Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Family Has Right of Privacy In Decapitation Photos

Posted by kdawson on from the have-you-no-shame dept.

big6joe sends in an update to a morbid story we discussed last year: a California appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling, granting the family of an 18-year-old woman who was killed in a traffic accident in 2006 privacy rights and recourse against the California Highway Patrol. "In a case that highlights how the ease of online communication can overthrow both common sense and basic decency, a California appeals court has ruled that families have a right of privacy in the death images of their loved ones. In 2006, an eighteen-year-old woman was decapitated in a traffic accident. Two of the police officers who reported to the scene emailed photos of the woman's body to their friends and family one Halloween."

9 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. problem with the officers by glitch23 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In 2006, an eighteen-year-old woman was decapitated in a traffic accident. Two of the police officers who reported to the scene emailed photos of the woman's body to their friends and family one Halloween."

    Sounds like they have a problem with immature police officers as well. Hopefully the officers got reprimanded for doing that.

    --
    this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
    1. Re:problem with the officers by severoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Copyright CHP? The CHP are public servants...anything created by the government is public domain. Good thing, too...that's why we have such rich geodata, b/c the government agencies that collect it all using our tax dollars are compelled to share it back with us. (After all, we paid for it.)

      In this case, I don't have a problem with courts restricting usage of public domain images of a crime scene in sensitive matters like this...but I have to say that we ought to tread lightly when it comes to limiting access to public domain information. It should only be barred from usage in particular cases, not in general.

      --
      but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
    2. Re:problem with the officers by Kuroji · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hi. I'm the guy who shrugs it off and goes on with the next call.

      Gallows humor is a fine coping mechanism, and there are plenty of others that are better and some that aren't as great, but the lucky ones among us can cope with the fact that we're doing a job that someone has to do, we're the best people who can do it, and we just do everything we can but eventually you have to be able to let it go. Unfortunately it took me a long time to even get to this point. I was otherwise the 80-hours-black-humor guy until relatively recently.

      Still... I don't care what you have to do to cope with it, you do NOT send pictures of a scene out to anyone that isn't part of the agency. That's total bullshit, and they should have known better. It should have been common sense... but unfortunately, common sense isn't.

    3. Re:problem with the officers by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you ever worked an unsuccessful code on a 6 year old? Have you ever gone out to a call and found a person who'd literally had their head crushed? Have you ever seen someone who was shot 12 times with shotguns, or a person who was stabbed 56 times?

      Until you have, I suggest you STFU.

      Why is it that every time a cop misbehaves and gets called out for it, other cops crawl out of the woodwork and start defending his actions? Do you think that carrying a star makes you immune to laws? Are you one of those policemen who help corrupt cops who conduct crimes avoid justice?

      Having a stressful job means you deserve sympathy, but it does not mean you get to abuse your power.

      There are a lot of ways of dealing with that stress.

      Yes, there is, and some of them are acceptable and some are unacceptable. This was unacceptable.

      So, before you judge, just consider what it's be like to respond to a "Traffic Accident" and find that.

      And before defending these officers, just consider what it's be like to find that pictures of your daughter's dead corpse have become online showpieces and find that.

      Or are you already past the point where only other cops are real humans who's needs, feelings and rights need to be considered?

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  2. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.nikkicatsouras.net/

  3. Re:Why is this different... by pongo000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Surprisingly, the ODPS videos are still available.

  4. The difference by bonch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The pictures ended up on sites like 4chan, and idiots even found the email addresses of the family and sent trick emails containing the images. They also made harassing prank calls. So the difference in this case is that the officers who distributed the photos directly caused pain and suffering to the family by leaking the pictures to the rest of the world. There are some very cruel people out there who think being callous makes them funny.

  5. It's different because the officers... by jeko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...identified the victim in the photos and sent them out as a Halloween joke. The images flew across the Internet and the same sick people who frequent the gore sites across the internet emailed the images back to the family with taunts, ridicule and abuse.

    Sure, the girl drove under the influence. She paid for it with her life. I think that's sufficient punishment. Her parents buried their teenage daughter. I think that's more than enough punishment.

    Speaking as a father, the bad guys in this story are the officers on the scene. How they could think it was OK to use those photos for their own sick little joke on Halloween is beyond me. How they could think they had the authority to release those photos to the public at large is beyond me. Has law enforcement become so craven in this country they don't understand what we mean by "respect for the dead?"

    I've seen the Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg videos. I think they should be required viewing for every adult of voting age in this country, because seeing those two videos provides context for foreign policy decisions we need to vote on. I can even see the usefulness of "mechanized death" videos that try to make a point with immortal 16-year-olds, provided the footage is anonymous and separated by a healthy number of years.

    However, I can also see the difference between a major newsworthy event that should inform foreign policy and two ghouls in uniform getting their sick little jollies at the expense of grieving parents. Sick minds like these need doctors and asylums, not badges and guns.

    --
    He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
  6. questions, questions.. by Johann+Lau · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What kind of fucktards do they allow into the police force, anyway? Doesn't that give you pause? And isn't that the real issue here? If those cops weren't scum, the case would not have come about. So why allow scum to police people, and how to change it? How would one make the police force (or the military for that matter) a no go area for character dwarfes, while attracting people where, uhm, you don't have to wash your soul after each time you had contact with them, or heard about them in the news? I wonder.