Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said that police abused their authority in handling an anti-nuclear flash-mob protest last month and instructed the city’s police department to be more cautious.
The protest, initiated by theater director Ko I-chen (柯一正), drew 60 activists to Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office on May 28. The police later accused the protesters of violating the Public Safety Act (公共危險罪) and asked Ko to report to the police department on Monday, sparking accusations that the police had mishandled the protest.
Meanwhile, Ko’s son, actor Lawrence Ko (柯宇綸), said on his Facebook page on Thursday that his father’s company was being investigated by the Tax Bureau and commented that the government was being “a shady national apparatus.”
Screengrab from the Facebook page of the group "I am a person, I oppose nuclear power"
“A flash-mob protest is a way for people to express their opinions, and should be part of freedom of speech. Mayor Hau thinks the police department overreacted and wants the department to give careful consideration to how it handles such protests in the future,” Taipei City Government spokesman Chang Chi-chiang (張其強) said.
Chang declined to discuss the police department’s moves and said the city government had no knowledge about the reported tax investigation.
Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), director of the police department’s Zhongcheng First Division, said the flash-mob protest was illegal because it did not have a road permit, and the division only asked the organizers to explain the rally.
Police department chief secretary Lin Shun-chia (林順家) said that after thorough consideration, the department decided to cancel the interview with Ko I-chen, but it would still issue a warning to the protest organizers for violating traffic regulations and impacting traffic safety.
The flash-mob protest, titled “I’m a man. I’m anti-nuclear,” attracted many people from the arts, including novelist Lo Yi-chin (駱以軍). The group lay down on Ketagalan Boulevard to form the Chinese character for “person” (人) for 30 seconds, then shouted: “I’m a man, I’m anti-nuclear,” before dispersing.
Although the police have canceled the interview requests for the five leading figures in the protest — including Ko I-chen and Lo — the two are still upset about how the police handled the issue.
Recalling a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at a ceremony when Ma paid tribute to another writer who is an -advocate of humanitarianism and human rights, Lo wrote a post on his Facebook page saying he felt quite disappointed at Ma’s government for not standing up for humanitarian values.
“I was never close to social movements,” Lo wrote. “But when even a middle-aged-having-nothing-to-do father like me, as well as many literary figures, are out in the street protesting, maybe it’s time for the government to reflect on whether its policies in a range of areas have departed from the core values of humanitarianism.”
Instead of trying to think what it has done wrong, the government moved to press safety-violation charges on those who took part in the protest, Lo said, adding: “I would feel ashamed for what you have done if I were you.”
Ko I-chen yesterday said charges would not scare him and he would encourage more people to join.
“The action will not stop, I hereby call on more people — especially those in the south — to join us,” he said. “If I have any regrets, I regret that the action [flash protests] are not spreading fast enough.”
The police’s handling of the incident was very inappropriate, he said, “but I understand that they may have their own concerns.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers across party lines criticized the police and tax authorities.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said the government showed it “really lacks a sense of humor” to appreciate the “creative” protest.
“Only an authoritarian government is intolerant of the wit and humor of the act,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) criticized the use of subpoenas and tax probes by state agencies against artists, saying the government would not win with such tactics.
“Could it be that the White Terror is recurring?” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said, asking the tax bureau clarify whether its plan to investigate Ko I-chen was to counter the protest.
The Ministry of Finance issued a press release yesterday to say the Taipei National Tax Administration was only conducting a routine visit to Ko’s film company to check the accuracy of its tax registration information.
Such annual checks have been underway since April on many businesses and was not a tax inspection specifically against the film company, the ministry said.
The Taipei National Tax Administration said in a separate statement that it inspected 65 companies on Wednesday, including three other firms located in the same building as Ko I-chen’s movie production company.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and Amy Su
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