Numerous subcommittees are holding meetings as part of the work of the Presidential Office’s preparatory committee for judicial reform. Many people do not appreciate how immensely complex judicial reform is or how it could affect their daily lives.
A recent incident involving Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) shows the importance of citizens knowing their rights and the police obeying the law and the fine line between the rights of citizens and the duty of police, after Lee on Sunday went to a convenience store. He was stopped by a group of up to six police officers. They asked him to show his national identification card. He responded by asking why, adding that he had done nothing to warrant the request.
“This is a public space, I have the right to check your papers,” Lee quoted one officer as saying.
Lee was so incised by the incident that he wrote about it on social media and asked if Taipei had become a police state.
He did not tell the officers during the encounter that he was a government minister, so it must be regarded in the context of police treatment of regular citizens. This drew media attention because of Lee’s position.
Those who think the police were at fault have pointed to the Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation No. 535, which states: “Unless prescribed otherwise in the law, the police shall limit checking authority to public transportation, public places, or other places where danger exists or may exist according to reasonable and objective judgement. Police shall not exercise checking authority over any persons unless there is a reasonable belief that actions taken by such persons have caused or may cause danger; and in so doing, police must abide by the principle of proportionality and not go beyond the degree of necessity.”
Those who think the police were right have pointed to Article 6 of the Police Power Exercise Act (警察職權行使法), which specifies six types of individuals that police may ask for their identification: those reasonably suspected of having committed a crime or are likely to do so; those believed to be aware of crimes already committed or to be committed imminently; those whose identity “must be verified in order to prevent concrete hazards from endangering lives and physical safety of themselves or others”; those staying in places where serious crimes are being conspired, prepared, or committed or where fugitives are being harbored; those with the requisite permit for a temporary stay or residence in the place they are staying; and those “who pass through designated public places, road sections and check points.”
Police said they legally stopped Lee because he and his friend were acting suspiciously, walking quickly out of the convenience store. Lee was wearing sandals and his friend was carrying a paper bag and giving the officers furtive glances, police said.
However, both Constitutional Interpretation No. 535 and Article 6 stipulate that the police require substantial cause to suspect a person’s actions constitute an existing or imminent danger, and that they must also “abide with the principle of proportionality and not go beyond the degree of necessity.”
The reasons given by police clearly do not meet these conditions; since when is wearing sandals a suspicious activity? Lee was within his rights to refuse the request to produce his ID.
Even if the officers managed to make hundreds of arrests using this method, it would mean nothing in a court of law, and no prosecutor or judge would touch the case.
This incident shows what rights people have in this nation. It also shows limits to police powers. Both sides should learn from it.
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