Civil Disobedience Incident - Notes on Accompanying a Client for Police Interrogation as an Attorney

It has been a long time since I was this angry.

I am so angry that even though Real Madrid, the team I support the most, has finally reached the UEFA Champions League final after twelve years, I still cannot feel happy. I am so angry that, despite being chased by a mountain of legal briefs, I must type out such a lengthy article just to slightly soothe my mind.

The incident happened yesterday around 1 PM. I received a call from the JRF stating that a member of the public needed an attorney to accompany them during police interrogation at the Special Police Corps. I grabbed my power of attorney and attorney robe and set off immediately, thinking that if everything went smoothly and no detention was requested, I would finish around 6 PM and could head back to the office to catch up on legal briefs.

Upon arriving at the Special Police Corps, the police first informed me that my client had been arrested on charges of obstructing a public officer. Afterwards, as I discussed the situation of the incident with my client, I learned that he had simply gone to the vicinity of the Legislative Yuan. Seeing people protesting and students sitting-in, a legislator's car suddenly tried to drive out of the Legislative Yuan. Then, a large crowd of police officers armed with shields and batons rushed out from inside the Legislative Yuan, indiscriminately swinging, pushing, shoving, and pulling at the sitting students. Some were dragged into the police formation and disappeared; some were pushed to the ground, utterly defenseless, and continued to be attacked by the police with shields. Suddenly, he saw someone he knew surrounded by the police, so he hurriedly stepped forward to pull his friend out, but was abruptly grabbed by a police officer and given a flying mare (shoulder throw), after which he was handcuffed and arrested by the police.

"A shoulder throw?!" I repeated his words in sheer disbelief. He showed me his clothes, torn from the shoulder throw, and the wounds on his arm. On his face, aside from anger, I saw the same look of disbelief as my own.

After finishing our conversation, I originally thought we could begin making the record. Instead, it was the start of a long wait. I do not know what the police intended by doing this, but I saw many police officers idling around at the scene, sitting and waiting blankly just like me, yet no one came to take the record. Every time I went to ask when we could finally start, the police would politely ask us to continue waiting on the pretext that they were still drafting the official duty report. Then, we returned to the scene of police officers, attorneys, and clients sitting and waiting blankly together.

Waiting like this, six hours passed.

What kind of duty report takes six hours to complete?

Aside from deliberately giving the client and the attorney a hard time, I truly cannot think of any other reason.

While waiting, the police brought in four more arrested citizens. Because they had also called the JRF to request pro bono lawyers to assist in accompanying them during the interrogation, and the JRF staff also asked me to help confirm the head count, I went over to understand the situation of these four people. At first, the police said all four were under protective custody and could leave after leaving their identification information. Later, it changed to two of the four being arrested and two under protective custody. But soon the police's story changed again to three being arrested and one under protective custody. Well, finally three lawyers were coordinated to come and accompany the interrogation, and the citizen under protective custody could leave after three hours. To my surprise, when I went to take that citizen away, I was blocked by several police officers and shouted at loudly: 'Who said he can leave!' Strangely enough, the protective custody that was previously agreed upon suddenly vanished, and the police immediately changed their story once again. In a flash, that citizen became a current offender arrested on charges of obstructing a public officer.

By 7 PM, we finally entered the interrogation room. But it was not over yet, because another uniformed police officer came in and began lecturing my client, rambling on about a bunch of nonsense that I had zero desire to record. I asked that police officer if he was here to take our record. He said no, it would be taken by other police officers. I then politely asked that police officer if he could please ask the officers to come quickly and take the record. He said he was just a junior cop and didn't dare to ask his senior colleagues. At this point, I really lost my temper. I walked out of the interrogation room, and upon seeing plainclothes detectives outside, regardless of whether they were the ones in charge, I directly interrogated them about what on earth they were messing around with. Strangely enough, the moment I got angry, in less than three seconds, the two police officers responsible for taking the record immediately appeared!

Aside from deliberately giving the client and the attorney a hard time, what other reason could explain all this?

When the record finally began, my client and I learned that the arrested charges were not obstructing a public officer, but rather interference with freedom and destruction of property—interfering with the legislator's freedom of entry and exit, and damaging the legislator's vehicle. The ridiculous part was that the police could not produce any evidence whatsoever to prove that my client committed the aforementioned criminal acts. There were no photos, no video footage, and no witnesses; there were only the ridiculous questions asked out of the police's desire to fabricate a crime. For example: 'You said you didn't step on the hood of the legislator's car, why is the hood dented?', 'You said you didn't block the legislator's vehicle from entering and exiting, who can testify to that?'

By the time my client finished the record and was transferred to the prosecutors office, it was already past 10 PM. The kind-hearted attorney Yu Tsung-ming came to take over my shift, accompanying my client through the prosecutor's secondary interrogation. At this point, I just wanted to go home quickly and temporarily cast all the bullshit that happened today to the back of my mind. Unexpectedly, around midnight, I received a report from attorney Yu Tsung-ming regarding the client, which made me completely and utterly despair of Taiwan's police system!

As it turned out, during the prosecutor's secondary interrogation, when the police's on-site evidence disk and video stills were played, it was discovered that my client was not the criminal suspect accused by the police at all. The police had taken a man in the video stills whose face, hairstyle, and shoe color were all completely different from my client's, and used him as case file data submitted to the prosecutor to prove my client was involved in interference with freedom. Yet, during the police interrogation, they never dared to pull out that still image to have my client confirm it, because the police knew from start to finish that my client had committed no criminal acts whatsoever!

The ironic part is that, in the end, the prosecutor still refused to let my client—who was wrongfully accused for no reason—off the hook, and instead imposed a disposition of restricted residence.

How sorrowful! This is my most bitter accusation against the prosecutorial and police system of this country.

But I will not give up. I swear I will continue to fight you, even if it is like throwing an egg against a stone or trying to stop a chariot with a mantis's arms, I will not give up.