Bruised and battered from five days of protests that dogged Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) during his visit to Taiwan, the police and protesters yesterday tried to evaluate the number of people injured in the sometimes heated clashes.
The Taipei City Police Department said that 149 officers had been injured while policing the protests.
The department said supervisors were dispatched yesterday to various hospitals to express their sympathy to the injured officers and present them with fruit, drinks and gifts.
PHOTO: CNA
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the party and its local branches were still counting injured protesters, and the number would be released in a few days.
He said many injured protesters were not taken to the hospital by police, so it was believed that any police tally of injuries would be inaccurate.
Police estimated that about 100 protesters were injured.
Meanwhile, the police said yesterday they had arrested 18 alleged ringleaders of the protests.
In related news, the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that during the clashes in front of the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei Hotel on Wednesday night, National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞) was so upset at Songshan Precinct Chief Huang Chia-lu’s (黃嘉祿) failure to control the protesters that he relieved Huang of his command.
Huang apparently asked officers not to use too much force, which led to the protest getting out of control. But a high-ranking NPA officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Taipei Times yesterday that Huang would not be punished.
“It was not his fault,” the officer said. “In a situation like that, it is always our priority to make sure that nobody gets hurt. That is the end goal.”
The officer also said that the clashes had come as surprise.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG AND CNA
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS