A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.”
In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane.
Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng was going too slow in blocking the road, and honked several times, the ruling said.
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
Cheng said he could not back up to park, as the other vehicle was close behind, so he got out, walked to the other car and shouted something in anger, then gave the middle finger next to the front seat window.
Public prosecutors charged Cheng with “public insult” under Article 309 of the Criminal Code.
Tainan prosecutors said that video surveillance showed Cheng raising his middle finger, saying that it was a deliberate action to malign the other driver, and not just a simple expression of emotion, and therefore should be punished.
Cheng in his defense alleged that he reacted to the other driver’s provocation, who made the gesture first, and he only did so in response. Judges examined video of the scene, showing Cheng making the gesture, but could not determine if the other driver had done so first.
In a ruling by the Tainan District Court, it said that although the middle finger has a negative connotation, it was “becoming more prevalent, as a common way of expressing negative emotions.”
“The court cannot deem it an insult, based only on this gesture, and should adjudicate by taking into account what was said, and overall actions taken at the scene,” it said.
“The complainant did honk the horn, believing the car in front was too slow, leading to the dispute. Therefore the complainant had initiated the dispute, while the defendant’s action was a person’s emotional response, as commonly found among the public, and should be afforded more tolerance,” the first ruling said.
After an appeal, the High Court upheld the acquittal, saying that the defendant “did not deliberately insult any particular underprivileged groups.”
“It was a brief response to express a negative feeling during a dispute on the road, and was not for insulting another person’s honor, nor did it exceed the tolerance level for society,” it said.
The ruling is final.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS