Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was indicted yesterday for allegedly interfering with the police detention of a suspect, in connection with an incident in which he is said to have forced police officers to release a woman who had punched a police officer.
Keelung prosecutors indicted Chang with illegally freeing a detained person. If found guilty, he could face a prison term of between one and seven years.
The chief of the Anle (安樂) police station, Lin Hung-sheng (林煌盛), and a police officer surnamed Liao (廖) were also charged with illegally freeing a detained person, while a woman surnamed Liao was charged with interfering with the duties of a police officer.
Prosecutors said on the evening of Sept. 14, a female police officer surnamed Wang (王) saw a woman (Liao), allegedly drunk at the time, start her car and prepare to drive away. Wang asked the woman to step out of the car so she could run some sobriety checks. However, the woman shouted at Wang and allegedly punched her in her face.
Police then arrested the woman and brought her to the Anle station on charges of interfering with the duties of a police officer.
Police officers called Liao’s daughter to the police station, where she made telephone calls to KMT Keelung Councilor Shen Yi-chuan (沈義傳) and Chang.
Shen went to the police station and allegedly asked the officers to free Liao without charge, but the police refused.
Chang later went to the police station, and asked officers not to charge Liao with interfering with the duties of a police officer, but find some other ways to “punish” her.
After the officers refused his request, Chang started to hit a table with his hands and reportedly shouted at police officers: “You are great. You are so great. I will have [National Police Agency] Director-General Wang [Cho-chiun (王卓鈞)] come here to give you rewards, and then ask Director-General Wang to transfer you outside Keelung. I do not want to see honest and hard-working police officers like you remain unhappily in Keelung.”
“I am a person who bears resentments. You could do whatever you want to do. That is OK for me. I am removing you. Give me commissioner [Keelung City Police Department Commissioner Frank] Chiu [(邱豐光)],” Chang allegedly said.
Prosecutors said two police officers, Lin and Liao, finally accepted Chang’s request and removed the woman’s handcuffs and allowed her to leave the station without charge.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS