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.'"

Comments

French justice?

[tftp]

this site being a threat to the integrity of the police

I would say that something else, and not a Web site, is a threat to the integrity of the police.

Words matter

[femto]

It's bad for the integrity of policing. Good for the integrity of the police.

Re:Words matter

[gl4ss]

so.. they're in a group that actively engages youth, "i'm police officer balbablab you can come to talk me about blablabal", in cases like that the expection of privacy really goes out of the window, the smaller the city the more it goes out of the window(and the more local power they have).

but if there's _any_ group of persons who should expect less privacy than the rest, it should be the cops and court system officials. why? because they decide about the privacy of the rest and have special rights about invading the privacy of others. the cops don't need to even trump up charges in most of europe to do a house search - private parties should at least be able to keep tabs on who does those searches. because that's the only way to know when they consistently act different than what the local parliaments law deciding bodies want them to.

Re:Words matter

[Kjella]

but if there's _any_ group of persons who should expect less privacy than the rest, it should be the cops and court system officials.

I don't think there should be any expectation of privacy for an officer on duty, anything you do wearing the uniform should be up for scrutiny. But that is their day job, when they take off the uniform and go home I think they should have the same protections as everyone else. In fact, it's very few other occupations that so often lead to harassment, vandalization or outright threats against yourself or our family. By enforcing the law you're attracting the anger of people that have very little problem breaking the law.

I'm not talking primarily about the big stuff, like when the mafia or drug lords go to more or less outright war against the police, judges and juries. But more like "There's lives the asshole who caught me shoplifting, let's egg his car and stab the tires" kind of thing. I suppose in a small town everybody would know anyway, but in the city it wouldn't normally be that easy. Exposing their private lives is far more likely to give people the means for intimidation to prevent them doing their jobs or leave the force than to keep them honest.

I mean if you were doing any serious coverup for somebody, would you have them listed as your friend on a social networking site? It'd be a pretty blatant conflict of interest, if anything you'd try to it indirectly so your name doesn't come up. And your home address, yeah uh huh so check that you're not covering for your neighbors right? Oh please, that's got almost zero legitimate uses and plenty bad ones. It's far more likely to be used in a "we know where you live and everybody you care about" kind of way.

If you're not doing anything wrong

[jmcbain]

then you have nothing to be worried about. That's the usual post-9/11 line of thought, yet?

A good eye-opener

[rapidreload]

As an Australian citizen, I've been aware of how fucked our Governement is with regards to our rights. But I've always kept in my mind that the USA are also pretty fucked as well (they might have a Constitution, but due process seems to be getting shafted as time goes on). So then I look at the Brits, and they're fucked as well (too many cameras, among other things). But hey, the Europeans are smart cookies surely? Well, Italy is clearly fucked as well (seriously corrupt Government, not much to redeem there). And now we have another example of how the French are clearly fucked like everyone else.

There's basically nowhere in the world anymore when I can think that it's citizens aren't being fucked by their Government. Possible some Scandinavian countries, but it's only a matter of time. It's a good eye-opener to anyone who thinks life is better somewhere else - no, it's not. You're getting buttfucked no matter where you go.

No wonder people don't know what to do anymore. Our record levels of depression didn't just come out of thin air.

Why the misleading summary?

[jezwel]

How do we tag a summary as misleading? Seems that entire premise behind why the site was blocked (providing police officer information including address and political affiliation) was dumped to promulgate 'videos of police brutality'.

It was inevitable this would generate a flame session, so now I'm wondering what the purpose of that was - especially in consideration that a lot of users can disable advertising?

Re:FTFA - "this site being a threat to the integri

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds completely valid to me. Governments collect data on their citizens. Is it not also valid for their citizens to collect data on the government? Especially the police, which is prone to corruption and misuse of power? To not allow oversight is only acknowledging that there are problems which politicians will refuse to solve. Making it blatant by blacklisting the source of some oversight should only make the problem more obvious, so hopefully more sites will be started to provide the same service.

Re:FTFA - "this site being a threat to the integri

[N1AK]

You expect people to take your support of people posting police officers personal information on a website seriously, when you you're not only posting on a forum that doesn't post your personal details but doing so using an optional feature to be 'anonymous'? Good luck with that.

Re:French Copwatch != US Copwatch

[Hatta]

In some areas of France, being a cop is all the reason you need for being assaulted

The solution to that is to earn a reputation for integrity. Not to go into hiding. If the people are so upset with government that cops are arbitrarily targeted, that's a symptom of a problem far deeper than a website distributing public information. A police force that is held in such extreme contempt by the people deserves to wither and die.