Taoyuan prosecutors have indicted a Jhongli District (中壢) police officer for allegedly throwing a female music teacher to the ground and handcuffing her after she refused to submit to questioning.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office had initially declined to press charges, but the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office ordered local authorities in December last year to conduct a second review after the music teacher, Chan Hui-ling (詹慧玲), filed an appeal.
On April 22 last year, a police officer, surnamed Yeh (葉), approached Chan as she was walking near Jhongli Railway Station and attempted to question her, asking her name, if she lived nearby and whether she was carrying identification.
Photo: CNA
When Chan asked why, the officer said he was worried “someone reported you missing” — apparently assuming she was an unaccounted-for migrant worker, a video of the encounter released by police shows.
A dispute broke out after Chan refused to answer Yeh, with Chan appearing to use the words “really stupid,” the video shows.
When the officer asked if she called him stupid, Chan replied: “What you did violated ...”
The officer interjected, saying: “Okay, well you’ve just called me stupid,” before the video clip stops a few seconds later.
However, videos of the subsequent moments taken by bystanders show Yeh throwing Chan to the ground and handcuffing her as she screams in panic.
He then places her under arrest for “obstructing a public official,” the video shows.
In Facebook posts after the incident, Chan argued that Yeh did not have grounds to question her, and accused him of abusing his power by slamming her to the ground, handcuffing her and holding her at a police station for questioning.
Prosecutors said in a news release yesterday that after conducting a second review of the evidence in the case, they had charged Yeh with offenses against personal freedom by a public official.
The Taoyuan Police Department’s Jhongli Precinct vowed to respect the judicial process, and to step up training to ensure officers carry out their duties legally and with a sense of proportionality.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS