Angry in the Great White North

Cliff Tang, aka Kwok Kei Tang, aka Victor Tang, aka Kwok Kei Victor Tang, aka Cliff "What do you mean the sidewalk is for pedestrians?" Tang, aka Cliff "What do you mean 'pedestrian'?" Tang, has a story that goes back almost ten years.

In 1998, Cliff Tang was arrested with a large quantity of counterfeit money:

Tang was also convicted in 1999 for possession of stolen property under $5,000. In September 2001, he was convicted of possessing counterfeit money in Revelstoke; he was fined $12,000 and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service work.

Counterfeit money is by and large associated with organized crime activity.

Cliff Tang was still on parole for the possession conviction when he killed a man in July 2000:

The 25-year-old Burnaby man charged with last week's fatal hit-and-run on Knight Street made his first court appearance Friday. Cliff Tang is charged with criminal negligence causing death. It's an indictable offence, punishable by life imprsionment.

Thirty-five-year-old Jerry Kithithee was run down by a yellow Porsche Boxster as he crossed the intersection at 57th and Knight early last Thursday morning.

The high-performance sports car was drag racing with two other vehicles at speeds exceeding 200 kilometres an hour. The driver never stopped.

Tang turned himself in when he heard police were closing in. His first court appearance was a brief one. He entered no plea. He'll be back in court at the end of August.

Life imprisonment? Turn that into four years when Cliff Tang was convicted of criminal negligence causing death in March 2001:

A 25-year-old Burnaby man has been sentenced to four years in jail, for killing a pedestrian during a late night street race in East Vancouver last June.

Cliff Tang had pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death, and failure to remain at the scene of an accident.

He was driving a Porsche Boxster at nearly 200 kilometres an hour when he hit 35-year-old Jerry Kithithee, who was crossing Knight Street.

Tang has also been banned from driving for 10 years.

To the judge's credit, he refused the defense request for a conditional sentence with no jail time:

[Defense attorney Peter Leask] had argued that Tang was not a danger to society and should be allowed to serve a conditional sentence of two years less a day under house arrest at home in order to look after his elderly parents, who have health problems and can only speak Cantonese.

Still, given that this crime occurred while he was on parole for another crime makes you wonder why Cliff Tang faced more serious time. In the year between the counterfeiting conviction and the death of Kithithee, Cliff Tang had done virtually nothing with regards to his fine or community service:

Tang was on probation for the offence when the fatal accident occurred last summer, noted Crown prosecutor Dan Mulligan, who added Tang has not paid the fine and has only done five hours of his community-service work because he said he didn't know how to take the bus.

He couldn't figure out how to use the bus in a year? He ought to learn, because he's a lousy driver:

The Crown argued that Tang had a history of flagrant disregard for the law and would likely breach a conditional sentence. Tang had 16 traffic tickets, including two for excessive speeding, several for driving without a licence and one for failing to stop for police.

Tang, unable to pay his traffic fines, chose to drive without a licence. He borrowed the Porsche Boxster, which belonged to a Hong Kong friend of his live-in girlfriend, and had driven it for more than a month before the fatal accident.

In jail for four years, Cliff Tang gets out in three. Does he fly straight? Does he learn to use the bus given that he has 6 years left in his driving suspension? Heck no. Cliff Tang is driving again, and gets caught driving away from a massage parlour during a gang unit investigation:

Tang was granted parole in late 2003, but was arrested six months later, in April 2004, when the Vancouver police gang unit saw him driving away from a Richmond massage parlour.

His parole was revoked and he was sent back to jail. According to Vancouver Provincial Court records, he was fined $700 in 2006 for driving while disqualified in connection with that incident.

I wonder how his sick parents are doing.

Whatever their health, it isn't keeping Cliff Tang away from fast cars. Out of jail again, and still under a driving suspension, Cliff Tang was caught this week driving a Lamborghini:

A Lamborghini-driving Burnaby, B.C., man has been arrested for the second time since killing a pedestrian while street racing in a Porsche.

Richmond RCMP Cpl. Nycki Basra said Kwok Kei Victor Tang, 32, was pulled over last Saturday because his Lamborghini did not have a front licence plate.

"[He] proceeded to provide police with false information about his identity and his address," Basra said.

Police investigated further and determined the driver was Tang.

No mention is ever made of what Cliff Tang does for a living. As far as I can tell, he borrows fast cars from friends and family, so maybe he mooches the necessities of life off of them too. Or maybe the family has money.

So what do we do with him? Though he immigrated from Hong Kong, he is now a Canadian citizen and can't be sent back. Assuming he is found guilty, we can hope that a prison term is in his immediate future. But given that he hasn't actually hurt anyone or cause any property damage related to the charges he is likely to face, I doubt that is going to happen. He completed his prison term for the death of Kithithee.

Another fine? Certainly. Just add it to rest of the fines he hasn't paid.

A driving suspension? Well, he can't be suspended even more. He could have more years added to the suspension he is currently under, but clearly that is not having an effect on his driving.

The evil part of me says let him drive, but only in the parking lot of the courthouse, in the section reserved for the judges' cars. Two or three smashed Beemers and Lexuses later, and maybe we can revisit the question of a jail term.

Seriously, though, a driving ban isn't doing the trick, nor are financial penalties.

Charges on the people who give him cars? It might deter others from lending him vehicles, keeping Tang off the road. But I don't know what crime that would be. On the other hand, make sure the insurance company knows that these people are lending their vehicle to the likes of Cliff Tang, and maybe their rates will go through the roof.

That has a certain appeal, and could keep Tang isolated.

But then we'd be handing over the administration of justice to a car insurance company, and that can't be a good idea in the long run.

How about a law that allow vehicles to be impounded and fines to be levied if a person lends the vehicle to someone without confirming that they have a valid driver's license? Might work, and might keep Tang out of a car, but it won't help us today.

We're back to the question of how to deal with Cliff Tang directly in the present.

The only time he wasn't driving was when he was in prison.

There are some people for whom prison is the only way to modify their behaviour. When do you give up trying other means?

A three strikes law sounds like a good idea. Cliff Tang is a habitual offender. We already know that. His latest arrest, assuming he is found guilty of whatever charges are laid, does nothing to change that conclusion. Maybe Canada requires a class of punishments tailored to this class of criminal. Indeed, the Conservative government had tabled such a law, but it was designed to target violent offenders. I'm not sure Cliff Tang would count. The point is moot given that the Liberal-dominated Senate blocked the bill.

Let's hope that the judge who hears Tang's case perceives the threat Tang poses given his history, and if found guilty, gives Tang whatever maximum setence allowed by law.

Photo by Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun

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