[Part 1 of this post can be found here.]
Thursday’s Taipei Times informed us that HUNDREDS of local gangsters were arrested prior to their scheduled attendance at the funeral of former Taiwanese mob boss and political murderer Chen Chi-li:
A nationwide crackdown on gangs was launched on Tuesday morning and 931 alleged gangsters had been arrested by yesterday morning, the National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday.
Twenty-two gang bosses, 201 gang members and 708 other gangsters were arrested in the crackdown, the agency said in a statement.
[…]
The NPA said hundreds of police officers would be stationed at the funeral hall to monitor Chen Chi-li’s funeral. It said it wanted to ensure that gang members did not use the funeral to promote gang activity or recruit new members.
The other important reason for having police present is to let organized crime know it doesn’t have the run of the place. Friday’s Taipei Times reports:
Thirty alleged gang members were interrogated by police yesterday for carrying guns, baseball bats and shock rods to the venue, [the deputy of the Criminal Investigation Bureau said.]
Baseball bats? You’d have to be just about the stupidist gangster on the planet to bring a BASEBALL BAT to a funeral where you know HUNDREDS of cops’ll be watching you. I wonder what their excuse was?
"A man becomes preeminent, he’s expected to have enthusiasms. Enthusiasms…"
(Robert de Niro as Al Capone images from Screenmusings.org)
But it turns out that hoodlums weren’t the only ones present to pay their last respects. In their Friday editorial, the Taipei Times pulled no punches about a few of the attendees:
How astonished and enraged Americans would be if House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the organizing committee for the funeral of a notorious mafia boss. Yet that is exactly what has happened here: Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of the KMT blessed Chen [Chi-li] by having
his name added to the list of honorary funeral officials. Again, one might ask, what does Wang owe, and to whom?The KMT, it seems, can’t get by without cavorting with criminals.
But this is not a partisan cancer. Even more despicable is the presence on the honorary list of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus convener Ko Chien-ming (柯建銘), who warrants expulsion from the party. We’re not holding our breath.
The Times even mentions that present also was one of Taiwan’s biggest pop stars, Jay Chou. Nice company you keep, Jay.
But leaving aside the whole pop singer angle, the event does raise a couple of questions that ought to be asked of KMT presidential aspirant Ma Ying-jeou. Namely, do you agree with the China Post that the police should turn a blind eye to gatherings of mob figures numbering in the hundreds? And secondly, do you agree with the media portrayal of Chen Chi-li as some kind of hero, who only did what he did out of patriotism for his "beloved Republic of China"?
UPDATE: Lots of background about Chen Chi-li’s assassination of Henry Liu over at Taiwan Matters!
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