The incidence of violent crime in New Taipei City has receded, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said on Tuesday, after he was accused of mismanaging the city’s police force, resulting in police officers injuring a bystander they mistook for a fugitive.
On Sept. 20, four police officers erroneously arrested a man surnamed Huang (黃) in the city’s Sanchong District (三重) following an altercation, causing injuries that required hospital treatment. Both parties involved have pressed assault charges.
The New Taipei City Police Department’s Sanchong Precinct has issued a public apology to Huang after suspending the officers, with the adjudication for the rivaling lawsuits scheduled to begin next week.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Huang yesterday testified about his arrest to Control Yuan member Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), a former mayor of then-Sanchong township who is heading the agency’s probe.
Speaking at a news conference outside the Control Yuan, Huang said video evidence showed plainclothes officers assaulting him without identifying themselves while uniformed officers looked on.
One of the officers put a knee on Huang’s throat and continued to strike him in the head after he had been handcuffed, showing a severe lapse of discipline, New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
Police officers involved in the incident have broken the law, and their filing of charges of obstruction and assault against the victim proved their apologies were not sincere, he said.
The officers should be censured by the Control Yuan and held accountable for their actions in court, he added.
Separately, Hou told reporters that the city’s violent crime rate last year receded and that the jurisdiction leads Taiwan’s special municipalities in crime prevention programs and clearance rates.
The city’s police force was recognized by the National Police Agency’s annual Outstanding Performance Award, he added.
Hou was a police officer before becoming a politician and police reform has been a top priority during his tenure as mayor, he said.
He felt insulted by the accusations, Hou said.
Earlier that day, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan that Hou has been eager to take credit for positive developments in policing, but disappears from public sight whenever scandals occur.
Besides the Sanchong incident, a shooting at a pawn shop in Banciao District (板橋) last month and the death of a boy from COVID-19, allegedly due to delays in the city’s emergency medical service, show severe lapses in leadership, he said.
“Hou’s favorite response to problems is that critics should not burden officers doing their jobs on the front line, which serves as an excuse for not addressing real issues,” Lo said.
The proportionality principle was not observed in the Sanchong incident, Economic Democracy Union convener and lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said, adding that the measures taken by the officers were excessive, regardless of whether the person being arrested was a fugitive.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
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