The Lunacy of German/European Street Photography Laws

[Alan Klein]

On the other hand, Alan, there are justifiable reasons for policemen doing their duty for not liking being identified.
Mafias, clans, parallel societies can take revenge, extort, threaten etc once they got their number.
One should be careful when taking pictures of security forces at work, one should also protect those who protect us.

That was the argument given by police to stop people from taking videos or photos of them.  They use to take your cameras away or make you expose your film.  But the Supreme Court ruled that photography is free speech in America.  That taking pictures of public officials including police officers to show them doing wrong or right is no different than public speech complaining about them in public or private. It's free speech. 

Regarding threats to their person, these are cops in uniform arresting common criminals.   In any case, America isn't Mexico. Even the Mafia here never aimed their guns at the police to take revenge because they knew it would bring the whole police power of the American government down on their heads. 

[rabanito]

Maybe you're right, Alan.
But if this is happening (it CAN  very well happen) we common people are going to be the last to know.
Better prevention than blind faith.

[Alan Klein]

Maybe you're right, Alan.
But if this is happening (it CAN  very well happen) we common people are going to be the last to know.
Better prevention than blind faith.

Sorry, I don't understand.  What do you mean?

[rabanito]

Sorry, I don't understand.  What do you mean?

Sorry Alan, my fault.
I mean that if police-persons are being bribed, threatened, intimidated, extorted, corrupted or whatever, we the common populace are going to be the last to find out.

[Rob C]

What a moronic comment, like the police in the US would beat her.

There are hundreds of pictures from the States, in addition to the three examples below:

But Slobodan, the far-left shouts like that and perhaps believes it, too. In the UK it lost them the last election. The last time the left in Britain had a reasonable face it was Blair, but he blew it too. Just as did the reasonable Conservative Cameron blow it when he opened the door to the Brexit vote; he thought he could trust the people. You can't trust anyone when politics and excitable nationalism raise their heads together. Observe the two Irelands. Like Stromboli, it all rumbles within.

It's the problem of power and corruption: even if it leads to no corruption externally, it corrupts the individual with a complex of infallibility which directly leads to grave miscalculations. Keep watching Mr Trump: the day of the great humbling is coming, either in or out of government.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Here's an actual question to which I don't know the answer. Assuming that the kinds of riots that we are currently experiencing in the U.S., were happening in Germany, exactly what restrictions would be placed on using riot photos (with recognizable faces) in an art show or in journalism? Does anybody have any idea?

Here in Portugal we have the Corpo de Intervenção, a special corps of Policia de Segurança Pública whose mission is to maintain and restore the order in public places. They were created in 1976, and honestly I can´t remember the last time they had to act.Sometimes they have to intervene before and after football matches where rivalries run high.

As to your question: they wear masks, it would be difficult to recognise them.

[Rob C]

Here in Portugal we have the Corpo de Intervenção, a special corps of Policia de Segurança Pública whose mission is to maintain and restore the order in public places. They were created in 1976, and honestly I can´t remember the last time they had to act.Sometimes they have to intervene before and after football matches where rivalries run high.

As to your question: they wear masks, it would be difficult to recognise them.

In local papers and on news programmes, the fuzz often wears masks or is pixellated into space when making arrests or escorting guys in or out of court.

What I often wonder about, far more than of what the police may be subjected to, is the situation of prison wardens. Inmates must soon get to learn "where they live".