The time has come to say good bye to what has been my favorite place to live so far. Yup I am leaving Taiwan in a few days not so much by choice as by necessity. I love Taipei, it is my favorite place to live in the world but the economy is in a slump, 4% GDP growth the last 6 months put it at the bottom of developing countries just slightly ahead of Brazil. And that means there aren’t that many jobs which means I wasn’t able to find a job that I really wanted. I could have continued to teach English but that wasn’t a career so it’s goodbye Taipei.

It’s hard to describe my time in Taiwan it was a series of highs and lows. I thought I had a guide in Taiwan, it turned out that I was wrong, I thought I didn’t have any friends in Taiwan, it turned out that I was wrong. I went river tracing and thought that I was an expert wilder man, it turned out that I was wrong. I went diving and thought I sucked the outdoors, it turned out that I was wrong. I taught an English class and they all improved I thought I was a great teacher, I taught another English class and the class sat there silently getting worse every week I thought I was a horrible teacher. I thought I would never get the hang of Chinese, I was wrong. I thought I could communicate in Chinese with everyone, I was wrong.

A year in a country where you can’t read the most basic of signs is not an easy year but it’s also not a dull year. You get to know yourself, to be alone with your thoughts and more than anything else you realize what’s important to you. I’ve met more interesting people in my year in Taiwan than I did the last 6 years in the US. I don’t know if that’s because I didn’t have a 9-5 job or because I was back in school or because I am a foreigner. I suppose it’s a combination of all those things. And really what matters are the experiences not the reason behind them. I’ve met people that I plan on keeping in touch with for the rest of my life, their perspectives and ideas has helped me see the world in a new way.

Compared to other countries Taiwan stacked up nicely for me, it wasn’t as racist as Europe, it wasn’t as backwards as Iran, it wasn’t as self-centered as US, it wasn’t as expensive as Japan, it wasn’t as small as Singapore, it wasn’t as crime ridden as the Philippines nor as hot as Thailand. I wish Taiwan was as diverse as Europe, as comfortable as Iran, as accepting of foreigners as US, as modern as Japan, as filled with high-tech industries as Singapore, as beautiful as the Philippines or had as good diving as Thailand. But if I had only one place to pick to live the rest of my days it would be Taiwan (well right after Kermanshah).

A new day on a new month just started, shortly it will be a new year. There will be a new job, a new place to live, new co-workers, new places to eat, … And more important than anything else a new me. See ya there and remember you should have this much fun in life.

So by now everyone should have heard of this.

I’ll just copy paste this comment from a police officer.

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As a police officer, I have two things to say about this:

1) This kid sounds like an ass and I’m certain that there will be more than enough “He got what he deserved posts.” I might even agree in the moral sense, but not in the ethical or legal sense, because….

2) This cop should never work in law enforcement again. This is inappropriate use of force by any professional standard. One post is not nearly enough to recount the things he did incorrectly, but I’ll hit the high points;

General rules for any controlled encounter (one where you aren’t in danger from the get go) include finding out what the issue is, telling the subject what he/she needs to do, and explaining what will happen if they do not. There is almost never a need to place your hands on anyone for any reason until you are ready to take them into custody unless you are suddenly attacked. This “officer” is grossly incompetent. Understand we deal with aggressive people that posture by yelling and swearing at us all the time – this should not disrupt the officer on bit. Keep. Your. Cool. So, screaming/swearing or not, this encounter should have been over with three sentences from the officer.

A) “Sir, per university rules and regs, I need you to show me your valid student ID or leave the library.”
B) “I need to to show me your valid student ID or leave the library right now, or I’ll have to take you into custody for trespassing and disturbing the peace.”
C) “Sir, I am placing you under arrest.” Then Mirandize him and be done with it. If he does anything but exactly what you tell him (“Sir, place your hands behind your back.”) then….

Now and only now, if he/she resists (NOT if he simply fails to cooperate i.e. passive resistence), you may use force sufficient to subdue him to the point of having him cease to be a danger to the officer or bystanders. That’s pretty simple stuff, folks. Basically, never be the first to use force, but when you do – do it quickly and overwhelmingly then STOP when he’s restrained. You are a trained professional who owns the situation and NOT a street brawler.

From what I can tell, he never told the subject he was under arrest until after at least five taserings, some of which occurred while he was in cuffs and all but the first while he was on the ground unable to stand under his own power. This “officer” grabbed the guy’s arm while he was leaving. Bad move, even if it seems like a little thing. Physical contact constitutes use of force, and any trained officer knows this is a big line to cross. I don’t care if he didn’t leave immediately – in that case place him calmly in custody early on and be done with it, no argument needed. You’re the cop; you NEVER need to be in an argument. You aren’t asking him what he wants to do, you’re telling him. Never ever let a subject think they are in control. Arguing tells the subject they have some power.

What he did is inexcusable. If this power-tripping bully didn’t have a badge what would you think of somebody tasering a defenseless person on the ground FIVE TIMES some while he was handcuffed and yelling at him to “get up.” A badge doesn’t free you from responsibility, it adds to to it exponentially.

This sadistic SOB gives all true professional LEOs a bad name and is part of the reason so many distrust cops. I’ve had training on most of the common less-than-lethal systems (lawyers don’t let us call them non-lethal) including tasers, stun guns, pepper spray, rubber bullets and even conducted some training on the same. Unless this guy was issued a system with no training, he knows damn well the individual won’t be getting up immediately after one tasing, let alone five. Frankly, I hope this guy answers for assault charges.

To summarize, to non-cops this might appear to be a case of overreacting during a tense moment with a belligerent person. To most professionals, this is about as vanilla an arrest as there is where the cop did basically everything wrong. So wrong, in fact, I intend to use these videos as a training aid.

This was so absurd that I actually laughed when the guy threatened to to taser the bystander who asked for his name and badge number. It’s almost like he was trying to get fired and sued.

Really do I need to say anything ?

I have always liked reading, my mom recalls when I was a kid I was never without a book. It was a running joke in our family that I literally chewed through books. Books opened up entire new worlds for me and I couldn’t wait to grow up so that I could go on the Mississippi with Huck or check out that cool island with Robinson. Being a literature geek I’ve through enjoyed Eats, Shoots Leaves a book on punctuation. Here are a few morsels to wheat your appetite. On the usage of : vs ; there is a letter from George Bernard Shaw to T.E. Lawrence. The letter starts with ” My dear Luruns, Confound you and your book: you are no more to be trusted with a pen than a child with torpedo”, further on Shaw says ” You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.”.

Now I have no idea what camp life is but I love the fact that Shaw is berating Lawrence on his punctuation. Of course just because you see someone write in a certain style doesn’t mean you can start to emulate them. Let’s look at this passage for example.

“As for other experiences, the solitary ones, which people go through alone, in their bedrooms, in their offices, walking the fields and the streets of London, he had them; had left home, a mere boy, because of his mother; she lied; because he came down to tea for the fiftieth time with his hands unwashed; because he could see no future for a poet in Stroud; and so, making a confidant of his little sister, had gone to London leaving an absurd note behind him, such as great men have written, and the world has read later when the story of their struggles has become famous.”

Virginia Wolf, Mrs Dalloway, 1925

Now look at that passage, it doesn’t stop, you think anytime now a full stop will come, you need a period, somewhere in there you should get a rest; a chance to catch your breath and internalize what you just read, but no the passage continues on, uncaring of the poor reader but at it does sort of flow, right ?

Eats, Shoots Leaves is full of little tidbits like this, if you you are an avid reader I suggest you pick it up today.