Hi, folks – i’m new to these forae, so please excuse me if my manner seems abrupt. Nevertheless, i’m fascinated by them – didn’t know they existed, and if i had then i’d’a come on a long time ago.
Unfortunately, i was referred here by a friend who suggested that i get some news out via this method b/c it’d reach the target audience quickly and conveniently, so i’ll just jump right in with my story and leave the introductions and familiarizing 'til later. Again, please forgive –
The situation down here in Taidong happens to be going on right around me. It’s like this – there’s a Foreign Affairs head down here named John Chen who’s gonna be getting out sometime pretty soon, and another fella in the division office here in Taidong City named Peter Chen who’s itchin’ to get promoted. Peter is the problem.
My friend down here, X, happens to be the current target of Peter Chen. Mr Chen has a long history of engaging in police harassment of foreigners, and has recently run two fellas out of town in a particularly ugly and vicious way. i’ll not go into that just yet, but suffice it to say that one of the cases is still under way after already 6 months of court dates (!) and without any evidence whatsoever having been compiled or presented to the judge – except for the initial charge of using a false diploma, on which the defendant has already been convicted. The remaining charges were all listed as “suspicions” (i.e. – no evidence at the time), and none have yet had any evidence presented or compiled because, as the grapevine has it down here (yes, there aren’t that many whiteys down here, so info gets around quite quickly), they’re all fabrications.
Now, keep all that in mind as you read what i’m about to explain. There are two fellas down here, X and Z, both english teachers who’ve been in Taidong for about two or three years. Both are quite clean-cut and gentle sorts, not the type to stir up trouble or resentment at all. Both are surfers, and X is interested in music (bluegrass) where Z is interested in all things aboriginal (he speaks a good bit of the A-mei language, as i understand it).
Now Z made the mistake of showing his support for the poor fellow currently amidst prosecution; he showed up at one of the trials and, on the way out, Mr Peter Chen pointed his finger at him and stated “You’re next.” X, on the other hand, had never met Mr P.C. until two days ago (more on that later), but was made aware by a few of his friends of the fact that P.C. was going around the city here asking lots of questions about him.
But that was just the beginning. My friend X came home one day to discover that P.C. had come to his landlord and demanded a copy of all the keys to the locks in X’s home. Fortunately it’s a small place – and frankly not at all secure – so that when the landlord turned them over X was able to get all the locks changed cheaply and quickly. A few days later P.C. showed up at his home while he was away and, apparently, with two other officers searched the place.
As a sign of X’s relationship with his neighbors, although they and the landlord were all commanded not to say anything to X, just after the events in question they all reported to him what was going on. X was understandably worried. Moreover, no warrants or notification was given him of these goings on, and there is some suspicion as to whether or not these events were, in fact, legal. More on that later.
Now – jump ahead to three days ago. Z comes home at about 8:30 at night and discovers two men in plain clothes rifling through his home with flashlights, in the dark. He confronts them from the doorway, and they immediately turn on the lights and identify themselves as policemen – except that for some reason they had hidden their uniforms with plain clothes! They explained that they had been called by a neighbor who had spotted a thief in his home and were investigating the report. Z demanded they leave, and they complied.
Now, this house also happens to be X’s registered address, although he spends little time there because he’s usually out of the city, surfing near his small place on the beach (the one that got searched). So it was a great surprise to Z when Peter Chen walks in and says “There is a thief who held up a convenience store near here with a plastic bb gun, and he fits your roommate’s (X’s) description”. Mr Chen then gives a quick summary: a little less than six feet tall, brown hair, etc. Z says that X doesn’t in fact live here, and Peter Chen insists on searching the place anyway (without a warrant, mind you – Z asked to see it, Chen apparently brushed the question aside and insisted on looking anyway: i’m not real clear about the exact details on that one).
So – P.Chen looks around, but when Z says that he knows X wasn’t in town that night and that many people (me, for one) can attest to the fact, Chen asks who does live there, and Z answers: Y. Chen then goes a bit crazy and starts to rant about the evils of X (whom he’s never met, doesn’t know much about, and who hasn’t ever done anything to intentionally hurt much of anyone, so long as i’ve known him), and the evils of Mr M, frothing at the mouth about how his superior officer – John Chen – tried to keep him from prosecuting the case but in the end he’d shown him! Then, finally, P.Chen leaves, Z calls X, nobody can find Y, and everyone gets quite worried about just what the hell is going on (me included).
The next day we discover that Y was at home asleep the whole time.
Unfortunately, we also discover that Peter Chen has made a housecall to X’s girlfriend – a wonderful and quite square young lady from a very square household, to whom X has been quite completely devoted now for some 1.5 ~ 2 years – and says, in the presence of her mother (who is a very timid widow) that X is a suspected drug dealer (!) and may be involved in the theft of a local convenience store. He then attempts to question the young woman for a half an hour or so; she basically refuses to answer any of his questions, and he threatens her saying that he knows X is her boyfriend, that they’ve tracked his van to her house, that they know he spends a lot of time with her, that she could be implicated, and so on and so forth.
X, Y, and Z all decide to go in and complain to John Chen who has made it known through a third party that he’s quite willing to receive formal complaints about Peter Chen. Except that it’s Chinese New Year and of course the department head doesn’t much want to cut his vacation short. So instead the three go in to see Peter Chen and John Chen promises to send along two of his lieutenants to oversee what’s exactly taking place.
Along the way they stop off at the convenience store where all this supposedly occurred and the two witnesses – the clerk and the manager – both state definitively that the suspect wasn’t any one of the three. But the problem is that when they get to the Police station, the description seems to have changed: to someone about 5’5" with blond hair (i.e. – fitting the description of Y). Peter Chen brings in the clerk, who points at X and says that the fellow had his face, and then at Y indicating that sort of body. The three state their complaints and, in the process, X manages to get Peter Chen to admit that he had X’s keys copied – whereupon he presents him with a receipt from the locksmith and demands that he compensate. Peter Chen says that X must submit the form through the “proper channels”, and continually insists that he’s just conducting a normal investigation, the three make their complaints, and then leave.
And that’s where things stand now: three very nervous young men, two of whom (X and Z) like Taidong very much but are now worried they’re being run out of town by a renegade cop.
Personally, i think the inconsistencies speak for themselves; but of course i’ll stick around here to listen to whatever questions y’all have about the situation, and answer them as well as i can. X has been a close friend of mine for some time now, and i can assert that he has done nothing whatsoever to deserve this sort of treatment. i’m not going to be logging on over the next few days, but i promise that Sunday i’ll check back in and fill in the missing background i promise. 'Til then, i hope y’all have a good time going over this story - and once again apologize for the abrupt nature of my appearance, here.