| Subject: Gangland Attack on Foreign Residents in Hsin Chu Taiwan |
Author:
SSETT
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Date Posted: 22:41:39 06/02/04 Wed
An armed attack by an unidentified organized criminalextortion gang upon 6 foreign residents and teachers
in the early morning of May 23, 2004 at an establishment opular with foreign residents in HsinChu Taiwan has been confirmed.
Your assistance is required to ensure the futuresafety of foreigners and teachers on Taiwan. The Police have refuse to intervene as this case wasperpetrated by local organized criminal gangs.
Please call the Foreign Affairs Police in Hsin Chu and
ask them what they are going to do about this case if
anything.
This issue may affect us all in the near future. Only
if we act together can we insure our future safety on
Taiwan.
Foreign Affairs Police
HSIN-CHU City
#1, Chung Shan 1 Road, Hsin Chu
Tel: 035-242-103
Message from the victims.
"First off, we both would like to thank everyone outthere for their support and concern throughout thiswhole ordeal. It is very comforting to know that theex-pat community in Hsinchu (Xinzhu) is alive and welland we thank you for all the flowers, gifts, andvisits that we received while in the hospital. We have since been released from the hospital and feel that there is just cause for a new post to be added that will set the record straight and correct some of the
many errors and crazy ideas that have been added by people that were not even around on the night in question.
We arrived at the Pig and Whistle about 1:00 am on Saturday night and planned to stay for only a short period of time. We were not drunk when we arrived, had one beer downstairs and then took one upstairs to dance for about an hour, and we were not drunk when we
left at the end of the night. Everything was going great and it really was one of the best nights that we have had out - we do not even go out very often here in Hsinchu (Xinzhu) and others have even remarked how they never really see us out that frequently. The details are still a little hazy because it seemed to happen so fast and so all of a sudden that we have played and replayed the details attempting to determine where and why this whole situation took place. We believe the problem began when we were on
the dance floor and one of the Taiwanese guys started dancing around my girlfriend, her friend (also a female) and myself (all three of us are actually from Canada) and he began bumping into us a little - the dance floor was a little crowded at the time so we did not think much of it. Over the course of the next 30-40 minutes we noticed that he was sort of giving dirty looks to us and the others around us and appeared to be in a generally bad mood. The Taiwanese guy then walked to the bar and grabbed a glass of
beer, went to the dance floor, and then attempted to throw the entire glass of beer onto my girlfriend.
Now, I was not out to fight and still remained fairly calm at this point as only a small amount of the beer actually hit my girlfriend. We continued to dance at which point the guy walked over to his friends table and began to laugh and point over to us. The same Taiwanese guy then walked up to my girlfriend's back and stood right behind her and appeared to be about to push or hit her from behind. At this point, I walked closer and placed myself between the guy and my girlfriend and attempt to diffuse the situation. The Taiwanese guy immediately became upset and his friends
at the table began shouting and jumped over the railing running at us. In an instant, the entire dance floor became a giant blood bath with about 6-8 Taiwanese guys (who we have since heard belong to a gang) smashing glasses, bottles, ashtrays, etc. over our heads and against the walls to use as weapons. I am unsure as to how many times I was hit and cut, but I do know that I was rushed to the emergency room with at least six major cuts on my head (one cut that is approximately 8 inches in length that severed my
temporal artery), two on my hands, and one on my arm that all required stitches. The doctor, when asked how many stitches I actually received replied too many to count!? At the bar the Taiwanese guys attacked men and women and also cut my girlfriend very severely causing her to receive stitches on her head for four major wounds - one just centimeters above her right eye. She was kicked, punched, cut, and had her hair pulled all by these guys who were totally psychotic and had no regard for life or the long unwritten rule regarding not hitting a lady. During the fight, one of the Taiwanese guys actually ran out of the Pig and Whistle and grabbed a baseball bat (someone heard him say that he was going to get a gun, but fortunately
for us that did not happen) and came back into the bar. The guy ran into the room crazily swinging the bat and attempted to hit my girlfriends very tiny (under 5 feet tall) female friend in the head at which point I moved her out of the way and blocked the swing causing me to receive a fractured wrist. He also hit me with the bat and bruised my ribs, and I have since heard that he hit another South African guy in the head causing him to receiving stitches for the wound.
The entire fight lasted at least five minutes with us
attempting to leave and end the fight on multiple occasions with no success.
We have to thank the people at the bar that intervened on our behalf and helped us in so many ways that we could never fully repay them. Two of the biggest damn South Africans with the biggest damn hearts that I have ever known are at the top of the list and are forever in our “good graces?- if you two were not there that night there is no doubt in our minds that these unbalanced guys would have killed us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts - you know who you are so there is no need to mention names. There was also at least one other South African guy who
jumped in and, as mentioned above, had to receive medical attention for his wounds, a very nice couple from Ireland who were here for a vacation only, and possibly a few others that were lost in the confusion - we thank you all for your help and you will never beforgotten.
As far as the rest of you cowards that were seen idly standing by watching the whole ordeal take place with women being attacked and beaten with glass and fists I hope that your conscience haunts you and reminds you daily of what you did not do and what you should have been forced, through fear or good morality, to do. I mean, leave chivalry out of the whole situation and just focus on social responsibility and ethics for a minute and you would have more than enough reason to act. We do understand the fact that you should not get involved in every minor dispute that comes along and the fear that can accompany a situation such as this, but not to at least attempt to end the fight and help fellow foreigners who have been so severely injured get away safe??? All I can say is that everyone needs help at one point or another and one day you or your mother or sister are going to be in a jam and how
would you feel if you saw others just standing by watching and hiding behind the curtain of “this does not concern me?or “I should not get involved, I did not see who started it?
Some posts have been asking the question as to whether or not we plan to press charges and we are taking this under careful consideration. If this were Canada, then there would be no question whatsoever and the charges would have been laid that night. But this being Taiwan and the justice system here being what it is makes it a very tough call with doubt being cast at to whether or not they would even be charged, have to pay the fine/go to jail, retaliation, etc. We do fully understand our sense of social responsibility and want to do our best to see that justice has been served and prevent things of this nature happening again, but we are also concerned for our safety and would very much like to enjoy the rest of our stay here in Taiwan.
As for the Pig and Whistle, we (and many others) believe that they have seriously failed to fulfill legal and ethical responsibilities and we will most likely be contacting legal representation in the very near future. They too failed to attempt to diffuse the situation and end the fight, they allowed one man to leave the bar and get a bat to re-enter and continue the fight, the police were not called, or at least did not arrive, until the fight was well over and we had left, and only after numerous requests to do so was the ambulance called to assist with significant
medical concerns. No attempt was made to offer first aid care by the staff and only one employee was seen handing us tissue to place over our cuts -one being a severed artery. The Pig and Whistle offers no form of protection (security/bouncers) and are themselves too afraid to even become involved when problems arise."
Thank you for your support on this issue,
Good luck,
A.
=====
http://www.geocities.com/taiwanteacher2002/index.html
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