Wednesday, August 19, 2015




Spanish woman who took picture of police car parked in disabled bay is fined nearly £600 under controversial new 'gagging law'

Spain at the moment is governed by a Centre-Right party.  It is reasonable that police operations may sometimes require confidentiality but such provisions should not be used to cover up police misbehaviour or apparent police misbehaviour. 

A Spanish woman who took a picture of a police car parked in a disabled bay has been fined nearly £600 under a controversial new 'gagging law', it has been revealed.

The picture, taken by an unnamed woman from Petrer in Alicante, was put up online with the caption 'Park wherever the hell you like and they won’t even fine you'.

But within two days police had tracked her down and fined her €800 under Spain's new Citizens Security Law, it has been reported.

The legislation, passed in July, bars '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'.

Human rights organisations including Amnesty International, have already condemned the new law, for which fines can reach up to €30,000.

A police spokesman reportedly told the local newspaper Petrer al Día that the patrol car was in the disabled bay after officers had been called to a report of vandalism at a park.

The gagging law imposes fines for protests near parliament and for those who try to intervene when families who can't pay their mortgages are are being evicted.

The government says it will provide more effective security by rooting out protesters prone to violence.

SOURCE



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The government says it will provide more effective security by rooting out protesters prone to violence.

Of course they would say that and of course people continue to believe it!

Anonymous said...

The concept that police or politicians or any other group needs more "protection" than the rest of the citizenry because of their job is nonsensical. If they do not like the risks the job entails get another job. There are plenty of people looking for work.

MDH

Bird of Paradise said...

The Soviet Unions not dead after all

Anonymous said...

Shades of the Spaish civil war aftermath. What goes around comes around again. Franco lives in the hearts of the current administration.