When Sun An-tso (孫安佐), who threatened to shoot up his Pennsylvania school, apologized in court, he said that it was a “very immature joke” and that he had caused his parents a lot of trouble.
The judge reportedly told him “the word is not trouble for what you’ve brought to your family. You have brought them shame, which is an even higher offense.”
The judge admonished Sun to be careful with what he says and does in the future and to start over again after returning home, adding that she hoped he had learned his lesson.
The actions of the US judiciary in Sun’s case highlight a fundamental concept: Even in a democratic society that places high value on the freedom of expression, some so-called “jokes” are not allowed.
Some say Americans are too naive, getting upset over nothing and overreacting by making too much fuss even over a “joke” by an 18-year-old kid, but it really would be more accurate to say that Taiwanese — who are very unlikely to pay too much attention to that kind of “joke” — are too insensitive and ignorant and lack any kind of risk awareness.
After 260 days in state and federal detention, Sun was released by the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and he returned to Taiwan on Dec. 11 last year.
You would think that would be the end of it, but that was not the case. Instead, something dumbfounding happened.
The very same Sun who was told by the judge to be careful about what he said and did, the very same Sun who made a joke so shocking that even former classmates and media outlets took a very cautious approach, was treated as a hero upon his return home.
Everything he said or did — even anything he was said to have said or done — was reported in the media and he became an Internet sensation.
Is the difference between Taiwan and the US really that big?
What would have happened if Sun had studied in Taiwan and said what he said here instead of in the US?
Would any classmates who heard him have laughed and then forgotten about it, or would they have told their teacher, who would have passed it on to the school authorities?
Would the school have tried to handle it quietly, so as not to look bad, instead of treating it as a terrorist threat, or would they have gone directly to the police?
Would the police have done what their US counterparts did, and quickly taken Sun into custody, questioned him over allegations that he had made a terrorist threat and then detained him?
Would they have followed up by searching Sun’s residence and then kept him in jail for eight or nine months before releasing him?
Although Sun was in the wrong, why would not people in Taiwan, where there are so many bad examples, do the same thing as he did?
It seems that to many Taiwanese, it is almost part of their DNA to think that any kind of “joke” can be tolerated, and that there is no reason to take any “joke” seriously.
Or perhaps it is that as we grow up, we become numb because there are so many so-called “jokes” that no one ever has to take responsibility for and that might even become wildly popular with a lot of people.
A couple of examples of such “jokes” are Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) seemingly serious comments four years ago about cracking down on “five big corruption cases” and “tearing down the wall” dividing residents with different backgrounds.
Both remarks turned out to be “very immature jokes,” but still did not stop Ko from being re-elected in November last year.
Then there is Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), whose fans do not seem to care the slightest about his recent comment at a city council meeting that he would not fulfill his campaign promises during his first term in office.
Perhaps one day we can all do the same thing and make “very immature jokes” that we do not have to take any responsibility for.
Not only did Sun have to spend 260 days in jail in the US, his parents had to spend huge sums of money on his defense.
Hopefully, Sun’s case will make everyone stop and reflect, and see that we Taiwanese must learn to draw a red line for what kind of “jokes” can be considered acceptable, and reject politicians who overstep the line and turn politics into a joke — as well as anyone else who oversteps the line and treats terrorististic threats as a “joke.”
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired National Hsinchu University of Education associate professor and a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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