Judges of Tengzhou People’s Court in Shandong province swear an oath in front of Chinese national flag on Dec 2, 2014 to celebrate China’s first Constitution Day. [Photo by Song Haicun/Xinhua]

MA CAIYUN, a Beijing judge, was killed along with her husband when two people shot them on Friday. The killers later committed suicide. One of the shooters was confirmed to have been involved in a divorce case that Ma had presided over. China Youth Daily on Monday called for better protection of judicial staff:

Many people said that the killer who was involved in the divorce case might feel he was unfairly treated. But that is no excuse for murder.

However, many people do feel justice is often bent. They might not resort to such drastic action, but driven by such feelings, they lose respect for the judiciary and tend to use violence or harsh language against judicial staff. We cannot deny the fact that many judges and policemen encounter violence when enforcing the law.

The root cause lies in the lack of rule of law. Judges are not as independent as they are supposed to be, they are under the influence of various levels of officials, interests, even personal relations. Thus when somebody loses a lawsuit, he or she might attribute that to corruption and seek revenge.

Another popular judicial practice nowadays is that courts tend to mediate instead of letting those who commit illegal deeds pay for them. Thus lawsuits sometimes become trouble-seeking competitions, with those who can create the most trouble for the court winning. How can people trust the judiciary under such conditions?

Since 2014, many judges have reportedly resigned, because the pressure is too much for them, the pay rather low, and they have no sense of purpose. That's a big problem awaiting a solution. We mourn for Ma, and we hope actions will be taken so that such a tragedy does not happen again.