of Chengdu. Both of those men were believed to have been settling a score with society in China, because of the growing gaps in wealth and a lack of social security which has caused tensions to run high.

Analysis:

This article highlights what appears to be a situation where if something goes wrong or you don’t like how things are being operated then you go blow up a bus and hurt innocent people. When reading this article it was mind boggling to read that because a man suspected his wife of cheating on him he lost his mind and set a bus on fire which killed a lot of people except him. It makes you wonder if he was that distraught why he didn’t just kill himself and leave the innocent bystanders out of harm’s way. I often wonder about that when I hear news stories or read articles about someone who has shot up a mall, bombed an office building, or set a building or vehicle on fire because their spouse cheated on them, or they embezzled money at work and are about to be caught, or they don’t agree with politics. To involve other innocent people in their mess is just senseless and cold hearted. No one should be caught up in somebody else’s rage and anger. If they want to make a statement and go out with a bang just leave other people out of it because there is no sense of harming other people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/police-fatal-southwest-china-bus-fire-was-arson/2014/02/28/b5001eee-a044-11e3-878c-65222df220eb_story.html