Dispute with neighbors -- I think the police are biased against foreigners

Hehe … “ why can’t we just hate each other “ ? … we can … it’s not great though … ask @Rocket , he gets all flustered sometimes

It could be a crime.

Article 315-1 of Criminal Code of ROC
An offense with one of the following circumstances shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than three hundred thousand yuan:

  1. Uses instruments or equipment without reason to peep at or eavesdrop on other’s non-public activities, speeches, talks, or the private part of the body
  2. Uses audio recording, photographic, visual-taping, or electromagnetic means without reason to record other’s non-public activities, speeches, talks, or the private bodily part

妨害秘密罪是告訴乃論,在法律上是「不告不理」,張承瑞建議如果民眾發現空拍機有偷拍侵犯隱私疑慮,可先以攝錄器材如手機、相機等反蒐證,並拍攝到操作空拍機的行為人,報警處理,由警方檢視影帶是否有拍攝到屬於隱私的私人畫面。

Your honor, my reason is … what’s my reason … what can my reason be … uh, uh, uh he snores!

I assume if you set up a camera on the roof of the building you reside in pointing to someon’s window does not come under that law?

1 Like

They don’t call him Crusher for nuttin’. :grin:

2 Likes

I agree and I’ve 20 years under my belt, much of it working with Taiwanese daily.

Mafia don’t get involved in regular biz disputes where I’m from, but they do here. I’ve been threatened by mafia at work when I worked for a Taiwanese company .

Also tonnes of petty lawsuits about trivial shit and a culture of passive aggressive behaviour and stealing from, ripping off business partners who are supposed to be ‘friends’.

Snide comments about co-workers weight or color or race, especially to females.

Jealousy , back biting and envy of some foreigners for having a job or getting treated relatively well.

Ignoring child abuse is or was a big problem
or at least a reluctance to get the authorities involved.

Hopefully many of those issues above are becoming lessened with the younger generation. You might not encounter them so much you don’t work here in Taiwanese businesses. But as we see the same can happen with neighbours.

Some friendly folks for sure. Foreigners are generally pretty welcome . Most people just getting through their day.

My biggest problem is not any of that though, I find most locals too damn quiet and shy these days and there’s a general awkwardness around ‘foreigners’. Never thought I’d say that 20 years ago!

6 Likes

19 posts were split to a new topic: Organized crime in Taiwan

If it goes to court then ask for the footage of you destroying the camera, when they show it you have prove that they peeped on you, simple. Counter sue for invading your privacy.

I have been witness to a negotiation with loan sharks that showed up several time at the office threatening my employer. Ones your involved in that stuff, not easy to get out. In the end he and the family fled to Shanghai (or somewhere else in China).

5 Likes

tacokederui

keep us updated.

I have neighbors in the building behind mine who are close enough they could see into my room in they wanted to.

I keep the blinds closed.

1 Like

Just scrolling and saw yyy’s older post. I’ve had to make complaints several times when I lived in a noisy neighborhood. The police do respond if you write in English, albeit more slowly, but there are ways around it. First, you don’t have to give a real name if you make the complaint online. I’m sure not every city has an online complaint system, but you can use a Chinese name and use a burner email each time. If you can’t write in Chinese and don’t have a friend to do it, explain the problem in simple statements and use Google Translate. It’s not great, but Taiwanese don’t write Chinese perfectly when they’re online anyway. For a situation like this, you can upload pictures that would explain most of the problem anyway. I always included pictures of stores and their noise equipment.
Practically every time I made a complaint, I got a response. Sometimes it was just saying that the noise was not excessive, which probably means they went at the wrong time, other times they spoke to the manager and the noise level went down for a week.
Alternatively, hire a person to make a complain, or go talk to the troublemaker directly if you don’t want to get friends involved. No need for gangsters.

1 Like

I didn’t know this forum was like 8chan for Taiwan expats ha. The title of this got changed by a moderator. It’s quite shameless to excuse other people’s xenophobia and racism. I did file a complaint at the police station in English which was ignored, then I filed at New Taipei City government police station and they just passed it back to the local station here. Which makes me wonder if my neighbors know someone at the station. And if I’m dealing with some sort of 關係 bull.

Anyway, I tried the passive aggressive thing. I put my own cameras up that lined the border between us. They called the police saying I was violating their privacy. And they don’t even live there. I can’t believe they had the nerve to ask me to take down my cameras after they filmed my house and bedroom window for 5 months straight.

Anyway, the police asked me to take them down initially and I said no way. It’s discrimination to allow the neighbors to film my house and bedroom window, but then ask me to take down my cameras because it points onto their rooftop. So then I got my lawyer on the phone and MOFA police and threatened a discrimination lawsuit. The police then said they weren’t asking me, but it was just the neighbor’s request. I said no f’in way would I take them down.

The neighbors agreed to settle if I would take my cameras down. I have a whole sh*t ton (pun intended) of evidence of 100+ birds landing after their feeding time and literally crawling all over the rooftop. Where my clothes dry, above my bedroom window sill etc.

I ended up paying the 2500NT for their camera which was not even an outdoor camera. It was shielded by cardboard because it wasn’t even waterproof. I also agreed to move out as part of the settlement.

If you still think that people here aren’t xenophobic or racist then why is it that when I tried to rent a new apartment, people specifically told me they don’t rent to foreigners? One person even said because they don’t want alcohol or parties etc. Newsflash to everyone on this site. I don’t drink alcohol -ever. I don’t smoke. I don’t have parties.

And it’s not so easy to move, I’m not a child living in some small place. My place is large and I have a cat, a ton of furniture, I work full time and take computer science courses. I’m extremely busy everyday. It’s so convenient ESPECIALLY when you face discrimination because landlords won’t rent to foreigners.

Yes, these neighbors were upset because I reached over and chucked what amounted to 3-5kg of bird food that was placed under my bedroom window at 6:30am. That’s why they put the camera on my house aiming at my bedroom window. But I had asked them politely many times to stop feeding the birds there, but they were rude. Swore at me in front of my landlords and told me to leave Taiwan.

I’ve decided to stay in Taiwan, I really think my neighbors have given me a bad impression of Taiwanese people. When I think about my landlords and friends - they are really kind. My landlords actually supported me and helped me go to the police station.

However, please let’s try not to ignore the fact that the majority of Taiwanese hold negative stereotypes of foreign people. A commenter said on this thread that if a foreigner so much as sneezes the media will report on it. It’s not right that we give people a pass to discriminate. If Taiwan wants to be more diverse they are going to have to get used to the fact that some people speak other languages, these people come in different colors, and they are not all alcoholics and sex machines.

2 Likes

I am :bowing:( I wish)
You had a bad experience and there is a certain amount of discrimination from some . As you say, also some very good people. Assholes are assholes wherever they may live . You just have to accept differences but chill a bit .
Sometimes the right course of action seems obvious . It’s annoying when your daily life gets ruined by these things , but I just go with the flow these days and bide my time

1 Like

7 posts were split to a new topic: .kavalandispute

is here anyone that think people in Taiwan aren’t xenophobic or racist?

3 Likes

They deleted my title to this thread which said Taiwanese people are xenophobic adn racist. The current title isn’t what I originally wrote. And many people here were defending the neighbors. Ha, I guess my original title was quite harsh though. It also said don’t waste your time living here.

I would never go to a police station here by myself for a serious matter. That would be daft.

2 Likes

Hi Taco, I’m the “they” you speak of. We – the moderators and the regulars – like this site to be useful and welcoming to many people, so sometimes we change thread titles to what we consider more appropriate. In this case, I wanted the title to give a clear and concise indication of what the thread is about and not to sound overly negative.

Also, as this thread is the Legal forum, it should focus on legal issues rather than cultural (or other) issues. If you are objectively discriminated against in a legal sense, then yes, we’d love to hear about it here. If you want to rant about how you think Taiwanese in general are xenophobic, starting a separate thread would be more appropriate. You may notice that I already split the “Taiwanese are never xenophobic” (or words to that effect) discussion and the organized crime into separate threads.

6 Likes

yes, it would