Police Hassle Political Blogger Meeting

During a press conference at the forum on Friday in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Hsing Yun said that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one family. There are no Taiwanese in Taiwan and Taiwanese are all Chinese.”Most people see being a half breed something to be ashamed of. The Taiwanese though are proud of it (The Great One [former gate inscription at CKS Memorial] on Half Breeds) -- Kuo Kuan-yingThe Taipei Times reported on the incident of police visiting a perfectly ordinary and legal Taiwan blogger association meeting: Taipei City’s Department of Police apologized on Monday for interrupting a private gathering of political bloggers and promised to improve measures to respect people’s rights and privacy. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) and Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠) criticized the department for sending two police officers to a private meeting held by the Taiwan Blogger Association on Saturday and intimidating the participants by asking them to show their ID.Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), a Web manager for former DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) campaign, said the association had invited Hsieh and former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) to a private meeting to commemorate Yeh’s husband, democracy movement pioneer Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who committed suicide in 1989, and discuss freedom of speech.Two police officers from the department entered the meeting and asked the association’s secretary-general to explain why they were there, while asking participants to provide their ID and cellphone numbers, said Yang, who was at the meeting.“The meeting was a simple and private gathering, but the two police officers abused their authority and undermined freedom of speech,” Chien said.Yen also accused the department’s Zhongshan branch of violating human rights, saying it had made several phone calls to the association before the meeting and shown up at the meeting to request more information.“The meeting was held at the association’s office and no illegal activity was involved. The police’s action was illegal,” she said.Hung Sheng-kun, commissioner of the department, later acknowledged the department’s poor handling of the matter and took disciplinary action against the director of the department’s security office, Tsai Wang-lai (蔡萬來), and four other officers.Political blogger Billy Pan has the story and photos in Chinese (h/t to the commenter who provided the link):5. ...the police further asked the name of the Secretary- General, so we gave it to him. They then asked for his ID number, but the Secretary-General balked, saying that was really too much. The police then asked for his date of birth, but we didn't give it to him. During this process of asking for everyone's personal information, city councilor Yen Sheng-kuan's (顏聖冠) office director appeared, and asked the police what law they were acting in accordance with, but the police refused to answer.If this type of overenthusiastic law enforcement keeps happening, sooner or later it is going to look like a pattern.Definitely looks like a cool organization, which I will have to find a way to join!