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French Court Orders ISP To Block Police Misconduct Website
Freddybear writes "A French court has ordered ISPs to block access to Copwatch Nord Paris I-D-F, a website designed to allow civilians to post videos of alleged police misconduct. French police unions applauded the decision. Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of the APN, said that '[t]he judges have analyzed the situation perfectly—this site being a threat to the integrity of the police — and made the right decision.'"
"this site being a threat to the integrity of the police..."
No, I think the actions of the police threaten their own integrity. A case of "you can't handle the truth...".
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
This site was giving full names and adresses of Police officers, this is why it was closed.
While I am no fan of censorship at all, the issue here is that this fFrench version of Copwatch was not so much about showing police abuse than collecting some cops personnal data. In some areas of France, being a cop is all the reason you need for being assaulted, and when a website lists your name and address... not good.
The police had said they were particularly concerned about portions of the site showing identifiable photos of police officers, along with personal data â" including some cases in which officers are said to express far-right sympathies on social networks. The initial complaint against the site was filed by a Paris police officer who said he had received a bullet in his mailbox after his picture had appeared on the site. He was joined by other officers.
I'm all for making police actions more transparent, but single police officers should have some privacy regarding their personal life too.
They don't have a trouble if someone documents polices wrongful actions. They have a trouble with site that collects and lists police officers private home addresses, which lead them to receive threats via mail. The site also tried to show if police officers personal political opinion is right or left.
Like many other people pointed it out, the site wasn't simply a collection of misconduct videos. It collected full names, addresses, telephone numbers, and facebook accounts of police officers that visitors then actually used to harass these said officers. I think the judge is fully justified in shutting it down, it probably broke quite a few privacy laws.
I'm sorry, but I'm a teacher who has to put up with all sorts of crap to prove my integrity. So when it comes down to people who have even more power and even more rights, I believe that they should be held more accountable.
So fuck your unions. Mine has agreed to semi independent reviews. Yours should too. I can still be hung by my balls over baseless accussations (that you claim to investigate), so you should too. When you are willing to find innocence (or guilt) of my members, I will listen to your whinng. Until then, you're just a baseless bunch of bureaucrats.
"How is the contesnts of this website any different than someone compiling the same information and releasing it in print?"
They are not. That's why it would be prosecuted in any case under European privacy laws.