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Police crack down on
Miaoli protesters
¡¥CAUGHT RED-HANDED¡¦: Police reportedly beat
peaceful demonstrators with batons, and handcuffed and arrested them in the
second such incident in the past three days
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Police arrest students protesting
against the construction of wind turbines on farmland in Miaoli County¡¦s Yuanli
Township yesterday.
Photo: Chang hsun-teng, Taipei Times
More than 20 protesters ¡X including local
residents and 14 student supporters ¡X who staged a peaceful sit-in demonstration
against a wind turbine project in Yuanli Township (b¸Ì), Miaoli County, were
handcuffed and taken away by police yesterday.
¡§I didn¡¦t do anything wrong, why should I go with you?¡¨ a protester surnamed Lin
(ªL) said as she was dragged away from the wind turbine construction site by the
police.
Although the woman ¡X as well as the other protesters ¡X was not involved in any
act of violence and did not resist when dragged away by the police, she was
allegedly pushed to the ground by several police officers with their knees and
had both her arms twisted around behind her back before being handcuffed.
Police ignored her complaints that her arms hurt and she could hardly breathe
after being pushed to the ground, saying only: ¡§Nothing will happen to you if
you don¡¦t move.¡¨
Lin¡¦s case was not an isolated incident ¡X all the other protesters who refused
to leave the site were handcuffed and several were beaten with batons.
About 20 people were arrested and were transferred to Miaoli District
Prosecutors¡¦ Office. At press time, an injunction had been issued against 14 of
the protesters.
Yesterday¡¦s incident was the second in which police employed handcuffs and
batons against peaceful protesters, after a similar incident at the turbine
construction site on Saturday.
On Saturday, when one of the protesters who escaped arrest showed up at the
Tongsiao Police Precinct where the arrested protesters were detained, an amateur
video showed an unidentified senior officer yelling at him, telling him to go
away, saying: ¡§This is my place, not yours¡¨ and ¡§go ahead and file a complaint
against me.¡¨
Usually in Miaoli, peaceful protesters are only taken into police vehicles
nearby and released after the protest is over, and only those who are involved
in violent acts, such as attacking officers or breaking the police line, are
referred to the judiciary.
Facing criticism from the public, the Tongsiao Police Precinct defended its
actions, saying that the protesters were handcuffed because they were ¡§caught
red-handed.¡¨
Yuanli residents said that although they support green energy in principle, they
were protesting against the InfraVest GmbH¡¦s wind turbine project out of concern
it might affect their quality of life, because some turbines are only 250m from
their homes.
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