The Curious Case of Policing in Taiwan

 By Gregory K. Taylor

Taiwan police have a unique way of catching criminals--by letting them know they are coming! While not actually tipping them off in the literal sense, they might as well, because the effect is the same.

To the foreign observer, the patrol procedures employed by the uniformed police can be a bit puzzling, if not confusing, considering the peculiar practice of patrolling with constantly activated emergency lights. It would seem that this practice of nonstop red and blue rotating lights emanating from the rooftop light bar doesn't lend itself to pulling over vehicle code violators or clearing traffic ahead--but merely assists the law breaker by providing a beacon in which to zero in on. Essentially, this negates any action to catch the bad guy in the commission of his crime. Were the perpetrator to pay only casual attention to his environment, he would have enough lead time to make good his escape.

Taiwan Police Officer in Dan Shui District

Notwithstanding, preventive patrol strategies whose purpose is to prevent crime before it occurs, decrease police response time, and interrupt in progress crimes, the general patrol method of choice is to make police presence known, but not exactly where. That is to say, the purpose is to scare off the bad guy before he commits the crime by inferring omnipresence, but not to tip him off once he has decided and is in the process of committing the crime. It would be considered ineffective police work in most jurisdictions to cruise through a neighborhood with red and blue lights flashing in a less than urgent situation. To do so takes an arrow out of one's enforcement quiver.

Taiwan also has a, well...unusually loose attitude towards law enforcement impersonators. An article written in the OZSOAPBOX Blog, titled, “Impersonating police isn’t illegal in Taiwan?” dated the 25^th of May, 2012, listed the following in its comment and response section:

This is a civilian car, not an actual police car

“I know a foreign guy down in Hualien who likes to impersonate a police officer from time to time and direct traffic. He’s been beaten up in the process at least once while 'in uniform.'”

“You certainly seem at first to be highly misinformed.
To my knowledge,
1) I am the only foreigner here in Hualien with a full Taiwanese police uniform. And, I teach at the police station.
2) I have only worn it once, and that was to a costume party on Halloween Night.
3) I have donned my “Volunteer Police” hat on a few occasions in order to direct traffic around an accident scene until the proper assistance arrived.
4) I have never been beaten up while wearing ANY uniform, nor while assisting during an emergency.
I must conclude you are either:
A) A complete idiot.
B) Anti-police, because you are a dope-smoking criminal at heart.
C) Referring to someone else.”

Another civilian car, not a real police car

If the above comments don't find you catatonically slack-jawed perhaps the accompanying photos of civilian cars decked out in full police regalia, minus the light bar, will.

This writer has never seen in all the years of coming to Taiwan the police conducting one car stop--only sobriety check point pullovers. If in the rare instance that a car stop drops in the police officer's lap the method for pulling the violator over is by using, yes, you've guessed it—the Public Address (PA) system, because the light bar has been rendered useless for any other purpose than to inform the citizenry that the police are on duty. Trying to make sense of this can give one a headache. However, it clearly works here in Taiwan and the fact that they have a low crime rate...how does one argue with that?

A Nasty Little Habit--Betel Nut

 By Gregory K. Taylor

Found in nature's holistic cabinet of pain relief are plant based medicines that are often abused for their satisfying endorphin rush. During the 1993 U.S. incursion known as “Operation Restore Hope” and the resultant Black Hawk Down calamity, America, if not the world, became aware of a plant called Khat being chewed by the local Somali militia. Decreed by segments of the western media to be a causative factor in the Somali's bravado to fight--this amphetamine-like stimulant induces euphoria and mild addiction.

Betel Nut Beauty

Similarly, the Areca nut, aka betel nut, which hails from parts of the equatorial Pacific, Asia, and slices of east Africa is chewed in much the same manner as Khat. In Vietnam, the Betel nut is so interwoven into society's social fabric that it has come to symbolize an integral part of love and marriage. Malaysian tradition offers areca nuts and betel leaves in the same manner one offers drinks to a house guest. The Areca nut is wrapped in Betel leaves with an edible lime spread (the secret sauce--if you will) and chewed mixing with the mouth's saliva forming a stimulating red chemical reaction. The red saliva is then expelled not swallowed.

Areca Nut wrapped in Betel Leaves

Streets discolored with spittle can tell as persuasive a story about a people as pictures of hieroglyphic etchings. Not immune to such practices, turn of the century America found snuff dipping and smokeless tobacco in vogue witnessed by its dotted-spattered streets. In Taiwan, so common is the ingestion of the Areca nut one can hardly walk a block without spotting a Bin Lang, 檳榔 (betel nut), outlet from the “Mom and Pop” stand to the competitive scantily clad “Betel Nut Beauty” beckoning her customers to buy from her with the lure of sexual innuendo.

Red-stained teeth

Countless scooter riders and automobiles pull to the side of the road at these outlets to make their purchases as convenient as drive-thru customers buy fast food. The Betel plant is commonly bought by the bag ranging from 20 to 40 or 50 to 80 nuts. Widely popular among taxi drivers, truck drivers, and fishermen whose long work hours require them to remain awake and alert--the abuser is easily spotted and tracked by their red-stained teeth and trail of red spittle leading to their doorstep.

Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25mpTLoxE0U

Gregory Taylor is currently in Taiwan

Vignettes of a Foreigner in a Foreign Land

By Gregory K. Taylor

Hair fashions:

Student happily poses for photo while riding Taiwan's MRT

The swirl/swish hairstyle

 The Beatles were the first to introduce to the “modern world” the revolutionary hairstyle known as the Mop Top. There have been several incarnations of this thematic coif by subsequent generations from the Gen X'ers' spiked mohawk to the Hip Hop'ers' fade. Often the hallmarks of the free-spirit found in most western cultures, these hairstyles make an independent and political statement of identity for the wearer . As for the more lockstep toe the line political systems, until recently, expressions of individuality were routinely discouraged when it came to one's outward appearance—but even that is changing. Dateline Taiwan: Hair expressions of the latest school-age generation.  Beauty is truly in the eye of the current generation.

Baton wielding Taiwanese:

I think he intended to thump me with his baton !!  This year, I have been driving for the first time in Taiwan which I always avoided in my previous visits. The reasons are many, but my main hesitation has been due to the ubiquitous motor scooters scooting in and out of traffic often passing on both sides of cars in a haphazard manner. So, with a degree of humility, I ventured into Taiwan's free-for-all traffic and as advertised I was immediately beset on all sides by these scooters like drones around a Queen bee. After a few days of this apprenticeship boot camp, I began to feel a level of satisfaction, if not smugness, with my ability to adapt in a chaotic environment.

Location of the baton wielding scooter driver

Then came the night I almost got brained by an irate scooter rider. Surrounded, as usual, by passing scooters I pulled over to the curb to wait for a friend who was exiting from the subway. Unbeknownst to me, I had cut a scooter off, who was in my blind spot, when I pulled over to the curb. Once over, the irate scooter rider passed by my driver's side window hurling Chinese obscenities. I exited my vehicle to let my friend know that I had arrived, and to my surprise the scooter rider pulled over ahead of me. With baton in hand he climbed off his scooter and walked back in my direction. Was he a policeman, I thought? There's not much distinction between a police scooter and civilian scooters. Blue and red lights to the front and rear are common to both scooters. As he continued to approach me with a contorted face, I was planning my defensive strategy for when he entered my "Def-Con 1" personal space.

Motor scooters passing to the right of cars

Once he approached close enough to see that I wasn't Chinese his demeanor began to change. The scowl now morphed to inquisitive bemusement. Not missing my Barack Obama opportunity to negotiate with my adversary, I threw him a gambit. In my best Chinese I told him that I was confused and didn't understand why he was approaching me in such a hostile manner. He was still steaming a bit, but he tried to explain that I didn't signal when I pulled to the curb. Now we were standing right in front of each other, in fact, side-by-side when he was pointing to my turn signal light. The danger pretty much negated by proximity, I apologized with a slight bow and told him I was embarrassed by my driving actions. This is the gracious thing to do when one almost kills someone in a traffic accident. We shook hands and with a slight smile he walked back to his scooter and drove away.

This was a great lesson for me about a few things, but the most important one I took away from this incident was that not all Chinese are docile, deferential, and willing to handle a situation in a non-violent manner. This guy had every intention of cracking me one, maybe two or three, on the head! I have noted this for future reference and now carry a blunt instrument of my own in the car for such violent encounters.

To get an idea of the difficulty involved in negotiating traffic with these motor scooters
see the attached video to the right  ~~~>

 Full Service Gas Stations?

Female service station attendant pumping gas

With gas in America teetering between the price of four and five dollars per gallon in any given month, it is refreshing to see Full Service being offered at gas stations in Taiwan. Long gone and never to return (anywhere in the world) are the good old days of the attendant checking your oil level, radiator coolant, wiper fluid, and tire pressure. The semi-service in Taiwan I'm told, jokingly, is more out of self-preservation from a clumsy customer who might cause the entire station to go up in flames. At the average price of $9.00 per gallon this full service should be required penance and then some. Practically, all the crude that is refined in Taiwan must be imported which explains the comparatively high price. So, the next time you top off your tank at $4.00 or $5.00 a gallon, that you must pump yourself, you might take solace in the fact that world prices are generally twice that amount.

         See attached video to the right:    ~~~>

   MY FIRST TIME DRIVING IN TAIPEI

Gregory K. Taylor is obviously still in Taiwan

Ex-Police Officer for Gun Control!

By Gregory K. Taylor

For the life of me, I just don't understand the gun craze in America. There is a national psychosis when it comes to gun ownership. As an ex-police officer in a city where gratuitous murders have become unspectacular, I lament the fascination with a weapon whose exclusive invention and design is to kill and maim. Had I the power of a King during my tenure, I would have disarmed the entire city in order to make my job that much safer. I am painfully aware, ad nauseam, of the 2^nd Amendment arguments for one's right to bear arms. I, however, personally make a distinction between a private citizen and a well regulated militia notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to the contrary; but I also recognize until the U.S. Congress amends the constitution we all have to, and do, live with the consequences of this national pandemic.

There really is an unhealthy obsession with this lethal instrument and it borders on mental illness. I can only surmise, for a great many Americans, the pleasure derived from gun ownership and its related usage stimulates a primal area of the brain that can't be satiated by more innocuous stimuli. This elemental state is too compelling and too gratifying to overcome, in all likelihood, due to the immediate and permanent effects when the gun is used as designed. I don't even understand the hunting of animals. I am at a loss to see the sportsmanship in stalking and killing a prey that is simply pursuing its life as nature intended. The bravado displayed by the hunter in all his/her regalia, the scouting, coaxing devices, flushing methods, and social chumminess, on the one hand, and then the sudden mood swing to stone cold killer--honestly, I just don't get it.

As a military reserve officer, during the Vietnam era, I've trained and familiarized myself with weapons, such as, the .50 Caliber and M60 machine guns, M79 and M203 grenade launchers, M61 hand grenade, M-16 and M-14 rifles on which I qualified as an “Expert,” I've handled C-4 plastic explosives, Bangalore torpedoes, and Claymore mines to name a few. As a police officer, my two main tools were the Colt Python .357 magnum and my12 gauge shotgun--but my best weapon, wasn't a weapon at all in this sense of the word--it was my radio. For those who might wish to assail my motives, I submit the above bona fides as a muzzle to silence knee-jerk critics as it relates to my knowledge and experience with firearms. In other words, I'll stack my weapons “know-how” and skills against most.

So, when America has another disgusting episode of mass shootings, this time of her BABIES, did you hear me, her babies--this ex-police officer, who would not have hesitated to defend those babies by putting a bullet in the head of the shooter, not only laments the tragedy of those murders, but the tragedy of America's inability to come to terms with its illness. No longer comical are the bumper stickers depicting old ladies aiming what seems to be a revolver the size of a Howitzer toward whomever is in her gun-sights as the caption reads, “Gun Control is Hitting Your Target,” or the ghoulish, now ironic, NRA slogan trumpeted by then Charlton Heston, “...[F]rom my cold dead hands.”

Too many, shall we say, undeserving people have access to a firearm. There are too many loop-holes which enable people to purchase firearms LEGALLY at gun shows. How about just too many guns are floating around in this country. For those of you who target and skeet shoot (which I have done plenty of in the past), I am not advocating the controlling of guns for that purpose. But, I will conclude by saying, paradoxically, when I was a police officer I not only carried a gun on-duty, but off-duty as well. Virtually, 24 hours a day I was armed to the teeth. When I left the police department one of the earliest things I did was to sell all my guns. I have no firearms! I haven't had any for years! What I had that most of the gun-lovers and would be psychopaths will never have is the sober temperament and on-going training to use those firearms correctly! 

Gregory Taylor is currently in Taiwan