You know in whatever situation neighborhood or restaurant or at work or something whatever.
Someone harassed you in some form.
Can you register with the police or somewhere or what just put on a record not as a complaint that needs action but just put on a record?
Just fyi, it won’t necessarily be public information. If a court case is settled before the first decision, you won’t find it online. If it is online, it won’t necessarily have the parties’ names (or full names).
If the complaint is administrative as opposed to judicial, afaik it won’t be found online unless and until it succeeds (at least in the first instance), if it happens to be in a category that gets published online.
Another thing: if you just want evidence of the fact that you made a specific complaint at a specific time, a legal deposit letter should do the trick.
You can post it here and we will take note of it, just for the record.
Yes, you can do that with the police. It’s called 備案 (instead of 報案, which is a formal criminal complaint to the police). However, the only thing the police does is record the incident. They won’t investigate or take any actions. There is no consequence for the offender.
Yes you can call the police. But, and this is a big one, the person can then use your complaint to file a suit against you.
Public harassment or threats are a criminal
Matter so once you call the police you lose control over any outcome.
Usually the police will side with the local unless there are clear witnesses and evidence towards the offender. In that case they will do their best to ignore you and convince you your complaint isn’t worth following through. Then a few days/weeks later you’ll get a notice from the police that the person you complained about is suing yoi.
Speaking from personal experience I had someone that was causing me all sorts of grief call the police on me making a wide range of accusations. When the police arrived I politely told them to wait outside until my partner came home. My partners sister was inside the house with me. The person continued making unsubstantiated allegations.
Once everyone was there they were allowed into the house to get their household registration certificate. He was claiming it was his house. He was registered living in another house.
At this point the police took my side but only because there was good history between myself and one of the local officers. I saved his father after he had a heart attack and came off his bicycle. And they lived about 500m from our place. I would walk past their house on my way to work.
That didn’t stop this person demanding the police report. The police became quite abusive towards him. Still he kept going. Then he went to my workplace and tried having me fired from my job. And caused a lot of trouble between myself and my partners family. So much trouble that I’m considering leaving Taiwan for good.
Sorry to hear that. Sounds like police are bad pretty much everywhere in the world (actually more like the system is broken and this is a symptom)
Can you point to any evidence that the police usually side with locals? It seems in your case they sided with who had the Guanxi not whether you were a local or not.
You only have to search through forumosa to find examples. And it isn’t just the police. Taiwanese that have tried to have a go at me have expected other locals to just take their side. I’ve been lucky I knew most of the locals in the places these things happened.
However one time a person caused all sorts of trouble. Claimed I assaulted them. Demanded the police be called. I knew everyone at the complex and there were multiple witnesses including staff and cctv that proved he caused the trouble. The manager at the complex sided with him and refused to call the police because they knew I was friends with the precinct superintendent. I was eventually told I had to pay more at the complex and prohibited from using things that locals were allowed to use.
Later I found out that the manager and brother were under police investigation for fraud and some kind of malicious manipulation to be given contracts. It involved vote rigging. I never found out the outcome of that.
Around the same time some old toad like gangster looking senior citizen claimed I owed him money. Same complex. I’d never even met the guy before. Never gambled. Don’t drink. Never borrowed money.
I found it easier to go to a new complex. Started training with a bunch of off duty police at that one. Was never sure if they were assigned to watch me or if they really trained there. After I changed jobs I started at another complex. When I went back to that one only one of the police still trained there. He reminded me of the senior sergeant at my local police station back home. Was always polite. Was obvious he went there to train.
And in that first case the police were completely on his side. It wasn’t until he showed them his household registration that they changed. He was registered as living at another house while claiming I locked him out of his house (which wasn’t his anyway). He had been causing trouble for me for months. Technically years. But they’d moved out and he was still letting himself in everyday.
At the end of the day even my partner has essentially caved to his demands. I have nothing to do with any of my in-laws. And if any of them ever asked to visit me back home my answer would be no. They would be about as welcome at my place as I am at theirs.
I agree. Consult a lawyer before making a complaint. That way you do it correctly.
And you didn’t call a lawyer?
Yeah well it sounds like you’ve had a hard time here. I don’t think the police particularly care whether you are a foreigner or not just that some others may care. Yes, I agree your in-laws should not have caved in. Some locals as in most countries expect other locals to take their side but often it doesn’t happen though.
There are also cases where the police take the side of foreigners.
Well there was this one time when I was falsely accused of possessing drugs. Thankfully the senior officer saw how ridiculous I was being treated, shook his head and let me go. The officer doing the accusing was promoted.
I asked them to. They refused. I still get friendly greetings from people that used to go to the complex. The complex lost a lot of money because they lost a lot of people over what happened.
Yeah, if they’re in the wrong, of course they’re going to refuse to help you.
I post mine on the forums to help foreigners.
But good that they got what is coming to them.
I don’t think anyone should treat the stories on Forumosa as a measure of normality! Taiwan seems to attract more than it’s fair share of foreigners with mental issues, or perhaps living in Taiwan exasperates mental issues.
Why didn’t you call the police?
Em…
Why didn’t you call a lawyer?
Yeah I think anyone thrown into a foreign environment would get exasperated from time to time. And especially during that homesickness phase. The novelty of living in Taiwan wore off pretty quickly but this was a long time ago.
I wasn’t in a position to be able to call the police. Was swimming so sort of made it difficult.
There’s a particular history. Nothing bad. Nothing in Taiwan. It involves someone I went to school with a very long time ago. They seem to be on some kind of revenge kick. Mostly to try to hide the things they did.
See the answer to the police. No names were taken. Retribution seemed only aimed at me. It backfired on the complex administration and lost them a lot of money. Plus they’re under criminal investigation for other matters.