# Four killed, 21 wounded in knife attack in Taipei **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932 "2014-05-21T15:16:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/1 "2014-05-21T15:16:19Z")
Craziness happens [around the world](http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/three-killed-25-wounded-taiwan-subway-knife-attack-20140521). > [@](#): > > TAIPEI (AFP) - A knife-wielding attacker went on a stabbing spree aboard a Taipei subway train on Wednesday, killing four people and wounding 21 others, police said. A video purporting to show the guy can be [seen here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNXKG18nqM). ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/2 "2014-05-21T15:35:28Z")
Holy shit! From the article: > [@](#): > > Cheng spoke of his motives during police questioning. “ **He told the police that he had wanted to do a ‘big thing’ such as this since his childhood** ,” Chen Kuo-en, chief of the New Taipei City police bureau, told reporters. > > “He said he had planned to do this after his graduation, but last week decided to act ahead of his schedule,” the police chief said, adding that the attacker had no medical record of mental disorder. What is it with these sort of cases where the motivation is just to be noticed? It’s sad that anyone would think it’s more meaningful to throw away your life and destroy other people’s lives in the process just to “do a big thing”, than to live a regular and unexceptional life of possibilities, gradual discovery, growth, maybe love, maybe even disappointment. I guess that mundane stuff just doesn’t make for a good movie. > [@TokyoBayer](#): > > A video purporting to show the guy can be [seen here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNXKG18nqM). What is it with that music!? Do they want us to be cheering the guy on? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/3 "2014-05-21T15:39:13Z")
Here’s another video, which is a bit graphic, so I’ve put it in spoilers. [tomonews.net](http://us.tomonews.net/crazed-student-kills-4-injures-two-dozen-in-taipei-mrt-knife-attack-89422865219584) Really sick. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/4 "2014-05-21T16:02:25Z")
> [@Not\_Carlson](#): > > What is it with these sort of cases where the motivation is just to be noticed? > It’s sad that anyone would think it’s more meaningful to throw away your life and destroy other people’s lives in the process just to “do a big thing”, than to live a regular and unexceptional life of possibilities, gradual discovery, growth, maybe love, maybe even disappointment. You are trying to use a rational filter to explain an irrational person’s acts. Mind you, just because the guy is not rational does not mean he’s legally insane. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/5 "2014-05-21T16:02:35Z")
Horrifying. Being trapped in a train carriage with a knife-wielding maniac is like something from a nightmare. I assumed the footage of him on the platform must have been from after the attack inside the train, but the guy commenting on the second video seems to be saying that the attacker started on the platform (and then moved onto the train?). Perhaps they guy is just misspeaking or misinterpreting what he saw, ‘cause I can’t imagine they would keep the train running when there was an obvious commotion on the platform. The reporter tries to clarify “Did he start the stabbing spree from outside the train?” and then, “So he went from inside the train . . .”, but the interviewee doesn’t make it very clear. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/6 "2014-05-21T16:05:18Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > You are trying to use a rational filter to explain an irrational person’s acts. The irrationality is sad. As are the death and suffering. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/7 "2014-05-23T07:43:53Z")
He should be sentenced to hang and all his immediate family members exiled to a guarded commune. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/8 "2014-05-23T10:42:37Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > He should be sentenced to hang and all his immediate family members exiled to a guarded commune. You can’t be serious. What crime did his immediate family members commit? Last time I checked, the Republic of China is nothing at all like the DPRK. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/9 "2014-05-25T23:23:32Z")
That’s for bringing him into this world and, hopefully, give potential killers a pause before they consider. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/10 "2014-05-26T01:59:35Z")
First of all, if only these people would start with themselves! They would see that it hurts and maybe stop. And I don’t mean that flippantly… Stabbing is so much more tactile than shooting a bullet into somebody. I don’t want to imagine the numb rage that would let someone continue past the first awful puncture. When I saw that rich kid in LA first stabbed non-girls in his apartment, I was surprised he didn’t shoot more. It must have been easy in comparison. Anybody doing it for the record books now must know there have been so many mass murders that their name would just get lost in the lists. ---
**Author:** ![LouisMasure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LouisMasure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisMasure)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/11 "2014-05-26T06:01:30Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > He should be sentenced to hang and all his immediate family members exiled to a guarded commune. From what a taiwanese friend told me, apparently the maniac told the police that he wanted to kill himself but did not have the guts to do it himself, so his idea was to kill random people so that he would be executed … 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-killed-21-wounded-in-knife-attack-in-taipei/688932/12 "2014-05-26T12:19:26Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > That’s for bringing him into this world and, hopefully, give potential killers a pause before they consider. And this post of yours makes sense how exactly?