Chinese Man Assaulted for Not Giving Up Seat for Elderly

From NetEase:

Man in Wuhan Attacked by Multiple Elderly People for Not Giving Up His Seat

Because Of Not Giving Up His Seat, a Young Man in Wuhan Was Beaten By Multiple Elderly People — A netizen has reported: on the 801 Route, a 20-something young person was violently hit by several elderly people for sitting in a seat reserved for the elderly and refusing to give it up for an elderly person! This reporter learned: the incident occurred around 1:40pm today, and afterward, Hanyang police arrived on the scene to take those involved away, and are currently processing the matter.

Highlights of the video:

• The video begins with the young man in the yellow seat arguing with several other men who are criticizing him for not giving up his seat. The color of his seat indicates that it is a seat reserved for people who need assistance (usually handicapped, elderly, pregnant).
• ~0:40 – the argument becomes physical and there is some pushing and shoving. By around ~1:00, a grey-haired elderly man can be seen holding the young man’s arm while the younger middle-aged man (who may be represented as “elderly” above) appears to hit the young man several times.
• ~1:15 – the young man takes out his phone and appears to be calling the police, while another portly middle-aged man with a bald spot breaks up the physical altercation.
• ~1:20 – the young man suddenly leaps past the bald man at the men he was fighting with. BY ~1:35, he has seized the wrist of the grey-haired elderly man and again dialing on his phone.
• ~2:00 – the young man yells at the bus driver to stop driving. There is more arguing after this. An elderly woman is soon involved who may be the elderly man’s wife.
• ~3:45 – the young man yells at the bus driver to stop driving again, saying the police have not yet arrived.
• ~4:00 – the young man kicks at the rear door of the bus.
• ~4:10 – the young man grabs his bags with his free hand and attempts to pull the elderly man with him off the bus but eventually fails. Bystanders criticize him again for manhandling the elderly person. He indignantly asks if they saw how the elderly man had hit him.

Comments from NetEase:

江左闲人啊 [网易黑龙江省哈尔滨市网友]：

Once again resorting to violence!!
They have the strength to hit people, but not the strength to stand!!

呀哑吖呸 [网易广东省佛山市顺德区网友]：

I think the country needs to consider cancelling the elderly public bus card [that allows the elderly free rides]. Rather than providing cards for them to come out and cause trouble, it’d be better to give them to [financially] disadvantaged households!

呀哑吖呸 [网易广东省佛山市顺德区网友]：

Recommend canceling reserved seats for the elderly in all public transportation throughout the country, having everyone decide whether or not to give up their seats based on their own conscience and judgement of the actual situation, and changing [the elderly’s] misconception that seats must be given up for them!

网易广东省广州市网友 ip：61.140.*.*

Some old people have no character at all. Sometimes you’ll give up your seat for them and they won’t even say a word of thanks, as if it were expected. Young working people don’t have it easy. If you don’t have any pressing business, don’t come out in the early morning and hog up all the seats [referring to rush hour].

网易北京市海淀区网友 ip：221.222.*.*

The young person shouldn’t have been occupying the seat reserved for the elderly. but the elderly violated the law, and should be held legally responsible.

狂酷一生 [网易北京市网友]：

This bunch of “old people who refuse to die”!!!

网易广东省中山市网友 [先行水]：

Young people these days don’t have any fight in them.

呀哑吖呸 [网易广东省佛山市顺德区网友]： (responding to above)

Nonsense! So if you have the fight in you, then you’d dare hit [the elderly]?

天一的天天下第一的一 [网易陕西省西安市网友]：

Starting from noon today, NetEase’s news involving non-sensitive topics have “downvote” functionality. [NetEase recently added downvoting and a “featured comments” feature to its comments section.]

网易湖北省武汉市网友 ip：221.234.*.*:

The elderly person hit the young person, and the young restrained the elderly and called the police without becoming violent, but there is one phenomenon worth noting: over half of the people on the bus were siding with the elderly person, and there was even some people who came forward to criticize the young person for holding the elderly person and hindering the public bus’s operation (near the end)! Indifferent spectators, you people can not give a damn, can be numb and uncaring, but can you people not invert right and wrong? Have you people lost your most basic ability to discern who is right and wrong in this? Have morals/ethnics/values become so bad that it has come to this? Are you people unable to take a few minutes of your time for the environment you live in, to help the young man in calling the police and giving your testimony? The accomplices of evil, public nuisance is not lower than evil. Like the old saying, if you remain apathetic and invert right and wrong today, who will speak up for you when tomorrow an injustice happens to you tomorrow and you cry out for help?

Here let me recollect something that I personally experienced: 2011 summer, I was riding a public bus in Wuchang. The driver was a young guy. An elderly person (male) boarded, without swiping his card or depositing coins. The driver stopped the elderly person asking him to swipe his card. The elderly person immediately began to behave unreasonably, showing people a fake proof of his old age, which the driver saw through and pointed out. The elderly person rudely pointed at the driver and with a mouthful of crude Wuhan dialect said: “Who the hell do you think you are?!” The driver replied: “I’m nobody, but if you’re going to ride, you have to pay fare.” Then I looked at all the passengers’ reactions: the vast majority chose to be indifferent onlookers, one girl that looked like a college student deposited two kuai in coins for the old man, while another guy that looked like a college student gave up his seat for elderly person. The elderly person sat down, pleased with himself, praised the two college students, and then said some stuff about how different the driver was from those college students. It pained me to see everyone become stupid because of their rigid adherence to the “respect the elderly and love the young” dogma, losing their ability to think independently, discern right from wrong, and in their ignorance acted as an accomplice to evil. But at the time, I was just a freshman in college, and the past nine years of me being a student, enduring teachers that were like slave-owners and rigid dogma [education], had taught me to be an good, obedient slave who suffers in silence, doesn’t say “no”, and can only cowardly be bullied when encountering the unfair (this negatively affected my life for a long period of time after leaving school). Although I felt the driver was wronged and that the elderly person was a bastard, other than staying silent at the time, I didn’t dare do anything else.

After freeing myself from school and its brainwashing education, I slowly began to learn how to think independently, and sometimes, even when I am terrified in my heart, I will still bravely stand forward and say “no” to those who are shameless, without conscience, and are unethical/immoral.