A university student has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for breaking 16 scooter U-locks after a court ruled that such vandalism could not be considered “civil disobedience.”
In February last year, then-National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) student Chao Yu-lun (招有倫) turned himself in to police after allegedly using a cable cutter to cut 16 scooter U-locks on campus, claiming that he was exercising his right of civil disobedience and expressing discontent about a decision made by the university to lock up any parked vehicles without radio-frequency identification (RFID) installed.
As most students ride scooters on the nearly 300-hectare campus, the university introduced RFID as a parking management solution in 2016.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
In January last year, the university implemented the policy and stated that any parked vehicle on campus found without RFID would be locked up and given a notice informing the owner to go to an office — where school officials will persuade them to install RFID — to get a key.
Chao, then-president of the NPUST student association, was dissatisfied with the university for disregarding students’ rights, as it had not involved student representatives in the discussion of the new policy.
Chao said the decision reached by the university was inappropriate, which left him with no other choice but to resort to his lock-breaking protest — which he claimed caused only minor damage — to demand that the university listen to students.
However, the prosecutor and the judge maintained that civil disobedience should be based on peaceful and non-violent approaches, and that Chao’s action of breaking locks was violent.
After taking Chao’s motives into account, the Pingtung District Court earlier this week handed down a light sentence of 10 days for causing damage to property, which could be commuted to a fine.
According to the university, the RFID installation fees for undergraduate students are NT$350 for cars and NT$300 for scooters. An authorized permit can last for four years.
Since the beginning of this semsester, 266 automobiles and 988 scooters have been installed with RFID, the university added.
In response to the ruling, Chao, now studying in the Program of Law at the University of Taipei, on Monday said that the NPUST should listen to students, as many have expressed dissatisfaction with the RFID policy. A possible alternative, for example, could be automatic number-plate recognition.
Chao said he believes that the NPUST has not followed the appropriate legal procedures because it did not make the incidental expenses collected from RFID installment transparent, as required by the Ministry of Education.
Chao said that he would not exclude the possibility of pursuing other judicial action.
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