The notorious Bamboo Union gang marked the arrival of spring at the Marriott Hotel Taipei with opulent fanfare. It sparked a public backlash when it recruited nearly 200 young women dressed in traditional qipao to welcome guests to the lavish party.
The authorities responded by stepping up raids on venues and cracking down on gang activity.
The gang’s illegal activities are no secret. Gangs used to keep a low profile and refrained from provoking the authorities, but have become increasingly bold.
The ostentatious spectacle at the hotel has shown their defiance of police authority and utter disregard of what others might think. Despite knowing that thousands of gang members were in the hotel having fun, police were prohibited from entering the premises due to hotel regulations. Instead, they were only allowed to verify guests’ identity at the entrance.
The Bamboo Union exploited the regulations and held the party at a hotel to avoid a police raid.
It is strange that legislation means that those with power often sit behind desks giving orders, while the rights to investigate crime, arrest criminals and search premises require a warrant from a prosecutor or judge. This situation means that police are limited to checking identification, but have to shoulder the blame when something bad happens.
Gangsters have no fear of the police. In 2014, when off-duty detective Hsueh Chen-kuo (薛貞國) said that he was a police officer, he was beaten to death by a mob at the Spark ATT bar in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義). Those involved got off with a slap on the wrist.
Despite dedicated efforts by police to catch criminals, it is futile when wrongdoers are given light penalties.
How do people expect the police to deter crime under such a system?
A Chinese-language report with the headline “Why gangs are fearless of police” said that if the police had maintained a strict program against violence and drugs, gangsters would not have become so fearless and arrogant.
However, despite endless investigations and raids, and grueling patrols, police are still rebuked.
When police had full authority, they could rein in gang activity, but with societal changes, gangs have forgone ethics and principles and begun to fight over territory and illegal operations, including fraud rings.
They often taunt the police with flamboyant spectacles.
It is unfair to point the finger at the police when there has been no overhaul of the system or legislation.
The police do not fear gangsters, nor would they hold back in a crackdown on criminal activity. The public should throw their support behind the police and advocate a stronger enforcement environment so they can do a better job of maintaining social order.
Mark Chih is a senior police officer.
Translated by Rita Wang
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US