A police officer repeatedly pepper-sprayed a Friday campaign event by Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the party’s Taichung city councilor candidate Liu Tsen-yu (劉岑妤) due to faulty equipment and poor judgement, authorities said yesterday.
Wu Ching-tien (吳敬田), commissioner of the Taichung Police Department, said Ko and Liu, as well as TPP workers and supporters, were affected by the officer’s malfunctioning pepper spray canister at Fengchia Night Market, and that it was not a deliberate attack.
Chou Chun-ming (周俊銘), deputy head of Taichung’s Sixth Precinct, was responsible for the incident because he failed to immediately withdraw and handle the situation in accordance with regulations after discovering that his pepper spray was leaking, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
While Chou did use pepper spray at four locations across the night market, Wu emphasized that the officer did not spray it at anyone and only discharged it toward the ground.
Chi Yen-hsi (紀延熹), head of the Criminal Investigation Corps, said the department had ruled out the possibility of an attempted violent attack after reviewing 385 CCTV recordings and questioning people at the scene.
Wu said Liu reported the case on Saturday morning, while Chou admitted his mistake only after 10pm the same day, more than a day after the incident was reported by the media. The department has issued Chou two demerits in accordance with regulations and removed him from his post.
At the time of the incident on Friday, it was alleged that two unidentified people on a scooter sprayed pepper spray into the air and toward people in the procession, prompting condemnation from TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) the following day over the alleged violence.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) yesterday said the entire TPP, without waiting for the results of the police investigation, spent two days harshly criticizing the DPP and President William Lai (賴清德).
“This can be described as one of the biggest blunders of the year,” Wu said. “Huang is the real source of social division. He should immediately apologize for the false accusations and smears.”
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
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