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| The validity of this article as a news story is, as written, disputed. Wikinews does not publish reports on events that are not sufficiently recent. For synthesis, new details must have come to light within the past two or three days, and the news event itself must have happened within a week. Unless sources can be found and a news event chosen to bring this article into compliance with those requirements, the article may be deleted.
If any new details from the last two to three days are newsworthy in their own right then an article could be written with these updates as the actual news event. Exceptions are possible where original reporting adds significant new and newsworthy information to the article.
Please try to resolve objections on the discussion page, or move the article to Wikipedia or another sister project where it may be more relevant. |
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Wednesday, June 16, 2021
A young police officer in his mid-20s, serving in Taiwan Taoyuan Airport was recently fired for writing down his working life (in all honesty) that
| “I have been a police officer since I graduated from the police academy in 2014. When I look back over my career so far, I find that I have never been assigned to any investigation. I have not ticketed anyone yet. Basically, my everyday life as an officer is comparable with a retiree’s life. I trip abroad almost every two months. How disconnected from reality my life has been! Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, my life suddenly lost an important routine featuring having fun! Thus, I had to resort to picking up textbooks and register for the postgraduate entrance exam. But I knew I had completely forgotten all law subjects taught previously, I decided to prepare for the selected postgraduate program whose entrance exam excluded law subjects, i.e., the postgraduate in public safety. The way I prepared for the entrance exam is as follows: These four subjects contain nearly no laws to memorize, very suitable for those who are a bit older and hate to memorize a lot of rigid interpretation of the rules. Except for the English subject, the other three subjects’ test sheets usually consist of two questions of current events and two questions of common sense. I enjoyed the self-indulgent time of swiping my smartphone up or down at work, absorbing the current events regarding Cross-Strait relations and International affairs. You don’t need to remember them in detail but do need to have some impressions of them. This commercial tutoring center’s teachers were capable of getting me, who was just a novice and had been completely spaced out, back on track, having me learn the basics from scratch. They also helped me collect helpful news coverages that might be seen in the exam. You know I am rather careless and sloppy about my work and study. Because of many years of not getting the top-tier rating from my supervisor, I wasn’t qualified to register for the entrance exam. Last year, for the first time, I got the top-tier rating. I cherished the chance and spent just two months to finish cramming for the entrance exam. That says these teachers are such competent that empowered me to get things done in merely two months. If I could succeed in passing the entrance exam, then many of you must be able to outperform me who is just an absent-minded guy. Please be confident in yourself, don’t feel it is impossible before you have tried! Here are my best wishes.“ |
The quote was his letter to other police officers who planned to advance their careers.
The Taiwan government’s decision has provoked disagreements among anonymous users on Taiwan’s largest BBS because they believe that the punishment is disproportionately harsh, given that many police officers who committed sexual assault, were caught drunk driving, or were charged with bribery and corruption have just been punished with an extended period of unpaid leave.
| “Even if you are public servants, soldiers, educators under Taiwanese government and have nothing to do at work, you must say you and your fellows are working hard if not exhausted in television interviews. This is the received wisdom in Taiwan.”, “Be quiet and without a great show of excitement when you are benefited, but do the opposite when delivering kindness.”, “This society neither punishes the hard-working nor the lazy but the one who doesn’t look around.”, “Didn’t expect there would be an officer that so readily internalized the school motto – honesty”, “He is too pure for this world.” |
said anonymous users below the related news clips on YouTube.
The young police’s family name is Chen. Chen accepted the request from a private tutoring center for sharing his experience as a policeman who was successfully enrolled in the postgraduate study for public safety at Central Police University as a full-time paid student and will be promoted from policeman to senior manager supervising general policeman upon graduation. Nevertheless, his written sharing of experience was later screenshot by an anonymous policeman angry about his unknowing revelation of the organization’s inner structure and sent to Taiwan’s media and National Police Agency. The anonymous policeman who took the screenshot told the media that
| “his words had provoked an outcry among the grassroots of the police. How can he lead the grassroots after his graduation? We are so ashamed of him!” |
However, the public sentiment appears to believe what Chen had said as it is in line with their real-life experiences, as they comment on the affair under the videos or news coverages. Outsiders are sympathetic to him, saying he just unknowingly opened Pandora’s Box.
As the news went viral, Chen and the tutoring center swiftly took down the posted letter that was previously served as an advertisement for the tutoring center. Chen later posted a letter of apology stating that
| “I, Chen, recently thoughtlessly made some derogatory and exaggerated remark about my experience as a police officer, which showed little consideration for Central Police University, Police Station, and my peers who worked tirelessly. I deeply apologize for all the damage to the reputation and impression caused. I will take a long, hard look at my ways of dealing with people and doing things. Please give me a second chance!“ |
Yet, a day after, the Taiwanese government punished Chen with the maximum penalty of three major demerits for “defamation”, depriving Chen of his job, qualification for postgraduate study, salary-linked pension, and so on., which shocked Taiwanese people on the Internet. Furthermore, Chen’s two immediate supervisors were transferred to the lower-ranked departments and got two and one demerits, respectively, for their failures to exercise collective responsibility. National Police Agency stated that it had demanded all the police officers learn from this lesson and warned the supervisors at all levels to enforce tougher disciplines towards their subordinates, to resolutely weed out the reoffending, and to distance themselves from such case, otherwise, strict discipline would be imposed.
In the aftermath of the unfortunate incident, a reporter from SET News contacted Chen’s colleague familiar with him. The colleague told the reporter that Chen became depressed when he knew the government’s decision, and had stayed in his dormitory room since then, and didn’t dare to go back to his home in Kaohsiung City, for fear of getting scolded by his parents. Chen’s current belonging department said they had regularly looked after him.
Following the removal of Chen from his job and his qualification to attend Central Police University, the Liberty Times reports that a female runner-up is expected to fill the vacuum Chen left in the university. When the correspondent of the Liberty Times reached her, she told that although having postgraduate education had been her dream, she felt a bit complicated in the meantime; but would get herself ready.
Taiwan’s Police Working Right Union responded to such punishment with a statement that
| “This punishment is a direct assault on the freedom of speech protected by the Constitution. Chen just spoke up about his own summary of his experience and didn’t intend to represent his working department’s formal viewpoint. The government must not be led by the tabloid news.” |
Note:Full-time paid student will be paid the same salary as they worked as an officer.
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