A legislator yesterday asked the Hsinchu City Government to investigate the identities of a group of people who tried to prevent Halloween parade attendees from taking pictures with a person wearing a costume believed to be satirizing Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安).
The person called their costume the “new political ATM,” which was perceived to be a satire of Kao, whom the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office in August indicted on corruption charges.
Eight people dressed in black with their faces painted to look like the Ba Jia Jiang (八家將) — the eight generals who serve as bodyguards for the temples of the nether gods in Chinese folk mythology — were allegedly preventing people from taking pictures with the person in the ATM costume.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsin-chih (邱顯智) said that it is common for people to express their political convictions by wearing satirical outfits during a Halloween parade.
“Those who have legal authority have the responsibility to ensure that freedom of speech for all parties is protected and physical conflicts are prevented,” Chiu said. “From this perspective, the Hsinchu City Government failed in its handling of the incident.”
“The police should have intervened and done something when the eight people scared children and prevented people who wanted to take pictures with the person dressed as an ATM from approaching them, because the group was suppressing freedom of expression. They [the police] should not have stood on the sidelines to collect evidence,” Chiu said.
Kao should investigate and hold all responsible parties accountable, he said.
Hsinchu City Councilor Yang Ling-yi (楊玲宜) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that Hsinchu City has turned into “Gotham City,” controlled by mobs because of the city government’s tolerance for such behavior.
“When I saw the ATM, I was impressed by the young person’s creativity. However, what happened next was just unbelievable. The person who dressed as the ATM could not move because they were blocked by the men in black. Nobody could approach the person dressed as the ATM,” Yang said.
The group was also allegedly smoking and chewing betel nuts.
“Although parents asked them to stop smoking, two of them blew smoke rings toward children,” Yang said. “The person dressed as an ATM could only proceed after two city councilors and I arrived at the scene.”
Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), who is running for the legislature as a DPP candidate in January’s election, said that the group blocked the person dressed as the ATM from moving for nearly an hour, which was intimidation.
Lin said that the people dressed in black should be arrested immediately, and prosecutors should investigate the incident regardless of whether the person who wore the costume wanted to press charges.
The Hsinchu City Police Department said that the suspects were taken to the police station for questioning at 8pm on Saturday for allegedly contravening the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法).
They were released at 9:26pm, the said.
The Hsinchu City Government said that the Hsinchu City Public Health Bureau would issue fines to the suspects.
“We do not want the parade, a parent-child activity, to lose its purpose because of political statements. We believe residents can decide whether expressing their political opinions at such a function is appropriate,” it said.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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