Policing in Taiwan

In Taiwan, there is a long history of colonization and a very multicultural society where people represent various identities. There is a long history of power struggles and violence. There is a long debate about the current position of Taiwanese national identity. There is a long history surrounding political freedoms in Taiwan. Not until recently were Taiwanese citizens given the chance to freely voice their political opinions.

The police force has also been in Taiwan for a long time. Starting with the Japanese police force during early Japanese colonization, the initial role was to assist in the colonial project. Today, the Taiwanese police act mainly as peacekeepers. They politely go about their “beats” and hope to resolve conflicts with limited confrontation. They concern themselves more officially when the work that they are doing can be followed more officially (i.e. a call that went through police radio can be followed-up on). The police also accept bribes and use the money collected to secure promotions.

The police do not wish to engage in largely confrontational relationships in part due to the history. They do not expect to be viewed well if they go about trying to exercise authority. The article leaves one with the impression that the Taiwanese police are not perceived as having a lot of authority. What was really striking was the description of the police officer temporarily shutting down the illegal street businesses. Yes it was a very sudden show of force and as mentioned in the article, people did not know that they were doing something illegal, they just thought that the police coming through to tear-down there businesses once every few months was a routine occurrence. It seemed so strange, the business owners did not rebel or protest, they just fought them to get there items inside of the store as quickly as possible.

The police officer did not care about what happened afterwards. All that he wanted was for the street to be clear long enough to take a picture to file in the official records. Infact, by the time he had reached the end of the street the restaurant owners were re-setting-up to serve lunch.

What was even more strange to read about was the group of women who were assisting them in clearing out the street. They did not seem to care about the end results from the description and that the restaurant owners still continued to serve food in the streets afterwards. They were there to assist the police in a cause that they cared about passionately and they did not seem to make a fuss when there day’s efforts became pointless in the end. 

It was said that the business owners did not know that there actions were illegal. It seems so strange that there is no loud fuss to this type of action. There is no uproar to what appears to be an abuse of power to the vendors who do not understand that there businesses are illegal and there is no uproar from a citizenry who have ineffective policing. These actions show that the Taiwanese citizenry still do not actively have a large voice in democracy in Taiwan.