Cleaning corpses is a professional job, and making drunk-driving offenders do it might not punish them, but punish the deceased, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
During a Taipei City Council meeting on Friday, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) suggested that repeat drunk-driving offenders should be sentenced to clean cadavers as punishment.
There were a total of 11,000 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI) reported in Taipei during 2014 and last year, and this year 8,109 more cases had been reported as of August.
During a question-and-answer session at the council, Ho said repeat offenders often have their prosecutions deferred and are ordered to perform community service such as sweeping the floor of public libraries, which serves no deterrent effect.
“You drink, you drive, you wash,” he said, suggested morgues would be a better place for such community service.
Cleaning bodies would allow repeat offenders to “wash away their sins,” Ho said.
Such punishment has been used in Thailand and some US states, while other US states require drunk driving offenders to visit a morgue.
Taiwan should emulate these examples, Ho said.
Pressed by reporters yesterday, Ko said the Taipei City Mortuary Services Office was unlikely to agree with Ho’s suggestion, as cleaning the bodies of the dead should be done by professionals.
“Cleaning cadavers is a professional job, so having drunk-driving offenders do it may be a punishment for the deceased,” he said.
“Drunk-driving offenders must be caught,” Ko said, adding that the number of deaths in the city caused by drunk driving is relatively low, but the police have to spend a lot of time checking for drunk drivers.
Ko said that he has asked the Taipei Department of Social Welfare to think of better ways to reduce the incidence of drunk driving.
Taipei Mortuary Services Office Superintendent Huang Wen-ting (黃雯婷) said that while her office respects Ho’s “creative suggestion,” it has to consider other factors, including religious rituals and practices and respect for the deceased.
Ho’s suggestion will be discussed among city agencies and a response is expected within a month, she said.
Additional reporting by Huang Chien-hao
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
RSS