Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin has lent his support to a police chief, calling a protest outside a precinct headquarters “illegal”.
On late Friday more than 1,000 people surrounded a police station before staging a sit-in outside the legislature. They demanded that a top police official resign, saying that he did not keep his promise not to forcibly remove protestors from the square outside the legislature.
As the number of protesters swelled, hundreds of police officers were deployed to the front gate of the police precinct, and riot police were also standing by at the site.
The latest flare-up occurred after student protesters vacated the legislature's main chamber Thursday evening. They had occupied the venue for 24 days to protest a controversial trade in services agreement with China. After the student protestors left, some people remained outside the legislature, and police moved to evict them from the scene.
A top police official, Fang Yang-ning, defended his action for removing protestors, but also offered a verbal resignation. The crowd then left, and around 200 people later walked to outside the legislature to continue their protest with a sit-in.
On Saturday the Taipei Mayor praised the police decision not to use force in the face of what he called an “illegal gathering”. However, he also said that future protestors must not take Friday night’s police inaction for granted. He said the offenders will be prosecuted in accordance with the law.