Foreigner Attacked by Local Candidate's Men

This story is making the rounds:

.....Peter V.S. Smith, was attacked on Saturday evening June 10 by the staff of a failed local candidate in his neighborhood, Flower Garden City. He and his wife and children were accosted by four staff (thugs) right in front of their campaign office, with the candidate present too, and two chairs and beer bottles were thrown at them at they tried to run away. Peter suffered a cut on the head requiring 8-9 stitches. His wife was hit in the stomach with a beer bottle.

Neighbors reported the case and the police came within five minutes and apprehended the four men. A month earlier Peter had commented to the candidate's staff about betel nut spitting and motorcycle noise. The candidate failed miserably in the election.

Peter is also an instructor in translation at Fujen University.

I think it is upsetting that an attack should be carried out with such impunity, and that even a newspaper like China Times would print the attacker's excuse that the foreigner damned then in a foreign language (Peter says there was no such thing, but that is not the point -- it is not a justification for violence). So I think this case deserves more attention than the usual police reluctance to make court cases -- there have been too many attacks and coverups.

The last sentence is certainly true! The victim writes:

This is the article that more or less accurately tells the events:
http://udn.com/NEWS/DOMESTIC/DOM2/3352931.shtml

There is also a China Times bit on it, which is wildly inaccurate:
as it makes what are patently slanderous claims that

"兩人不滿蕭某言語流露出優越感，加上他以英語口出惡言，以為台灣人聽不懂，才會一時失控動手"

Obviously that bit came from a press release from the hoodlums' own media center!

Don't lose any sleep over this - we're doing fine and the community is being very supportive. Thanks for your concern, though.

Part of me sympathizes. And the other part of me wants to scream: this isn't Canada! You can't insult a boss of local thuggery in front of his own men, and expect to get away scot-free. Of course they assaulted him in front of their boss! How else were they to redeem their lost face? In a nutshell: the first law of living in Taiwan is: Thou Shalt Get Along With Thy Neighbors, For They Can Fuck You Up. That especially includes anyone likely to do violence to you or yours.

[Taiwan]