The Government Addicted to Violence Is What Truly Deserves Preventive Detention

On April 30, the Minister of the Interior held a high-profile press conference claiming that at least ten individuals who allegedly occupied major traffic arteries and obstructed legislators from entering had been arrested, and announced that future ringleaders, repeat offenders, or radicals would be referred to prosecutors for preventive detention. The Minister of Justice chimed in, telling the public not to overlook the government's determination to enforce the law. A host of acting officials—including the Prosecutor-General and the Chief Prosecutor of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office—scrambled to hold meetings with the police, ostensibly to curry favor with the Minister for permanent appointments or promotions, and declared their resolve to invoke compulsory measures (which means detention).

Just a day prior, the Minister of Justice signed death warrants, executing five people. She even had the audacity to claim she signed them while in a relatively calm state of mind during her leave, forgetting that if official notices had arrived that day prohibiting execution due to pending retrials, extraordinary appeals, or constitutional interpretation petitions, she would not have been in the office to receive them. Sure enough, on the day of the execution, death row inmate Liu Yen-kuo did indeed file a petition for an extraordinary appeal. What to do? The Minister had precisely "handpicked" this timing. Thus, at the Supreme Prosecutors Office—where the newly appointed Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho had not yet taken office—Acting Chief Prosecutor Lin Hsieh-te (who knows whether there were further instructions from the Minister) dismissed the attorney's petition of over ten thousand words in a mere hour, at five o'clock in the afternoon. Why? Because this person simply had to be killed by six o'clock that day.

Killing is the aphrodisiac of power. Deciding the life and death of the people is the ultimate manifestation of sovereign power.

Making major decisions during a power transition vacuum is something every wielder of power should recognize as basic constitutional common sense. If depriving someone of their life is not a major decision, what is? With less than a month remaining in the Prosecutor-General transition period—and with the former Prosecutor-General stepping down after being convicted of a crime—it was all the more inappropriate to handle criminal grievances involving human lives. Yet, the Minister of Justice chose this exact moment when there was no master of the house at the Supreme Prosecutors Office. Earlier, she had meddled in prosecutors' investigative powers regarding student movement cases, making irresponsible remarks; this time, she completely bypassed the Supreme Prosecutors Office's procedural review for human lives. Without a (qualified) Prosecutor-General to review the death row files, and claiming to act with the mindset of a devout Buddhist, she executed five death row inmates all at once. If this is not the pinnacle of procedural arbitrariness, what is?

And then came an even more absurd development. During legislative interpellation on May 2, the Premier stated that prosecutors' preventive detention was specifically targeted at a few ringleaders like Tsai Ting-贵 (Tsai Ting-kuei). Setting aside how Premier Chiang could be certain that the public was following Mr. Tsai Ting-kuei, or whether these were spontaneous assemblies protected under Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 718 as temporary gatherings, even sporadic protesters running to the middle of the road to block cars with their bare bodies hardly constitute the crime of "obstructing public thoroughfares to create a danger to traffic" under Article 185 of the Criminal Code. Even if the police and prosecutors, "instructed" by Minister Lo, stubbornly tried to force this charge, it is still not a statutory offense eligible for preventive detention.

Starting from the bloody crackdown at the Executive Yuan on March 23, citizens endured multiple police crackdowns on April 11, April 27, and April 28, where water cannons, wooden clubs, and shields became commonplace; the only thing the public could do was resist. As Camus said: "I rebel, therefore we exist." Following the public's acts of resistance surrounding the Legislative Yuan on April 25 and April 29, counter-terrorism units were actually deployed around the Legislative Yuan on May 2, the day the legislature met, to protect Premier Chiang (surely not President Wang)? Not to mention that for merely sharing a dark joke online about "walking the MRT or Zhongxiao East Road nine times," the police could immediately travel from Taipei to Chiayi to arrest someone—what crime was committed here?

This country has truly become addicted to violence! And it does not hesitate to violate the law to "terrorize" the people: arresting flagrant offenders without knowing the charges, or imposing preventive detention for non-statutory offenses are both fair game. What is even more terrifying is executing people in violation of due process.

The offenses of deprivation of liberty and intimidation are both statutory crimes eligible for preventive detention. If we apply the logic of the analogical reasoning used during the Lunar New Year—when prosecutors and High Court judges colluded to seek preventive detention against Chang Te-cheng, who drove a car crashing into the Presidential Office, under the charge of attempted murder—then the ones at risk of repeating (persistently committing) these crimes are not the citizens who rose up in resistance, but rather this government already addicted to violence.