Sometimes the perfect photo just falls into your lap. And then while you are taking out your phone, the picture goes away. Or you realize that it's night time and your cell phone camera is terrible. Either way this was supposed to be a shot of a police officer holding up an assault rifle on the side of the road. By the time I go my camera out and ready to shoot, he was taking a break, but you can still see him holding the assault rifle if you really look closely.
Regardless this brings up a common thing in Taiwan, the traffic stop. Around the city there are often police traffic stops on the side of the road, they will flag down the occasional scooter rider to see if they have the updated registration. Basically a sticker you have to put on your license plate. Sometimes they will pull over people who aren't wearing a helmet.
They generally don't pull over foreigners, since most of the police officers don't speak english. Although it's interesting because a large number of foreign drivers don't have licenses. Only one foreigner i know has been pulled over for this kind of traffic stop and she was unfortunate enough to not have a license, but i think she just had to pay some fine. Back when I had a motorcycle I never was pulled over, but i figured I would be since i wore a helmet that cover my whole face, they couldn't tell if i was a foreigner or Taiwanese.
Back to the picture though...an assault rifle!? that seems like overkill. It's the first time i've seen a traffic stop with an officer holding an assault rifle. I guess it's because many people just keep on driving, so they think if they see a guy with an assault rifle it will deter them from driving off. then again it's not like the police are going to shoot somebody in the back as they drive off. There are some issues with Taiwan's police system but spraying rounds into a busy street is thankfully not one of them.
