Chinese-style road crossing, Chinese-style punishment

From Oct. 23, 2012, Shijiazhuang people who run the red light, or ignore the white lines, or jump guardrails when crossing the road will be fined by 50 yuan or less as punishment. Director of Shijiazhuang Traffic Administration said that the first three persons who run the red light in a crowd at grand junctions shall be penalized and all people shall be punished in case of small intersections.

Although how to punish people breaking law rules in terms of crossing roads is clarified by law and stipulated by different regional penalty, equality principle shall not be converted, thus each and any person who run the red light shall be punished equally.

Shijiazhuang penalty measures forget the principle of equality, which certainly will impact on legal just and punishment effect.

Crowd running the red light should be punished in the first place and everyone should be punished; whether at the grand junctions or small intersections, by many people or by one person, nature of the behaviors is equally breaking the law, thus, no distinction shall be made upon penalty. Therefore, Shijiazhuang punishment measures have destroyed legal equality.

Only punishing the first three persons is a kind of alternative law-enforcement which will increase law-enforce costs and encourage people to take chances. It is thus obvious that Chinese-style punishment cannot restrain Chinese-style road crossing. On the contrary, it will cause more disputes and argues. It is better to punish all the concerned equally.

When we are criticizing Chinese-style road crossing, remember that Chinese-style punishment should be the root of the problem. Only when law breaking punishment is equally enforced can legal sanctity be built in people's hearts, and Chinese-style road crossing may gradually disappear.