A score of elderly Taipei residents who live near the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區) yesterday protested against what they said was the “vengeful” enforcement of parking regulations in the area, following previous protests over lax enforcement.
The residents gathered outside Xinren (新仁) borough warden Wu Chien-te’s (吳建德) office holding signs calling police officers “white gangsters” (白道流氓) and “chickens that only lay excrement” ( 放雞屎有 [生雞卵無]) — a Taiwanese expression meaning a person who does not do anything but cause trouble.
Wu said the trouble began after heated exchanges between residents and police officers during a borough residents’ meeting last week.
Since then, police had conducted “continuous patrols” of streets and alleys in the borough, cracking down on parking violations and dispensing tickets, he said.
Residents had brought him more than 30 “unfair” tickets they wanted to challenge, he said.
“The 30 tickets included tickets for parking in the wrong direction, for parking along a yellow line with a person still in the vehicle and dropping off passengers along a red line,” he said.
The “harshness” of the crackdown made it “reasonable for residents to suspect” that the police department was being hostile and vengeful, Wu said.
He reiterated demands that the city restrict non-residents from entering the borough, saying that traffic restrictions, not ticketing, were the only way to reduce traffic congestion in the area in the long term.
Residents have complained that city authorities have ignored their interests as the number of visitors to the Songshan park has surged, clogging the streets with illegally parked cars.
The borough also includes the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋) and Taipei Railway Workshop (北機廠) complexes, which are expected to draw even more visitors once they open.
“The police have overcompensated over the last several days, to the point that it is harming rather than benefiting residents,” a female resident surnamed Hu (胡) said. “While issuing tickets in this way has improved the traffic situation, in reality, almost all the tickets have been given to area residents.”
Su Yu-chan (蘇裕展), head of the traffic division in the Taipei Police Department’s Xinyi District (信義) Police Precinct, said 169 tickets had been issued in the area over the past three days, compared with about 200 tickets in the previous three months.
He said that there was no way for the police to distinguish residents’ and non-residents’ vehicles, and the jump in tickets was the natural result of a tripling of police patrols, which was instituted after extensive media coverage of residents’ demands for traffic improvements.
The “unfair” tickets borough residents have complained about are tickets for parking violations, since city regulations ban any parking along a red line and allow vehicles to stop by a yellow line for just three minutes, regardless of whether the driver is present, Su said.
However, given the residents’ latest complaints, the police department would limit its heightened enforcement efforts to weekends, when the number of visitors to the area are higher.
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