Spain Mulling Plan to Ban Photos & Videos of Police
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 22, 2012, 7:11 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
police,
europe,
spain
In a move sure to send shivers down the spines of activists and civil liberties advocates everywhere, the Spanish government is taking steps to prohibit the filming and photographing of on-duty police and security forces, the New York Times reports. Described by Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria as a reaction to the recent shocking clashes between police and demonstrators – such as the Madrid anti-austerity actions – this ban is necessary, they claim, to strike a balance "between citizens' right to protest" and the need "to uphold the integrity of state security forces."
The deputy prime minister made his announcement a day after Spain's director general of police, Ignacio Cosido, said that said that draft legislation for such a ban was already in the works.
This position is in direct conflict with European laws governing the freedom of the press and human rights and an affront to all the dedicated citizen journalists putting themselves in harm's way in the service of transparency. The proposed new legislation also makes it illegal to disseminate photos and videos of security forces over social networking sites such as Facebook.
Angel Casana, a lead writer for the national newspaper El Mundo, weighed in on the plan via an online editorial: "If this proposal goes ahead, it is going to be impossible to know about events as they occur on the streets just at a time when streets are at boiling point due to the dire economic situation of many families."
Video livestreamers, in particular, have reason to worry that they will be prohibited from doing their work. There already exists a vast amount of video evidence collected by citizen journalists across Spain that documents indiscriminate police violence during protests that resulted in grave injuries against people who were exercising their constitutionally protected right of political expression.
These streams are not only reliable news footage, but also contribute to historical record of our time and therefore belong not only to Spain, but to the entire world. The idea that a government feels it has to erase part of it's record to ensure it's own safety indicates an awareness that its actions, if documented, will provoke public disapproval and increase dissent.
Igancio Cosido specified that the new rule would prohibit "the recruitment, reproduction or processing of images, sounds or information of members of the security forces in the exercise of its functions as may endanger their life". If they really believe that the routine actions of police officers in dealing with protesters would evoke such an extreme reaction by the general viewing public, perhaps they should review their use of tactics instead of trying to suffocate the evidence. Another world is possible.
Photograph: Chema Moya/EPA
The post says it already.
[quote] This position is in direct conflict with European laws governing the freedom of the press and human rights and an affront to all the dedicated citizen journalists putting themselves in harm's way in the service of transparency. [unquote]
All paramilitary police units need to carry a shoulder-mounted pencil camera, sending hi-def imagery to a central server that can not be tampered with by anybody.
This swings both ways, in that accusations of brutality can be disproven by the officer/s in question, by showing the video in a proper court of law.
If we are to all be under big brother's evil eye, then so will the constabulary.
The security forces, such as police, are PUBLIC servants. As such, recording their actions in public while on duty is well within the realm of the rights of citizens who pay for their services. Transparency is necessary for the proper functioning of democracies. If Spain cannot live up to the freedom of expression clause of Europe, it does NOT belong in Europe. As such, European countries should halt any bailout of Spain. Membership has its privileges AND duties. Investors can enforce rules by divesting from Spain if it does not live up to European norms.
So, it boils down we are paying them to kill us!
It works both ways -- you can turn the table around so you save their pay.
Good idea.
When their pay is not there, they will leave you alone. With bailouts, Europe is indirectly their paymaster. Ultimately investors and states hold the reins. When capital churns, all will take notice.
Hmmm. I suppose when the world is reacting, the financial and other support lines of the 1% will start becoming cutting off. It will take time but I suppose it will be a steady process that the 1% can never reverse in any way whatsoever. Money has no power unless it can be utilized. Unless I am grossly wrong, the main money input lines are--(1) mass produced goods, (2) share bonds, (3) clever economic policies--price increase, tax, etc. Since people are reacting against lines directly/indirectly I suppose it will be a strong tactical move.
In economics, one's output is another one's input and one's input is another one's output. The elite knows this and takes full advantage of it. That is why TRILLIONS of dollars of wealth can be created AND destroyed so quickly whenever trust has been restored or undermined. The elite knows how fragile the whole contraption still is so they hold TRILLIONS of dollars of cash as "reserve" and their helpers have been creating TRILLIONS of dollars worth of credit to prop the contraption up so it does not implode. It has occurred often before: renormalization with astronomical exchange rates can reduce ANY "reserve" to nearly nothing. Without restoring trust, the effort to drag things out can achieve its purpose when enough people have forgotten or died. Every generation seems to forget the lessons learned dearly by their grandparents. Those who do not use money do not suffer from the ills of money so butt out and chill out to protect yourself.
I recorded your post as usual.
These are the countries or regions whose central banks have already or will shortly join up in creating credit: the U.S., Europe Union, Japan, China, and Australia. Write down their economic weights, sum them up, and divide the sum by the total economic weight of the entire world. You will see that much of the entire world carrying great economic weights are involved. There is NO limit to credit creation but sooner or later the bad debts will demand massive wealth destruction to pay for them. Where will it happen first?
So far they created and sold consumable and disposables as social "development." What you stated makes it clear they are preparing to sell credit to people. It is a manmade disaster. But I suppose (or is it hope?) this tactic will not go too far, as people en masse are not fools; they learnt the hard way not to believe the polished cheaters. If people strive to knit a social system more or less independent of the MNC jobs (I have no statistics in this regard), then the credit system cannot become deep-rooted in the society. I am interested to hear your view.
In order to make more profits, banks want to sell people more credit (which is so easily created so it is really a something-for-nothing scheme built on the delayed response and "implied trust" of the people) but they are also scared to death by the bad debts that are already out there so they are extremely picky, very bad for propping up the economy. It is a little bit like the case where they are trying to blow more hot air into a balloon that is already about to burst in their face so that it does not deflate to hurt their balance sheets. However, putting more in only increases the chance of an even worse burst, ergo the gingerly approach.
Multinational corporations are not inherently evil but they are caught up in the competitive pressure of Capitalism -- to maximize profits by minimizing costs. As long as costs and balance sheets can be fudged, smeared, squirted across national boundaries, and manipulated to make profits look good with impunity, the shenanigans will go on. As individuals, we can seek independence from them by living the old motto, "Think globally. Act locally." We can push for better international regulations of labor practice, trade, capital flow, accounting standard, etc. while we insulate our finances from the nearly global madness ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be" - fatherly advice of Polonius). There is so much Blitzkriegkapital created and available that without some restraints on it means disruptions of important markets that people's lives depend on. Of course, this capital monster was initially created and fed by the governments and central banks. Germany is perhaps one country privy to what destruction it can do (having lived through the Weimar republic and World War II), ergo its restraints on the EU in credit creation.
Sir, your economic views far exceed the wit of so called "economists." They remain glued mainly to information and statistics in the hope to wring out clever formulas for economic balance. They have long forgotten that the core of economics is throbbing hearts and smiling faces in every home worldwide--almost the same as TEN COMMANDMENTS that germinate as MERRY CHRISTMAS. One who is not a visionary can never understand economics. The yogis say, "One blind cannot lead other blinds." I at least understand economics is a worldwide web of human life-lines. You are the first one I saw who is first a visionary and then an economic brain. I wish to see people like you to become our leaders.
Yes, I did enjoy seeing smiling faces such as those on children when their parents play with them. I wish people well to the extent that my own personal history permits. That may well be somewhat skewed but it is a start. By trying to be open-minded, I hope to listen to, learn from, and help others think for themselves without prejudice. We are all very much connected if one digs deeply into our relationships. Yes, we can do better and we should do better together if we become more coherent and know that one does not stand alone nor needs to.
May God bless you.
The same thing happened recently in the U.S. A citizen who videotaped what appeared to be police brutality was arrested. Thankfully a judge stepped in and said people could legally videotape police conduct.
However, be careful, if the police think you have a weapon in your hand, that could be a bad thing.
fuckin' nazis.............
Plain shocking. Add up lies, one-sided policies, guns, tanks, police, military, helicopter, nukes, bribe, greed, criminal ideas, and all other ENFORCING elements and you have HONEST GOVERNANCE and HONEST BILLIONAIRES. But times are changing and people are waking up. Soon the 1% will be dead. But I still wonder who will discipline the armed forces who have learnt to become SERVANTS of the greedy? May be the law system have some answers. Another weak point of the 1% as rightly identified by OWS is the Wall Street. If necessary we shall boycott the mass produced goods for extended periods or may be forever, which is another weak point of the 1%. We are all on the look out to strike back at every opportunity. Another interesting weak point of the 1% is they do not have any SKILL. Their two hands are useless in this regard. Can anyone think of ideas along this line?
A boycott of businesses that either contribute to political campaigns, bribe congressman with paid vacations and sports tickets, underpay their workers, or overcharge for their products should be a central part of Occupy's strategy. A 10% drop in corporate profits will make any corporation listen.
Great idea. Even 10% drop will cause substantial unbalance to overhead costs. I am no economist but my common sense links your idea with something interesting that I read in Reader's Digest. When too much of snow accumulates on the mountaintop, even slamming a door at the base sends up enough vibration uphill to effect mild downhill rush of snow particles. The mild rush knocks off greater rush and the rushing business expands in this way. Soon the chain-reaction causes massive avalanche and landslide. So, 10% or even 5% seems to be a good start. Hey, is someone out there with better economic brain to confirm if the idea is true?
It is not only true in economics. It is actually an innate property of nature itself. Through random processes, nature piles up critical masses of many things and becomes extremely sensitive to slight changes. Thankfully, the more energetic avalanches tend to be much rarer than the less energetic ones. In economics, once we get to near critical mass, even the so-called "maetro" Alan Greenspan with the unfederal unabashed's infinite power of credit creation could not keep the economy on an even keel. Nominally, it did not keel over on his watch but the causes were accumulating then. Hotbaths with Ayn Rand book can really lull one to complacency not to take away the spiked-punch bowl from the drunken elite.
I stole your comment and recorded in my computer. I did same today with another guy. I am meeting some extraordinary brains here that I never expected. Things are becoming interesting and inspiring. I am trying to gather such brainworks of fantastic people like you to see where all that leads to--may be to Rome. The modern "intelligentsia" framed up all roads to the BURNING ROME. We shall find out the CLASSICAL ROME. One thing that bothers me is the brilliant posts that appear are mostly forgotten as new pages come up. So, I have started to take off the matters that interest me for my own research. I suggest others to do the same to use the gray matter of the brilliant people, with advantage.
The posts are available from the archives so anyone interested can get them back even from many months ago. As your avalanche scenario shows, periodic cannon shots at ski resorts can precipitate planned avalanches so the big ones cannot occur due to their energies having been sapped by the planned ones. Similarly, for our economy, the best Classical Rome scenario is that it does NOT occur due to enough people taking precautions so our collective future will be changed. However, the Bible said that many are called but few are chosen. There are voices out there that can help one navigate well if one has the intense interest, time, and mental capacity to piece things together. Our dire current economic conditions were actually predicted but who really wanted the drunken party to stop when everyone seemed to be benefiting? There were both John the Baptist as well as Jane the Baptist types calling in the desert wilderness after asking how house prices and derivatives can skyrocket while the incomes of the average folks have been stagnant (after adjusting for inflation) for decades.
Awesome. I need some time to digest your thoughts. Yes, the archive is there but I am saving the interesting posts for better research management. It also saves a lot of time for searching the archives for the exact posts.
Take your time. Marinating for a better world takes both time and intense interest.
If this passes I recommend they send thevideos to people outside the country to post. I would liketo see the bastards try to arrest the posters when they are in a different country.
Not suprising, given that Spain is going to be due another bailout soon. May be funded, might not be. Some think they might not accept it (I dont see that happeneing).
Everything happening over there, is slowly getting worse. And it's coming here.
People say this is fear mongering. Its not. The situation over there is due to years of neglect, and relying on the politicians too much. Same as here.
The only difference, is they ahve been through some heavy shit over there. We are spoiled rotten with no ability to go without material items.
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Why not just send the UN to oversee them? Actually I'm seeing at least five unidentifiable cops and at least three resisters so what difference does it make?
Each shoulder-cam sends encrypted video with individual IP identifiers, as unique as the badge the cop/paramilitary holding that camera.
Dash-cams in police cars are old-hat in a lot of places now. Any honest cop would have no problem with having their work assessed remotely.
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