The incidence of violent crime in New Taipei City has receded, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said on Tuesday, after he was accused of mismanaging the city’s police force, resulting in police officers injuring a bystander they mistook for a fugitive.
On Sept. 20, four police officers erroneously arrested a man surnamed Huang (黃) in the city’s Sanchong District (三重) following an altercation, causing injuries that required hospital treatment. Both parties involved have pressed assault charges.
The New Taipei City Police Department’s Sanchong Precinct has issued a public apology to Huang after suspending the officers, with the adjudication for the rivaling lawsuits scheduled to begin next week.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Huang yesterday testified about his arrest to Control Yuan member Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), a former mayor of then-Sanchong township who is heading the agency’s probe.
Speaking at a news conference outside the Control Yuan, Huang said video evidence showed plainclothes officers assaulting him without identifying themselves while uniformed officers looked on.
One of the officers put a knee on Huang’s throat and continued to strike him in the head after he had been handcuffed, showing a severe lapse of discipline, New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
Police officers involved in the incident have broken the law, and their filing of charges of obstruction and assault against the victim proved their apologies were not sincere, he said.
The officers should be censured by the Control Yuan and held accountable for their actions in court, he added.
Separately, Hou told reporters that the city’s violent crime rate last year receded and that the jurisdiction leads Taiwan’s special municipalities in crime prevention programs and clearance rates.
The city’s police force was recognized by the National Police Agency’s annual Outstanding Performance Award, he added.
Hou was a police officer before becoming a politician and police reform has been a top priority during his tenure as mayor, he said.
He felt insulted by the accusations, Hou said.
Earlier that day, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan that Hou has been eager to take credit for positive developments in policing, but disappears from public sight whenever scandals occur.
Besides the Sanchong incident, a shooting at a pawn shop in Banciao District (板橋) last month and the death of a boy from COVID-19, allegedly due to delays in the city’s emergency medical service, show severe lapses in leadership, he said.
“Hou’s favorite response to problems is that critics should not burden officers doing their jobs on the front line, which serves as an excuse for not addressing real issues,” Lo said.
The proportionality principle was not observed in the Sanchong incident, Economic Democracy Union convener and lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said, adding that the measures taken by the officers were excessive, regardless of whether the person being arrested was a fugitive.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
‘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
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
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
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