Police can seize demonstrators' photo and video cameras, says government
Wednesday, August 13, 2014 @ 7:48 PM
POLICE officers will be allowed to confiscate photo or video cameras 'or any other item' from demonstrators in the street if they believe these will be used 'for illegal purposes', in a new twist to the PP-led government's Citizen Safety Law.
Critics of the move include leader of United Left (Izquierda Unida, or IU) Gaspar Llamazares.
He says this is merely so that the police will be able to delete any incriminating footage or photos that prove protesters' innocence in a dispute or which show officers acting with unreasonable force against members of the public.
Interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz stresses that the police are already, theoretically, able to seize cameras at public gatherings under a law passed in early 1992, but the imminent Citizen Safety legislation will reinforce this.
Llamazares said cases of footage being scrubbed had already been recorded.
He mentioned an incident on May 21 this year in the La Madreña Social Centre in Oviedo (region of Asturias).
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