A recent gang war in Taichung has green and blue politicians pointing fingers and city residents wondering whether the city can sustain its dropping crime rates.
City police have responded to four gang-related attacks in the past 11 days in which a total of 50 bullets were fired.
All the attacks occurred in broad daylight.
Democratic Progressive Party City Councilor Fan Sung-yu (范淞育) has called on Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) to take responsibility, saying Taichung had possibly become the shooting capital of Taiwan since Hu came to office in 2002.
Fan said that Taichung police had wasted assistance from the central government by spending too much time trying to catch drunk drivers and issuing tickets instead of addressing the city's major problems.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) City Councilor Yang Cheng-chung (
Taichung has been combatting recurring gang feuds and violence for more than a decade. Notable cases have included Wu Tung-huang (
Also that year, two people were killed and three wounded when a fight broke out during negotiations at a tea house between boss Lin Ming-hua (
Gang violence in Taichung had decreased between 2005 and last year after Lin's gang and that of rival leader Chang Hsi-ming (
However, two men were injured on March 12 during a shootout in a residential area, which was followed by rifle attacks on a pub and a massage parlor by three suspects five days later, in which 30 shots were fired.
Police said that both incidents were part of a gang war between rival bosses surnamed Liu (
After the Lunar New Year, top gang leaders appeared to be responding to police efforts to orchestrate a truce, but each effort collapsed and was followed by fresh violence.
Director-General of the National Police Agency Hou You-yi (
No sooner had Hou left than gang boss Lin Chen-hsing (
Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (
Hsiao said that despite the recent incidents, crime statistics on the whole had been dropping since the end of last year.
He also said that polls had shown growing satisfaction among city residents, reflecting overall satisfaction with the improvement in public safety.
Hsiao said that the city government was focusing on the problem of gang violence, adding that he had told the police force to do everything possible to solve the crimes.
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