Spanish woman fined 800EUR for posting pic of police car in disabled parking bay

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**angelofvengeance**

The Spanish government sound like a bunch of jerks...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/16/spanish-woman-fined-gagging-law-photographing-police?CMP=fb_gu

An unnamed woman from Alicante ordered to pay €800 under controversial gagging law for posting photo on 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.

The Citizens Security Law, popularly known as the gagging law and which came into force on 1 July, prohibits “the unauthorised use of images of police officers that might jeopardise their or their family’s safety or that of protected facilities or police operations”.

Amnesty International condemned the law, saying that photographing police was vital in cases when excessive force had been used. Fines under this section of the law range from €600 to €30,000.

Fernando Portillo, a spokesman for the local police, said the officers had parked in the disabled bay because they had been called to deal with an incident of vandalism in a nearby park. A rapid response is essential if they are to catch the offenders “in flagranti”, he told local media, adding that in an emergency the police park where they can.

Asked how the photo had put the police at risk, he said the officers felt the woman had impugned their honour by posting the picture and referred the incident to the town hall authorities. “We would have preferred a different solution but they have the legal right to impose the fine,” Portillo said.

Last month two couples in Córdoba were reportedly fined €300 each for consuming alcohol in a public place, although they claimed to have had only soft drinks and a pizza.

The gagging law also prohibits demonstrations in the vicinity of parliament or the senate, trying to prevent an eviction or actions of passive resistance such as sit-down protests in the street. Offenders face fines of up to €600,000.

**KingCracker**

Yeesh glad I don't live there

**Ghazkuul**

yay another country is in the news today for police related incidents besides the US

this wont last long

**kronk**

Sounds like Spain needs some Freedom.

**Ghazkuul**

kronk wrote:
Sounds like Spain needs some Freedom.

ohh that just made my day

**AlexHolker**

This should have been a non-issue. If the cops were not donkey-caves, they could have easily made a compelling argument that parking in a disabled bay was justified. Imagine if it was an ambulance - okay, bad example. Imagine it was a fire engine responding to a call to emergency services. Would anyone dispute that parking in a disabled bay is the right thing to do, to ensure a prompt response to an emergency?

But instead of simply stating "The police officer was responding to reports of a crime in progress, so time was of the essence." and leaving it at that, they went all police state and punished someone for bringing attention to a questionable act performed by the police. A hatred of oversight is a dangerous attribute in a government.

**Tannhauser42**

Don't emergency vehicles responding to an emergency leave their flashing lights on?

I can understand the intent of the law, to prevent people from taking pictures of off duty cops walking around shopping with their family , or to prevent websites like whosarat, but this instance isn't what the law should be used for.

**Kilkrazy**

Is Spain such a lawless country that police are likely to be assassinated by terrorists?

If a terrorist wanted to indentify some police to assassinate, couldn't he just wait outside a police station and snap them and not put the pics on social media but share them with his assassin pals, thus making the whole law worthless and stupid?

If I go on holiday to Spain and take a picture of say the changing of the guard at the king's palace, will I be arrested and fined?

**kronk**

Kilkrazy wrote:

If I go on holiday to Spain and take a picture of say the changing of the guard at the king's palace, will I be arrested and fined?

Yes. Convert your colorful play money to the one true color of green and spend it in the United States of Freedom!

**Red Harvest**

Kilkrazy wrote:
Is Spain such a lawless country that police are likely to be assassinated by terrorists?

You have heard of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna? Although they may have disbanded or at least given up on violence for the time being. In the past, they did murder police officers. I think that bulls have killed more people in Spain this year than terrorists have.

**KingCracker**

Ya know the KKK used lunch and murder and hang Black's for being non whites! We should be scared of those guys too huh? Granted they to havnt been very violent lately........ OK a really long time but they're still out there somewhere, waiting to pounce, by the fives and tens of them!

**Baragash**

KingCracker wrote:
Ya know the KKK used lunch

Damn that southern American chillie.......

**Humble Guardsman**

Tannhauser42 wrote:

I can understand the intent of the law, to prevent people from taking pictures of off duty cops walking around shopping with their family , or to prevent websites like whosarat, but this instance isn't what the law should be used for.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The reasoning behind the law is sound, but it's not being used correctly here.

**sparkywtf**

Tannhauser42 wrote:
Don't emergency vehicles responding to an emergency leave their flashing lights on?

I can understand the intent of the law, to prevent people from taking pictures of off duty cops walking around shopping with their family , or to prevent websites like whosarat, but this instance isn't what the law should be used for.

As someone who gets to drive emergency vehicles on occasion.... no they don't always leave them on. In fact, the only time I have left them on is when traffic is an issue.

**Ouze**

Baragash wrote:
KingCracker wrote:
Ya know the KKK used lunch

Damn that southern American chillie.......

What a delicious typographical error.

**Jihadin**

Ouze wrote:
Baragash wrote:
KingCracker wrote:
Ya know the KKK used lunch

Damn that southern American chillie.......

What a delicious typographical error.

Great.......Chili craving

**BrotherGecko**

kronk wrote:
Sounds like Spain needs some Freedom.

I would be happy if America could liberate just 1 country with tolerable weather and 4G/Wifi lol.

**KingCracker**

Ouze wrote:
Baragash wrote:
KingCracker wrote:
Ya know the KKK used lunch

Damn that southern American chillie.......

What a delicious typographical error.

Hmmm....... If only I could think of a way to spin my lunch error into murder

**Ghazkuul**

BrotherGecko wrote:
kronk wrote:
Sounds like Spain needs some Freedom.

I would be happy if America could liberate just 1 country with tolerable weather and 4G/Wifi lol.

Grenada? There was that whole France thing during WW2.....ummm yeah thats all I can think of. Afghanistan is a hellhole let them suffer living in their own country and call it even

**KingCracker**

Agreed. My brother in-law will still find sand in his things and he hasn't been back there in a few years

**Sigvatr**

Spain very recently revoked the right to go on on free protest. Every protest now has to be handed in and be allowed by the government beforehand, else it will be deemed illegal and get officially disbanded. I.e. police moving in.

**Da Boss**

Read an article recently about the fact that many senior civil servants and judges in Spain were appointed at the end of the Fascist era, and that strand has never completely vanished from Spanish politics unfortunately.

Easy to overstate of course, but Spain was fascist until alarmingly recently.

**aldo**

Yep, all the fascist got amnesty and there were no purges or anything, and anyone who tries to investigate the crimes of fascism gets legally slapped in the face.

We also have a giant mausoleum built by Spanish Republican POW to commemorate their defeat, Franco is still buried there.

I mean, they won, our king's dad was Franco's designated heir, we may like to pass the page but we should clean up everything first.

Regarding Spanish government, Incompetent (there may be competent ones somewhere, but not here) Conservatives + society raging due to their corruption and incompetence + said coservatives having absolute majority after the socialists messed up big time last government = repressive and stupid laws, with any luck in november we will get some more competent people from Podemos, or they will be like Syriza and we wont really go anywhere.

**PhantomViper**

aldo wrote:

Regarding Spanish government, Incompetent (there may be competent ones somewhere, but not here) Conservatives + society raging due to their corruption and incompetence + said coservatives having absolute majority after the socialists messed up big time last government = repressive and stupid laws, with any luck in november we will get some more competent people from Podemos, or they will be like Syriza and we wont really go anywhere.

So you wan't the guys that are already known to be corrupt before even getting into government to replace the guys in your government that are corrupt?

That seems weird...

**aldo**

Well, assuming every Spanish politician is corrupt, at least I am going to take the new ones, you know, change over stagnation and everything, and maybe they will take populist laws over repressive laws, that would be a nice change.

And I will take corrupt and competent over corrupt and incompetent, at least they understand that to get rich they actually have to keep the country afloat.

Or secession, yeah, Catalan politicians are still corupt, but if we cut one level of state structure its one level of corruption we lose, right?