A sense of justice is the minimum standard for morality in any society. If that sense is corrupted, the society is in danger of moral deterioration. Our society seems to be showing signs of a weakening sense of justice, as revealed by the following incident.

Last Friday, in Chongqing, a policeman was stabbed to death while trying to control a knife-wielding criminal single-handedly. No passers-by offered help even as he desperately sought it.

I was not mainly targeting these passers-by when I lamented the loss of a sense of justice; I was referring to some people who posted comments online disdaining or even cursing the policeman.

And when a newspaper com-mentator expressed indignation at the "unscrupulous words" of these people, they turned on the writer blaming him for "unscrupulously defending" the police.

I don't know how these people developed so strong a fury against the police in general. Most likely they have suffered the condescending manner of some policemen or were wronged or bullied by some ill-natured officers. But that does not excuse their cursing the policeman, who sacrificed his life fighting a dangerous criminal who was later found to have killed four pedestrians before he was spotted by the officer.

Zhou Xin was a police officer from a community station in Fuling district, Chongqing municipality. He was going to an eatery for lunch, not wearing his uniform, when he saw the thug with a dagger.

Realizing the man was posing a threat to the public, Zhou ordered him to surrender the knife. But the man thrust at him instead. A fight ensued and the policeman was stabbed three times by the thug, who was much taller and stronger. During the fight, Zhou asked pedestrians for help but none of them did anything.

If it is understandable that these pedestrians dare not join the fight for fear of being wounded, it is totally unacceptable that some appeared to be glad at Zhou's death. How could they be so heartless? No matter how reasonable they may be in resenting police for some unpleasant experiences, how could they delight in a courageous crime-fighter's death? No matter how many other policemen have done something wrong, no one has the right to insult an officer like Zhou, who fought for the safety of the people. Zhou was a hero, an unmistakable hero!

Respecting heroes is a good tradition in any nation's culture. The Chinese nation particularly worships heroism. In its thousands of years of struggles against foreign invasions and natural calamities, the Chinese people have greatly admired those who sacrificed their personal interests and even lives for the good of the nation and society. This is a valuable tradition.

However, for some years, these values have been challenged by some people, who disparage the promotion of heroism as ideological brainwashing and even inhumane. Many people no longer revere heroes. They're even reticent about saying they were moved by some heroic behavior. Even the above-mentioned article rapping the netizens who jeered the Chongqing police officer said: "You may not laud the hero, but you should not be so apathetic as becoming unscrupulous."

Such a compromising attitude just reflects the social mentality of shunning heroism.

Why has our society become this way? Americans even took their returned POWs in the Iraqi wars as national heroes. Why do we dare not acclaim a policeman who heroically fought a brutal criminal? What happened to our sense of right and wrong? Something must have gone wrong with our society.

Of course, things have not deteriorated to the extent that heroism is completely dead. The fact that tens of thousands of common people voluntarily went to the funeral of Zhou Xin proved that the broad masses still admire heroism out of a sense of justice. Those people who vilified the hero were only a small part of society. But their online comments are a bad influence. They should be vociferously repudiated. So far they haven't been.

E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

About the author:

刘式南 高级编辑。1968年毕业于武汉华中师范学院（现华中师范大学）英文系。1982年毕业于北京体育学院（现北京体育大学）研究生院体育情报专业。1982年进入中国日报社，先后担任体育记者、时政记者、国际新闻编辑、要闻版责任编辑、发稿部主任、《上海英文星报》总编辑、《中国商业周刊》总编辑等职。现任《中国日报》总编辑助理及专栏作家。1997年获国务院“特殊贡献专家政府津贴”。2000年被中华全国新闻工作者协会授予“全国百佳新闻工作者”称号。2006年获中国新闻奖二等奖（编辑）。