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Facebook Won't Take Down Undercover Cop Page In Australia

New submitter jaa101 writes "Facebook has refused a request from Australian police to take down a page with details of undercover police vehicles saying it cannot stop people taking photos in public places. The original story is paywalled and it doesn't give a link to the relevant page which seems to be here . This page for the state of Victoria has 12000 likes but a similar page for the state of Queensland has over 34000, and there are other Australian pages too."

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  1. Re:Don't complain about crime then by jo_ham · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It's nice that you've completely ignored the article in question, so I'll try and clarify.

    This article is about Australian unmarked police cars, whose only purpose pretty much is to pull over speeding cars.

    Because any police car can pull over any car for a random alcohol or drug test, they don't need to be in an unmarked car or have reason (ie, impaired driving). They're legally entitled to do it to anyone, any time, if they are driving a car.

    Because in Australia there are no tax/insurance issues, because that's covered by the road authority and police have no authority to even ask you about it.

    Because in most states of Australia there is no 10% leeway any more, it's a fixed leeway. You can and do get fined for being 5km/h over the signed limit. I once got fined for being 5km/h over because the road change from a 60 zone to a 50 zone and the unmarked police car behind me thought I didn't adjust me speed fast enough.

    In Australia the unmarked cars really are there to catch people speeding, it's their primary purpose.

    So perhaps you should pay attention to the context of the story, especially when every other reason you've listed as a purpose for unmarked police cars do not exist in Australia.

    Then we fall back to the first point I made - people going "whaaaaaaa! I got a ticket for doing 5 over! How unfair! I couldn't see the police car! waaaaa!"

    If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. It's not suddenly "unfair" because you don't think a cop can see you. If you don't break the law you can't get a ticket.