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

Wed, Aug 19th 2015 5:18am — Tim Cushing

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.

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.

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.

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

27 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 3:36am

Just not possible
Spanish Police Park In Handicapped Spot, Fine Person Who Caught Them For 'Impugning Their Honor'

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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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 5:28am

The Spanish police state does not like it when the serfs point out the state's shortcomings. Perhaps an inquisition would help the populace understand their place.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 5:34am

Spanish police are fascists
Spain never left the authoritarian legacy of Franco, its police is fascist and sadistic to the core.

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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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 5:35am

about time the EUCJ stepped in here and repealed this law, making it clear that no country should even be able to think about using any law in this way.
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TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 6:08am

News from the US
Law enforcement agencies from around the US are reporting record levels of income from their newest revenue source. Since they were unable to gain any traction with their "Respect us DAMMIT" campaign, they implemented the Spanish "lack of respect" fine structure, and have been proud to report that its revenues have surpassed even those of red-light camera systems.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 6:19am

And this is one of the reasons must europeans do not trust Spain. They did not do a "house-cleaning" after Franco, it is still the same facist and corrupt system in charge
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Stephen, 19 Aug 2015 @ 6:25am

Photography is not a Crime (except in Spain)
This is merely going to encourage Spaniards tp upload their incriminating pics and videos anonymously.

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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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 6:55am

OK to do, OK to talk
If they are doing it, it must be OK. If it is OK to do it, then it must be OK to talk about it. If it is not OK to talk about it, then that is an admission that it was not OK to do it in the first place.

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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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 6:56am

Is this a new market?

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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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:06am

Well, ever since Google left the powers that be had to find someone else to blame...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:10am

Does the Spanish police really have nothing better to do?

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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That One Guy (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:34am

Re:
Well they could, but actually doing work is just too difficult for them, both physically and mentally, so they instead spend their time harassing those that expose how incompetent they are. Much less strain on the handful of brain cells they've got, and involves a lot less physical work as well.
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Yakko Warner (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:44am

Re:
Perhaps an inquisition would help the populace understand their place.

I'll bet they wouldn't expect that.
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SteveMB (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:48am

One version of the incident says the officer who parked in the handicapped spot approached the photographer and explained the situation

Specifically, the "if you piss me off I'll fuck you over" situation.
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Baron von Robber, 19 Aug 2015 @ 7:52am

"This just in. Francisco Franco is alive again!"
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 8:11am

Re:
Ok, I'm confused... blame who over what? How in the world could anything Google be blamed for transfer over the Spanish police?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 8:11am

Re:
Ok, I'm confused... blame who over what? How in the world could anything Google be blamed for transfer over the Spanish police?
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Anonymous Hero, 19 Aug 2015 @ 8:18am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francoist_Spain
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Anonymous Hero, 19 Aug 2015 @ 8:24am

Re:
Sorry for the redundant Franco post, Baron von Robber beat me to it.
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just basic history, 19 Aug 2015 @ 8:50am

just basic history
Actual Spanish political system was designed and is a heirdom from Franco.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 9:18am

Parking in handicapped spaces
How do we know what handicap a person has when they park in such space?

Could it be a mental handicap?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 11:04am

Re: Re:
Because we're talking about Spain, and Google exists.
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383bigblock (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 11:38am

Pure Asshats
I wonder if I post something about these Spanish asshats if they will have the balls to send me a bill to..

This would be an absolute joke....if it weren't for it being true
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 12:13pm

I think the spanish police are getting a lil ahead of themselves, see, you have to HAVE honour before someone can "impregnate" it.......

Wait......ah hell, you know what i mean
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Killercool (profile), 19 Aug 2015 @ 1:10pm

Re: Re:
Nobody ever does...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2015 @ 5:33pm

Re: Re:
You underestimate the local trolls.

If the sun rises tomorrow they'll claim Google must be blamed for something something something.
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Bergman (profile), 23 Aug 2015 @ 6:58am

Re:
You'd think so, but the EU is a perfect example of the sort of government you get in a place with guidelines instead of rights.
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