Taiwan Matters!

... and place a thumb or two on the scales of justice

When people talk about "blind justice," I don't think this is what they mean:

No indictment over Nov. 4 fracas

VOLUNTARY: Prosecutors have concluded that a clerk at Sunrise Records turned down the music and pulled down the shutter during protests against Chen Yunlin

[...]

Prosecutors said they would not indict a police chief who was accused of forcibly closing a record store during protests surrounding the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) last year.

Former Beitou Precinct chief Lee Han-ching (李漢卿), who was in charge when police closed the Sunrise Record store, had been accused of forcibly entering and conducting a search of the store without a warrant.

Chief Prosecutor Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) of the Taipei District Court said an investigation had established that a sales clerk at the store had voluntarily turned down the music and pulled down the shutter after being asked to do so by police.

Prosecutors quoted Lee as saying that he went into the record store to ask if the music was coming from there, not to search the place. A young clerk then turned the volume down and, when he saw the crowd and police shoving each other, began to close the store's front roller shutter.

Lee said someone yelled that he was about to be crushed under the gate, whereupon police officers tried to push the gate back up.

Contrasting with what prosecutors and police are claiming, in early November 2008, Sunrise Records issued a public statement saying that it was the police that wanted the door closed -- not the people working there.

Watching the above video, tell me if you can't plainly see the things that prosecutors apparently cannot (pay close attention around the 0:37 and 1:33 marks):

2:14 YouTube video: "Martial Law Resurrected?"
Note that Lee enters the store (0:37) with 3 or 4 other officers, that there are several more right outside the door, and that dozens more are outside on the sidewalk. (That's just counting the ones visible in this video.) After Lee and the other officers entered the store, can anything that happened inside really be considered "voluntary"? Recall Sunshine Records' statement on the matter.

Furthermore, what do you see at the 1:37 mark? The police are pulling the door down! Why can't the prosecutors see that?

And if Lee had to go into the store "to ask if the music was coming from there," he must have some serious sensory difficulties.

As Claudia Jean reminds readers, Lee was promoted -- and the promotion took place before the end of November 2008, when a so-called "investigation" would barely have had the chance to even get off the ground.

More video
Here's the same incident from a different angle:

8:44 BlipTV video: 上揚唱片行: 警察砸店
Translation: Sunrise Records: Police ransack store
In the above video, the police enter the store around 0:33, and the music continues until about 0:51 or so. Seconds later, the police are violently pushing people who were previously dancing and singing.

"Voluntary," my ass. This is pure police and prosecutorial arrogance!

UPDATE: The Monday, May 4, 2009 edition of the Taipei Times has an editorial cartoon which hits the nail on the head (pun intended) on this topic.[/update]

Maracas for the fracas: Taiwan, 台灣, Taipei City, 台北市, Lee Han-ching, 李漢卿, violence, 暴力

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Labels: Lee Han-ching, Taipei City, Taiwan, Tim Maddog, violence, 台北市, 台灣, 暴力, 李漢卿

*posted Friday, March 27, 2009 @ 8:47 PM by Tim Maddog* [Permalink] 3 comments

This is how they roll

Taiwan's current president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) frequently speaks about his "clean image," and after running an "anti-corruption" campaign, he told the public that "things would be better right away" (馬上就會好) when he took office on May 20, 2008.

However, things in Taiwan have gotten worse since that date in all kinds of ways.

But one thing hasn't changed a bit: the KMT's way of doing business.

In Taipei's Da-an District (大安區), for example, KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) was recently forced out of office after a scandal which revealed that she had held office illegally for 14 years while possessing dual nationality and had regularly lied to the public about it. A by-election to fill her vacated legislative seat is scheduled for tomorrow -- Saturday, March 28, 2009.

Read what the KMT was caught doing just two days before this election:

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday accused the Taipei City Government [led by the KMT's Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌)] of abusing municipal resources to campaign for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛) in tomorrow's legislative by-election, and urged municipal officials to maintain neutrality.

About a dozen staff from the Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs [台北市政府民政局] visited a traditional market in Da-an District (大安) to hand out pamphlets urging residents to vote tomorrow. However, two people wearing the department's vest were also spotted calling on residents to vote for Chiang.

It's a serious violation of administrative neutrality and we need to stop public servants from campaigning for a specific candidate in such an obvious way [...]

Here's the video:

2:25 YouTube video: "This is how the KMT rolls (中國國民黨就是這樣)"

Notice the vests the women are wearing. They belong to the Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs -- under a KMT government.

That's the way they roll -- and they do it in broad daylight! This time, it was captured on video.

I sure hope that the voters (even in the so-called "deep blue" Da-an District) will have enough sense to NOT vote for either of the pan-blue candidates in this election -- or in any other election, for that matter. Only then will Taiwan get back to making the kind of improvements that occurred due to the efforts of those who have worked so hard to build democracy here.