Abuse of foreigner on MRT sparks criticism of police

 I heard a Taiwanese man, fluent in English, cursed out a British ex-pat and his Taiwanese girlfriend on the MRT train in Taipei a few days ago. I also heard that the ex-pat, who passes his time filming and sending YouTube videos of Taiwan transgressions, etc., was in his sort filming the encounter that the Taiwanese commuter dared him to film.
     We don't know what happened before the smart phone, held by the ex-pat's girlfriend, started filming. Perhaps it is as the Taiwanese man said, that he was pushed by the ex-pat and was not apologized to. In three years living in Taiwan I have been apologized to perhaps five out of hundreds of inconsiderate times I've been offended or treated rudely by someone on foot or in a vehicle. More frankly, I have not apologized to anyone in Mandarin and have not had the opportunity to do so to anyone I offended in English; an apology doesn't see appropriate here. When someone is standing in your way, you say, "Stand aside a little," instead of the idiomatic, "Excuse me."
     I haven't watched the video. You watch it and tell me if what the Taiwanese man said rings true as I heard it does. I will not prejudice the case with my assessment of the quality of a Western-bred human being who professes to being an ESL educator in Taiwan nor will I comment on the probable reason for him being here and not employed in his own homeland.
     All I can say is, I agree with the police that the ex-pat should have pressed the emergency button on the train and not only the smart phone camera button. As a New Yorker, used to telling people what I think of them, I have no comment; only a stiff upper lip. 

 I also noticed that over 7,000 viewers have read the Taipei Times article; a very large amount of views. There is a reason for why so many English speakers find the article intriguing..I wonder. 

Abuse of foreigner on MRT sparks criticism of police
FOOT-DRAGGING?Police arguments about jurisdiction meant MRT security footage was deleted before police viewed it. A Taiwanese suspect was brought in for questioning

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter





A viral video of a Taiwanese man surnamed Liao, who is accused of hurling a torrent of racial abuse at a foreign resident on a train on Taipei MRT’s Tamsui-Xinyi line is pictured on Youtube.
Screengrab from Youtube


People First Party (PFP) Taipei City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday called for better communication between Taipei City Police precincts in handling cases that take place in the city’s MRT system, after a foreigner posted a video showing that he and his Taiwanese girlfriend had been humiliated on an MRT carriage.


During a Taipei City Council question-and-answer session, Huang showed a video clip recorded last month by Christopher Raymond Hall, a Briton, which Hall uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday.


The footage showed Hall and his girlfriend being verbally abused on a train operating on the MRT Tamsui-Xinyi Line by a man who subjected the couple to a barrage of racist remarks and personal attacks.


Huang questioned the efficiency of the city’s police system, saying that the police were unable to obtain footage of the incident from surveillance cameras installed on MRT trains because more than one week had passed before the police stations finally decided who had jurisdiction over the case, and the footage had already been deleted.


Quoting from Hall’s video, in which Hall said he was told by the police that he had to tell them which MRT station the dispute had taken place in before a case could be opened, Huang said the police were too slow to respond to the incident.


“No one involved in a fight will remember at which station an argument began,” Huang said.


“I hope that from now on [the police] will stop asking such idiotic questions as: ‘When did you start the argument?’” she said.


Taipei Police Commissioner Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) told the council that the protracted time it took police stations to work out responsibility over the incident indicated that there had been a communication problem between the police and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC).


Chiu said the case was taken by the Daan Precinct (大安), which forwarded the case to prosecutors.


He said the department would facilitate communication with the TRTC.


TRTC general manager Yen Pang-chieh (顏邦傑) said the police had difficulty finding footage of the incident because Hall did not inform MRT security personnel at the time of the dispute and chose to file a report at a police station instead.


Yen said that cases that involve incidents on MRT carriages are forwarded to precincts by location, but both the time and location at which the incident took place were found to be missing in Hall’s report.


He said that people should use the emergency button in the carriages when in danger, as the train would stop at the next station and police and security personnel could take swift action to address any problem.


It would also help investigators find the footage needed for investigation, he said.


The Taipei City Police Department’s Daan District (大安) precinct yesterday brought a Taiwanese man, a security guard surnamed Liao (廖), in for questioning and forwarded the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, recommending indictment for slander and defamation.


Liao reportedly told police he had been angry at Hall’s attitude, which is why he shouted at the couple, adding that he wished to apologize for causing a scene that led to social scrutiny.


Additional reporting by Chiu Chun-fu




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