Spanish Police Park In Handicapped Spot, Fine Person Who Caught Them For 'Impugning Their Honor'
from the the-perfect-law-for-those-who-would-be-a-law-unto-themselves dept
A question that is almost always ignored when crafting legislation is "How will this new law be abused?" In the case of Spain's horrific Gag Law (officially [and hilariously] known as the "Citizen Security Law"), the answer is, "As much as possible."
Just a couple of weeks away from a Spanish citizen being fined for calling his local police force "slackers," a Spanish woman has been fined for posting a picture of police car parked in a handicapped spot to her Facebook page.
A Spanish woman has been fined €800 (£570) under the country’s controversial new gagging law for posting a photograph of a police car parked illegally in a disabled bay.If nothing else, the new law has reset law enforcement priorities. If law enforcement is insulted, the perpetrator needs to be tracked down before the trail goes cold.
The unnamed woman, a resident of Petrer in Alicante, south-east Spain, posted the photo on her Facebook page with the comment “Park where you bloody well please and you won’t even be fined”.
The police tracked her down within 48 hours and fined her.
According to the original report at Petreraldia.com, differing narratives have emerged. One version of the incident says the officer who parked in the handicapped spot approached the photographer and explained the situation, apparently hoping to prevent a disparaging upload. If so, it didn't take. Another version says the uploader called to apologize to the police, presumably to ward off a citation. If so, that didn't take. And yet another version says there was no interaction between police and the photographer until they showed up at her home to hand her a ticket.
What really happened isn't important, because there's the Official Police Narrative. The spokesman for the police informed Petreraldia that "in an emergency" police are allowed to park wherever they want, so as to expedite the apprehension of suspects.
The "emergency" behind this illegal parking job? An "incident of vandalism in a nearby park."
And, of course, the only other official remnant of this one-two punch of exemplary policework is the €800 ticket.
It seems the police -- if they felt so demeaned by the Facebook post (which was swiftly removed by the original poster) -- could have asked for an apology, rather than €800. Or the department could have offered its explanation of the situation (as it did!), rather than fine the citizen. But the law is the law, and as such, must be abused to the fullest extent allowable.
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Filed Under: dissent, free speech, gag law, insult, police, social media, spain
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Just not possible
Yeah, no, you cannot demean or otherwise 'harm' the honor of someone who does not have any to begin with. To be able to undermine something first requires that it exist.
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I'll bet they wouldn't expect that.
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Spanish police are fascists
Spanish police used murder squads to hunt down and kill Basque separatists in the 1980s.
So criminalizing citizens exposing wrongdoing and abuse by those fascist pigs is only what to expect.
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News from the US
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Photography is not a Crime (except in Spain)
If that doesn't want to do that themselves...well, just a suggestion, but perhaps they might forward them with the relevant details to a website like the Photography Is not a Crime one and let them take the heat.
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OK to do, OK to talk
This happens all the time in a work environment.
Corporate visits workplace. Employee complains to Corporate about management. Corporate complains to management about employee. Management confronts employee. Employee denies any wrongdoing.
Employee says, "I thought since we were doing it, it must be OK. And if it is OK to do it, then it must be OK to talk about it."
Management says to employee, "Well Corporate thought that you thought it was not OK to do it."
Employee responds to management, "Well, if we are doing it, then it must be OK."
Manager has no answer.
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If a resident of Spain takes a pic but does not want to suffer the resultant abuse by the police state, they could send it anonymously to a different country where it is posted to the web.
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If the sun rises tomorrow they'll claim Google must be blamed for something something something.
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What? Are you going to fine me, too, for "insulting your honor" Spanish police? Suck on it, I'm not Spanish!
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Specifically, the "if you piss me off I'll fuck you over" situation.
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just basic history
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Parking in handicapped spaces
Could it be a mental handicap?
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Pure Asshats
This would be an absolute joke....if it weren't for it being true
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Wait......ah hell, you know what i mean
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