Taiwanese 'roadblocks'

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

I would like, if I may, to poke considerable fun at the Taiwanese police ‘roadblocks’.

Last week I decided to park up across from one of these roadblocks and have a good giggle; at least 20 riders a minute would have their indicators on and begin turning into the roadblock, only to stop, look extremely shifty then do a U-turn back where they came. You would have to be green as the grass not to guess they were unlicensed/unregistered.

For my first week in Taichung I was unlicensed and since I do a lot of night riding (or should that be KNIGHT RIDING!!) encountered two of these roadblocks. The first time they were parked right after an intersection, so I just turned right and went around them. Duhh… The second time I thought, ‘what the hell’, and drove through waving.

(PS: get your license! It’s cheap, not so difficult and you stop panicking every time a police car pulls up beside you. I’ve been 100% less stressed since I got mine).

Back in the UK, random vehicle checks would either be done on busy roads with no way of turning back, or set up sneakily with a small roadblock on the main road and another one hidden away on the previous turning. Are Taiwanese police just thick? Is it just a Taichung thing? Have any unlicensed foreigners actually been caught in one of these and have juicy stories to tell?

2

It’s very embarassing if the cops pull try to over some gangsters and then have to apologize later to their bosses (the gangsters bosses that is). Much better to leave an alternate route open and save everyone a lot of trouble. Only the law-abiding or terminally stupid go through the road block, the cops get to put on a show of doing something while running no risk of actually having to deal with dangerous criminals, the bad guys go about their business unmolested. Everyone is happy, business as usual.
Can you imagine what would happen if this safety valve were not there?

3

:doh:

Thing is, you can see them from miles away with their flashing lights and batons. Why not shrug all aspects of suspicion by going into a 7-11, or pretending to go into a house and then come out and go the other way.
This is what I don’t understand about gangster type people. They are so thick it is untrue. They get really close to the checkpoint, and then turn around and speed off.

Do they do it on purpose?

I have my licence but I always forget it. I get stopped sometimes and it’s never a big deal.

It would seem so, but it seems that the police are going from sregnth to stregnth these days and the time of gangster and police co-operation is slowly coming to an end.
I feel compelled to write to the police authority to commend an officers behaviour who recently helped me in a dangerous situation (un traffic related) and their follow up of the case was impeccable. It was like being back in the west. I was very impressed.

4

[quote=“Dangermouse”]I feel compelled to write to the police authority to commend an officers behaviour who recently helped me in a dangerous situation (un traffic related) and their follow up of the case was impeccable. It was like being back in the west. I was very impressed.[/quote]DM -
Good for you! :bravo:
Every little bit can add to the change.
I think the lads here get very little in the way of positive feedback for what small efforts they may make.

5

[quote=“Dangermouse”]They get really close to the checkpoint, and then turn around and speed off.

Do they do it on purpose?[/quote]No, they do it because they can get away with it.

There are a couple of clowns running the turn-right-on-red franchise at an intersection I pass through most everyday on my way to work. I get to see all the motorcycles that run the red, and on my way past I get to see who the cops have stopped. It comes as no surprise that they always have a half dozen office girls and moms there, but no guys. Certainly not any guys with tattoos or red mouths… What does that tell you?
I’m glad you had a good cop experience DM. Maybe there’s hope yet, but I ain’t holding my breath.

6

[quote=“Dangermouse”]
It would seem so, but it seems that the police are going from sregnth to stregnth these days and the time of gangster and police co-operation is slowly coming to an end.[/quote]

Can you explain more about this notion?

7

I have seen roadblocks set up on Yand De BLvd in Yang Ming Shan a few times. It isa impossible to avoid them, but they should be more concerned about all the crazy night riders who pass and speed with no regard to anyone else. This is a very dangerous road at night!

8

Taiwanese roadblocks are a joke but I shouldn’t complain. I’ve had a bad streak last summer, got pulled over about six times doing illegal left turns.(I hate waiting in the box when the incoming lane is empty) Prior to that, I got pulled over maybe a handful of times for breaking the law. But guess what…I was never issued a ticket. :slight_smile: (knock on wood…)

Hell, the many times I got pulled over on popo’s NSR last summer, I never even carried the bike’s paper with me. I showed my ARC and they’d let me go… Only once did a cop give me attitude but he let me go anyways. :neutral:

Speed cameras on the other hand are not so forgiving. When popo registered the bike under his name about a year ago, he had to pay something like 14 000NT in speeding tickets… Most of which he thinks were issued from Ilan.

bobepine

9

Well, when I first came to Taiwan which was a number of years ago, telling a gangster apart from a cop was a very difficult thing to do.
In Kaohsiung I had a bike stolen. I reported it to the police on the very same night and they were reluctant to file a report.
After a couple of hours I finally managed to get the report filed. Two weeks went by and there was no news of the bike so I went to the police station to see what was going on.
I spoke to an officer who told me they’d found the bike and it was in a holding place and I’d have to pay 3000NT to get it returned.
I questioned this and asked to see the bike but I was refused. To cut a long story short, the bike hadn’t been found (or if it had, the police sold it) and they were just con merchants after a quick buck from a naive foreigner.

I had a traffic accident in Taichung which was blatantly not my fault (motorcycle v’s scooter). The scooter came out of nowhere from a side road with no lights on at night and I ploughed straight into it.

The police and even the courts were supportive of me and actually on my side for the whole time (there were injuries to me and the two jesters on the other bike). All the evidence and positive noises from the courts suggested that I was not in anyway to blame and a preliminary hearing blamed the other party.
However, as if by magic (or as if by fat Hon Bao), the court blamed me 100% for the accident and I was ordered to pay something in the region of $200,000NT.
It doesn’t take a genious to work out what happened behind the scenes.

Now compare this with my recent escapades involving police in Taiwan.
Not long ago I found a thief rifling through my saddlebags at two o’clock in the morning and some scooters had also had their lids popped.
The thief was bin lang stained, tattooed and had a knife on him (unbeknown to me at the time).

So I caught him as he was trying to get away and I pushed him off his scooter. Then I held him on the floor. He was bleeding from his knees, he sprained his wrist, his nose was bleeding and he had a gash on his head from when he fell off the bike. I think I also punched him in the face.

Some neighbours heard the commotion and called the police who arrived within two minutes - two on scooters and a car turned up.
The man was arrested, taken to the station and locked up. I made a statement. They told me that even if I didn’t want to press charges, they would.
Needless to say I was impressed. There was no expected counter sue from the criminal for being knocked about because the police wouldn’t let him - or told him it wasn’t in his interests.

Two weeks later I have a letter from the court saying he’s been put away in gaol for a month. Cool.

And finally, only last month I had an accident where a car turned left across my path. It was a sooped up gangsta affair - a Merc with mods and the mirrored number plates - the kind you don’t really mess with.
My bike was totalled and initially the man driving - unsavoury to say the least - started mouthing off as to why I should have waited for him because he was turning left and I should have seen him.
The police arrive and draw up the scene, mark the road and take a statement from a shop keeper. A few minutes later, gangsta man is all nice and apologetic and admits to being wrong.
I go to the police station the next day and the police have asked him (because he admitted guilt) to pay for my bike to be repaired - $25,000NT’s worth - I sign a form and everything is OK.
I even get a phone call from the officer in charge three days later, asking if I am OK and if I need anything, just give the station a ring.

Fabulous.

There is also something ongoing which I can’t really mention, but this is being handled very well too.

So from my point of veiw, I’m very impressed and I hope it continues for the rest of my stay here.
There are still many links with the police and ganters here, especially higher up the ladder. But thankfully it seems the gap is getting wider and wider

10

It’s great to hear stories like this, DM. While I’m not convinced that change is happening quickly enough island-wide, I’ve heard some good things about Taipei police recently. Sure, I’ve heard bad things too but people always complain ten times louder than they praise.

[quote=“Dangermouse”]Well, when I first came to Taiwan which was a number of years ago, telling a gangster apart from a cop was a very difficult thing to do.
In Kaohsiung I had a bike stolen. I reported it to the police on the very same night and they were reluctant to file a report.[/quote]

11

I go over a long bridge on my way to work, and yesterday there were two cop cars at the entrance to it. But they weren’t doing much. When I get to the other side of a the bridge and around a little bend I come upon a road block. Evidently the cop cars on the other side of the bridge are for U-turners.

The funniest road block I saw was in the mountains just two cops. One stopping people and one a little farther away stopping U-turners. They had this one kid do about 4 U-turns trying to figure out which cop to avoid :laughing: , the whole time they’re slowly closing in on him with their arms outstrecthed. Looked like they were trying to corral a deer.

In the west, you don’t run from the cops…well not unless you’re speeding and you notice them making a U-turn from behind…in that case you usually have a big enough head start to get away :smiling_imp: .

12

They learn … through reading Forumosa … :laughing: :bravo:

13

[quote]In the west, you don’t run from the cops…well not unless you’re speeding and you notice them making a U-turn from behind…in that case you usually have a big enough head start to get away Twisted .[/quote]And not unless you’re riding an unregistered dirt-bike…Even then, I would suggest cooperating with the police because they will not hesitate to drive their car on the side walk or on someone’s lawn to catch you. When that happened to me, the rubber on the killswitch(CR 125 Elsinore) was worn out. The cop didn’t think about that and he stuck his thumb on it to kill the bike. ZAP! ZAP!

I was 13 years old at the time, working for 3.65$/per hour during summer holidays. The ticket was 650$. Well worth the look on the cop’s face when he zapped himself on the killswitch. :laughing:

bobepine