A police cadet standing to the left in a photograph has the muzzle of a handgun in his mouth, while a classmate standing next to him, in full uniform and smiling, levels a second handgun at the cadet's temple.
Other grainy photographs show similarly disturbing scenes of what Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (
"I received the pictures as a file attached to an anonymous e-mail from a Taipei police academy and I was just appalled," Chiang told the Taipei Times after displaying the photographs at a press conference in the legislature on Friday.
The file contained 30 photographs of cadets playing with guns by pointing them at one another, at a salamander and at other random targets.
Other pictures showed cadets viewing pornography in class and drinking alcohol in their dormitories, he said.
"My goal in holding such a press conference was to urge the National Police Agency to better educate our police and investigate why such breaches in discipline are occurring," Chiang said by telephone yesterday.
Responding to Chiang's allegations that police cadets are poorly trained, Taiwan Police College training director Chen Hung (
But, Chen added, it is possible that cadets horse around with guns and take photos when instructors are not present.
"We will enforce discipline," Chen said.
Even if the firearms shown in the photos are merely pellet guns, the cadets' actions reveal a disturbing lack of discipline in handling sidearms and are indicative of a severe lack of gun training among police officers nationwide, Chiang said.
He cited two separate cases last week in Tainan in which officers lost their guns to dangerous criminals because of poor judgment, saying the photos were part of a disturbing trend.
In one case, two suspects in a high-speed police chase crashed their vehicle into a median. In the ensuing struggle with police, one suspect snatched a policeman's gun and used it to shoot at the officer after the officer had approached the smashed vehicle.
Although the police officer managed to escape injury, the armed suspect also shot at a passing driver in an attempt to hijack a vehicle.
The injured driver swerved off the road into a ditch and was killed.
The suspects succeeded in hijacking a different vehicle and escaped. Police nabbed one of the suspects on Tuesday, but not before arresting the wrong person first -- a mentally challenged Tainan man -- and releasing him after apologizing to him and his family.
"The pictures are just one of many examples of how too many police officers just don't know how to handle their sidearms," Chiang said.
Taiwanese police are notorious for their poor firearms training and tendency to be trigger happy, he added.
In February last year, a gunshot fired by a policeman in Tainan missed a suspect and killed a 14-year-old girl who was watching the dramatic scene unfold from approximately 70m away.
Last September, a wild car chase in Taipei ended when police fired off more than 50 rounds at a fleeing suspect's vehicle, riddling the suspect, who was wanted for burglary, with fatal gunshot wounds.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS