|
Lawmakers call on police chief to step down over violence
SUNFLOWER VIOLENCE: Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators said Wang Cho-chiun must resign after officers ‘used violent tactics on peaceful demonstrators’
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators yesterday asked for the dismissal of National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) to take responsibility for violence by law enforcement officers against demonstrators during the Sunflower movement.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) on Monday led the Cabinet to resign en masse in the wake of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) crushing defeat in the nine-in-one elections on Saturday last week, the results of which were widely seen as a vote of no confidence in the government.
TSU lawmakers said Wang should step down along with the Cabinet, saying that the agency’s head must assume responsibility for “officers who used violent tactics on peaceful demonstrators in recent years.”
“We expect the new Cabinet to make changes and to set out in new directions, therefore we ask for a new appointment to head up the post. Wang must not continue as police chief,” TSU Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) said.
The police are supposed to protect the public and preserve social order, but in several Sunflower movement incidents and protests by civic groups, police force was a menace and used to intimidate people, TSU Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴) said.
“Police brutality against demonstrators, as happened under Wang’s direct charge, clearly showed an inept government in crisis by resorting to violence against citizens, putting people’s lives in danger, rather than protecting them,” Yeh said.
source: Taipei Times
|
