Let’s be honest. When we tell our children to stay away from strangers, what we really mean is stay away from random dudes. The average male might be completely harmless, but there are some sick, weirdo males out there, and together, they’re responsible for an overwhelming majority of stranger danger cases. This one, however, is one of those rare exceptions.
Over the weekend, a six-year-old boy was playing in the Shanxi province in China’s northeast region when he was approached by an unidentified woman. She reportedly asked the little boy if anyone in his house played Mahjong and later walked with him out to a field. Unfortunately, she wasn’t interested in playing Mahjong. Instead, she swiftly and unexpectedly pulled out a tool and proceeded to cut out the poor kid’s eyes.
According to The New York Daily News, the boy was discovered a few hours later by his parents. He was laying in the field and blood was coming out of his empty sockets. He was quickly taken to the emergency room, but by the time he arrived, nothing could be done to save his vision. Doctors say he will be blind for the rest of his life.
Initially, speculation in the Chinese media hypothesized the boy, whose parents are farmers, may have been attacked for his corneas in a plan to sell them on the black market. In recent days, however, the police have admitted that’s not possible because the corneas were discovered at the scene. If true, that only leaves a few possible motivations for the vicious attack. Maybe the kid saw someone committing a crime who didn’t want to be identified. Maybe it was some kind of sick warning to someone else in the community, or maybe the attacker is just a terrible person with some horrible, nightmarish fantasizes.
The type of people who are down with cutting out a six-year-old’s eyes aren’t the type of people who can be trusted not to do it again. As such, I hope local police and perhaps even the larger Chinese government pour resources into finding out exactly what happened here. A civilized society can’t sit by and watch as children are being violated in such a heinous and despicable way, and this kid deserves some kind of justice. There are quite a few blind people who have grown up and proven you can accomplish great things and have a damn good time without your sight. Hopefully, this kid adds his name to that list, and prison officials eventually add this mystery woman’s real name to a list of prisoners.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/ Maryna Pleshkun
