Taiwan Referendum Alliance convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) yesterday criticized the police for fining him for violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) when he walked around outside the Presidential Office with a donation box and some supporters on Wednesday.
Tsay went to Zhongzheng First Precinct police station on Wednesday to pay the fines he had previously received for violating the Act. Tsay had received tickets totaling more than NT$800,000 because he has been conducting a sit-in demonstration against the Assembly and Parade Act outside the Legislative Yuan since October 2008.
Because Tsay found that he did not have enough money to pay the fines, he decided to walk around with a donation box to raise money.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Tsay and his supporters were stopped by the police when they approached the side gate of the Presidential Office. They refused to stop and continued to walk around. They received a warning from the police, who said that Tsay and his supporters were in violation of the Assembly and Parade Act and they were asked to “disband.”
“We were only a few people walking on the street trying to raise money, it was neither an assembly nor a parade,” Tsay told the Taipei Times.
“It’s my freedom to wear whatever I want and take whatever I want when I walk on the street — the police have violated my freedom,” he said.
He said while there were other people with him, police officers only surrounded him.
“Is there a law that says that Tsay Ting-kuei cannot walk around the Presidential Office?” he asked. “They could arrest me if I had tried to walk into the Presidential Office, but I was merely walking on the sidewalk outside. The police abused their power.”
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳) agreed with Tsay.
Tsai said what had happened to Tsay showed that the Assembly and Parade Act is ridiculous and unnecessary.
“What Tsay Ting-kuei did would not be considered a violation of the Assembly and Parade Act if he did it elsewhere. What he did was declared illegal because the Presidential Office is a ‘sensitive’ place,” Tsai said. “This shows that the Act gives police too much power to decide what constitutes a violation of the law.”
On the other hand, police said the way officers acted was legal and justified.
“[Tsay and his supporters] walked in group — though there was quite a distance between them — and they held placards with slogans. Of course it was a demonstration,” said Yang Chih-chieh (楊志傑), the commander at the scene on Wednesday. “We may allow them to walk around elsewhere, but the area surrounding the Presidential Office is a restricted zone, so we had to stop them.”
Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Chief Inspector Jason Yu (于增祥) said he understood why many people do not like the Assembly and Parade Act.
“Whether it’s a good law or a bad law, as long as it’s still there we have to enforce it,” he said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS