Taichung police yesterday morning beefed up their presence at several potential hot spots and conducted checks at nightclubs, after large groups were involved in street brawls two days in a row.
In the early morning, 50 officers from two precincts made rounds at commercial strips in Nantun District (南屯).
They focused on three nightclubs: X-Cube, 18TC and Coolsh, Nantu Police Precinct Chief Chou Ching-pin (周景彬) told reporters.
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei
Police entered the clubs unannounced, turned off the music and checked the identification documents of 1,200 patrons and staff, Chou said.
Proprietors were told to inspect patrons more closely at the door, and to use hand-held metal detectors to prevent people from bringing firearms, knives, metal rods or other weapons into their clubs, Chou said.
“This show of force … was in response to the previous two violent incidents, which have affected local residents,” Chou said. “These unannounced inspections will continue, to deter groups from fighting. We will strive to uphold public security and have mobile police units on standby to arrest offenders.”
The first incident took place on Wednesday morning, when more than 20 people began fighting at X-Cube.
A man surnamed Chen (陳), 23, had reportedly argued with nightclub staff the week before and convinced a group of friends help him seek revenge.
When the fighting started, Chen allegedly called more friends to join him, because his group was outnumbered.
The fight moved outside, and surveillance footage showed people wielding metal bats and rods in the street.
In the footage, one man, who was apparently working as a bouncer, is shown picking up a fire extinguisher. With other staff, he can be seen banging on the windows and doors of three cars used by Chen and his friends.
Nine people were injured and several cars and motorcycles were damaged.
There was another brawl yesterday morning in front of a steak restaurant in Situn District (西屯).
Two men who opened the restaurant together were having a late night meal on the premises when they allegedly got into an argument over finances and called their friends for support.
Nineteen people were taken in for questioning, and one sports utility vehicle was damaged by people wielding metal baseball bats.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS