Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/14/australian-police-fine-couple.html
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I could be wrong, but I sense some sarcasm in paragraph 2…
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American version: A 3 AM no-knock SWAT raid on the wrong house belonging to neighbors of a couple who went on vacation last year ended with one dead and the victim’s spouse in custody for violating a shelter in place order…
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The info I was looking for in the story was how the police knew. Do Australian cops monitor everyone’s FB posts or did a “friend” narc on them for vacation photos?
Nah, they’re white. The U.S. version is send them on their way with a warning
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If the SWAT team has the wrong house, how would they know?
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wah???
The cops were called for pictures of them. They would know from the pictures. Which is why no swat team would have been involved. What?
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But if, in true US SWAT fashion, as described in the post you were responding to, they got the wrong house, they wouldn’t know who was in that house.
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wtf? My point was because they’re white, there would be no swat team called. Why would going to the wrong house make them retroactively not be able to tell who was photographed?
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If the cops showed up at my house under these kinds of circumstances, I’d quickly be in serious trouble, because I just couldn’t help responding to the cops with, “Are you guys morons? Do you not understand how fucking photographs work?”
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Personally I would prefer not to fuck a photograph.
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The Motts had trouble convincing the police that they were in error, which is unusual because police are well-know for quickly admitting errors when presented with the facts.
The Motts: nah, nah, nah! Look you fucking pigs, there’s this thing called Exif data. You pull it up and and you actually fucking read it. Got it??!
The cops: we’ll take it under consideration. But! Just so you know, there’s no way we can prove that you didn’t manipulate the…whatever data it is. In the meantime, here’s your fine. Have a nice day.
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metadata anyone?
If they could put aside the money to pay the fines, that seems a wasted opportunity to file a complaint in a small claims court, instead of complaining to the local news.
It would take longer, but the “investment” would pay much better.
Let’s not pretend that the subject of the photo wouldn’t make a difference in your preference
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Meta-policing, more like. /s
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Victorian here.
Pretty much the same laws are up in New South Wales as in Victoria, but in Victoria the number of fines is ten time higher. Thats because in Victoria is you give your police the power to fine anybody, at any time, for any reason, then they are going to go out and do that. And to make things easy on themselves they will pick people who are out on their own somewhere, rather than people who are in groups.
So we heard last night on the news that some senior cop will review all fines issued on covid related laws in Victoria, presumably because the state Government has zero trust in their police to behave rationally.
edit: oh, and a quick advertisement. National increase in covid yesterday was 0.64%. Total cases 6400, including 62 deaths. Recoveries much higher than new cases now, and I am hoping they will spike, as an earlier surge in new cases reaches maturity, so to speak.
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Cops consistently disregard the power of local news. 
It is really easy to edit the Exif data.
Having said that, my reaction to the entire story is that you have to be fucking kidding me.
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To get a driving license here you need to drive as a learner for 120 hours. So this kid was out driving with his mother. Nobody else around. Not spreading covid,and got booked by Vic police for breaking isolation rules.
More than a month ago I booked my son in for a motorbike license course, for his 18th birthday. Pretty much on the same day as the learner thing I called the motorbike place up and asked if they were shut down. They said no we have been declared an essential service. So I took my son along for his course.
But if I let him drive there with L plates on, we could have been booked.
Unless we made a song and dance in the media of course.
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Something a bit dodgy about this report:
In this case however, the police didn’t revoke the fine until the story made the local news, after which they quietly returned the money.
The only way money could be returned is if the fine was paid. There’s no way you’d pay this fine when you are in the right - you’d let it go to court and embarrass the cops and claim expenses.
Yes the fine was revoked.
No the cops can’t arrest you for posting pictures.
Some lovely person ratted on these people and the cops erred in fining them without determining if their “proof” was sufficient.
