The National Police Agency (NPA) used excessive force to expel protesters, made untruthful statements about the number of injuries and shielded misconduct within its ranks, a new Control Yuan report on the government’s actions during the Sunflower movement found.
The Control Yuan probe into clashes between demonstrators and police in the early morning of March 24, 2014, found multiple agencies to be at fault, Control Yuan members Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) and Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Corrective notices have been issued over the failures of the police agency, the Ministry of the Interior, the Executive Yuan, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and the Taipei Police Department, they said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Senior police officials failed to thwart the improper use of force by police as they sought to remove protesters, which led to injuries of 15 people who later sued the government and were granted compensation, they said.
Police commanders were within range to observe that officers were using batons to strike peaceful demonstrators in the head, but did nothing, the Control Yuan members said, adding that interviews with victims allowed them to reconstruct the location of events.
Citing an example, they said that a 74-year-old man surnamed Chou (周) was struck by a water cannon and then beaten with batons, resulting in multiple fractures and internal bruising in the abdomen.
He died a year after the confrontation, they said.
Former NPA deputy director-general Tsai Cang-bo (蔡蒼柏) in 2020 told the Control Yuan that 42 members of the public and 191 police officers were injured during the clashes, they said.
Hospital records for that day showed that 166 people were admitted for injuries, including four with injuries that were deemed potentially life-threatening and 73 with urgent, but not life-threatening injuries, they said.
This means the number of injuries among members of the public was 3.95 times higher than Tsai claimed, they said, adding that no police officer was admitted to hospital after the clashes.
Then-NPA director-general Chen Chia-chin (陳家欽) in 2020 told Control Yuan member Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) that police commanders who made mistakes during the clashes had been disciplined, but the agency only reprimanded one SWAT team commander from Taipei, they said.
The agency continued to take no action against officers engaged in misconduct, they said.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and the police agency did not conduct a proper investigation into accusations of police brutality, they said, adding that a CD storing crucial video footage was rendered unreadable by mishandling or sabotage.
The police agency and the interior ministry should thoroughly examine and improve the training of police officers with regard to civil rights to ensure that Taiwanese do not lose trust in law enforcement institutions, they said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS