Abuse of foreigner on MRT sparks criticism of police

FOOT-DRAGGING? Police arguments about jurisdiction meant MRT security footage was deleted before police viewed it. A Taiwanese suspect was brought in for questioning

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter





People First Party (PFP) Taipei City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday called for better communication between Taipei City Police precincts in handling cases that take place in the city’s MRT system, after a foreigner posted a video showing that he and his Taiwanese girlfriend had been humiliated on an MRT carriage.

During a Taipei City Council question-and-answer session, Huang showed a video clip recorded last month by Christopher Raymond Hall, a Briton, which Hall uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday.

The footage showed Hall and his girlfriend being verbally abused on a train operating on the MRT Tamsui-Xinyi Line by a man who subjected the couple to a barrage of racist remarks and personal attacks.

A viral video of a Taiwanese man surnamed Liao, who is accused of hurling a torrent of racial abuse at a foreign resident on a train on Taipei MRT’s Tamsui-Xinyi line is pictured on Youtube. Screengrab from Youtube

Huang questioned the efficiency of the city’s police system, saying that the police were unable to obtain footage of the incident from surveillance cameras installed on MRT trains because more than one week had passed before the police stations finally decided who had jurisdiction over the case, and the footage had already been deleted.

Quoting from Hall’s video, in which Hall said he was told by the police that he had to tell them which MRT station the dispute had taken place in before a case could be opened, Huang said the police were too slow to respond to the incident.

“No one involved in a fight will remember at which station an argument began,” Huang said.

A Taiwanese man surnamed Liao, who is accused of hurling racial abuse at a foreign resident on Taipei’s MRT, yesterday arrives at the Taipei City Police Department’s Daan District Precinct for questioning. Photo: Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times

“I hope that from now on [the police] will stop asking such idiotic questions as: ‘When did you start the argument?’” she said.

Taipei Police Commissioner Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) told the council that the protracted time it took police stations to work out responsibility over the incident indicated that there had been a communication problem between the police and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC).

Chiu said the case was taken by the Daan Precinct (大安), which forwarded the case to prosecutors.

He said the department would facilitate communication with the TRTC.

TRTC general manager Yen Pang-chieh (顏邦傑) said the police had difficulty finding footage of the incident because Hall did not inform MRT security personnel at the time of the dispute and chose to file a report at a police station instead.

Yen said that cases that involve incidents on MRT carriages are forwarded to precincts by location, but both the time and location at which the incident took place were found to be missing in Hall’s report.

He said that people should use the emergency button in the carriages when in danger, as the train would stop at the next station and police and security personnel could take swift action to address any problem.

It would also help investigators find the footage needed for investigation, he said.

The Taipei City Police Department’s Daan District (大安) precinct yesterday brought a Taiwanese man, a security guard surnamed Liao (廖), in for questioning and forwarded the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, recommending indictment for slander and defamation.

Liao reportedly told police he had been angry at Hall’s attitude, which is why he shouted at the couple, adding that he wished to apologize for causing a scene that led to social scrutiny.

Additional reporting by Chiu Chun-fu