Hi, things are pretty bad in France at the moment:-
http://www.vjgroup.org/apfrench.htm --- Bob mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Friday, November 30, 2001, 11:13:43 PM, you wrote: > Well, I don't know too much about the law, and how it pertains specifically to > photographing "crime scenes", but I do know a little bit about criminal law. > I don't know how photographing police officers at their work "impedes" anything. > It may piss them off, but it doesn't impede them from carrying out thier duties - > assuming that you're far enough away from the action that you're not physically > impeding them from moving about. > If an officer thinks that you've photographed relevent evidence, he or she may ask > you for the film, but as far as I know, one has no obligation to hand it over. If > you refuse to hand it over, they can subpoena the film, or subpoena both you and > the film, for any future court case. > But if one refuses to hand it over, I believe that an arrest would be an > intolerable abuse of power, and an illegal arrest and imprisonment to boot. To > illegally arrest a photograper in order to seize film would probably taint that > evidence to the extent that it couldn't be used in court. > That's not to say that nasty officers wouldn't threaten arrest. That's not to say > that they wouldn't actually arrest someone in order to get their film. But such > an arrest would, imho, be highly illegal, and leave the arresting officer > potentially liable in a fairly large civil suit. > And, if they did subpoena the film as evidence, it would have to be returned to > the rightful owner after the court proceedings, just as any other evidence has to > be. > Of course, what the law is, and how police officers act are sometimes two > different things... > regards, > frank - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
