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ProPublica Photographer Detained by BP and Local Police
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE (PBS).
Lance Rosenfield/ProPublica A photographer taking pictures for these articles, was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas.
The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.
The police officer then turned that information over to the BP security guard under what he said was standard procedure, according to Rosenfield.
No charges were filed.
Rosenfield, an experienced freelance photographer, said he was detained shortly after shooting a photograph of a Texas City sign on a public roadway. Rosenfield said he was followed by a BP employee in a truck after taking the picture and blocked by two police cars when he pulled into a gas station.
According to Rosenfield, the officers said they had a right to look at photos taken near secured areas of the refinery, even if they were shot from public property. Rosenfield said he was told he would be "taken in" if he declined to comply. Michael Marr, a BP spokesman, released a statement explaining the company's actions:
"BP Security followed the industry practice that is required by federal law. The photographer was released with his photographs after those photos were viewed by a representative of the Joint Terrorism Task Force who determined that the photographer's actions did not pose a threat to public safety."
Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, said: "We certainly appreciate the need to secure the nation's refineries. But we're deeply troubled by BP's conduct here, especially when they knew we were working on deadline on critical stories about this very facility. And we see no reason why, if law enforcement needed to review the unpublished photographs, that should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company."
43 Comments so far
Show AllHow soon before Lance Rosenfield, instead of merely being detained, will be labelled a Terrorist, then held without lawyer access at the whim of our Corporate State?
Oh, come come now, that could never happen in America, Land of the Free, Thanks to the Brave.
He won't be detained.
He'll just be driving down the road when - *BOOM* - his car mysteriously explodes.
Ignore the shrapnel that reads 'Alliant Techsystems', maker of the Hellfire II missile developed expressly for such 'urban' targets as people in cars. You know, the kind used as munitions carried by Predator and Global Hawk drones, that Obama is under pressure to have operated domestically. And pay no mind that it is now legal for US citizens to be assassinated by US Military Forces, the CIA, or Blackwater mercenaries... or that Corporations (like BP) are now super-citizens granted *FULL* protection of the US Constitution by the US Supreme Court.
Nothing to see here... move along...
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Predator drones are already being used inside the US. Specifically, along the Texas/Mexico border. There was an article here on CD last week about it. The NM Governor was requesting Predator Drones to patrol the NM/Mexico border, like they use in Texas. There are currently 72 Predators operating inside the US.
Welcome to the Fascist Police States of America.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
Oh, well, then no problem.
I mean, what can the death of one pesky reporter do? Especially if he is later vilified as some tree-hugging, left leaning, gay, pinko, tofu eater?
It's not as though *that* has ever happened to anyone the Government disliked...
Your tax dollars at work supporting the corporate, state and federal security apparatus.
Public safety and order are paramount.
Coming soon- free re-education camps for those that qualify.
Can you say Fascist Police State?
I knew you could...
A quote from former Attorney General John Ashcroft, circa 2002:
“We in the leadership of the FBI and the Department of Justice began a concerted effort to free the field agents—the brave men and women on the front lines—from the bureaucratic, organizational and operational restrictions and structures that hindered them from doing their jobs effectively.”
What this has done is open the floodgates for the wholesale infiltration, surveillance, intimidation and criminalization of dissent across *POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE* lines. If you are and environmental or social activist, an honest reporter doing their job, or even 'liberal', you are subject to the invasive and brutal action of the modern Police State.
If you espouse right-wing ideals on government and money, carry guns openly in an effort to intimidate free speech or political free will, and worship the ground Ayn Rand walked on, the Police *LEAVE YOU ALONE!*
More Police State thinking: Mike Van Winkle, a spokesman for the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center, who explained the surveillance of peaceful protesters opposed to the war in Iraq like this: "if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that protest. *You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act*."
Look at that last sentence. Protest AGAINST an illegal war of aggression "is a terrorist act".
Wake up and smell the blood on your hands.
Democracy is dead, dead, dead. And by standing idly by, refusing to engage your politicians, confronting them with their blatant and obvious lies has allowed this to happen. You are part and parcel of this. You are just as guilty as the man who actually pulls the trigger.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Okay, people. At least two parts of the Bill of Rights should be brought to bear here. Let's all take note.
1. The 4th Amendment, which says:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
2. The 5th Amendment, which says:
"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
I'm getting the feeling we all need to start going everywhere with our own personal lawyer in tow, to remind us not to talk to police about ANYTHING, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Taking the 5th is a GOOD thing. It doesn't protect the guilty (honest evidence should be enough to convict the guilty); it protects the innocent from junk like this!
Wait. No need to travel with lawyer in tow--just KNOW YOUR RIGHTS and PUT THEM TO USE! Know the entire Bill of Rights. Know you are entitled to habeus corpus and know you are entitled to due process. And know that these things do NOT protect terrorists, they protect innocent liberty-loving people.
That's why the states wouldn't ratify the constitution unless the Bill of Rights was added to it!!! Now is the time to champion the Bill of Rights, Friends, NOW IS THE TIME!
It does not matter if you know your rights, because if you assert them, you will be arrested, booked, fingerprinted, and held until a judge can be found to hear your case. Unless you have a lawyer's phone number memorized, you will sit there until they decide what to do with you.
It would be helpful if a reporter would ask Obama at his next press conference why BP is allowed to monitor what the press is doing. Fat chance that that will happen though.
And tazed -- don't forget tazed!
the new kindergarten pledge in america...to be recited to law enforcement wherever and whenever necessary:
I pledge allegiance to the precedent of Miranda v. Arizona
I have the right to remain silent
Anything I say can and will be used against me in a court of law
I have the right to an attorney
If I cannot afford one, one will be appointed to me
Do you understand my rights as they have been stated to you?
It is relevant that HRC is speaking in Poland about the abuse of activists in other countries, when the U.S. is carrying out a pretty concerted effort to restrict access and dissemination of information to U.S. citizens via legal means. It is not only BP and the Coast Guard, but we still are holding an untold number of people, citizens and others, without charges and Habeas Corpus has not been reestablished since its suspension under GWB. The filmmaker who produced the movie about Chevron's humanitarian abuses in the Amazon has been ordered by a judge to release all of his film footage from his documentary, a clear violation of his 1st amendment rights and journalistic protections.
This is very disturbing to me that the blatant hypocrisy of both major political parties and the media is not being shouted from the rooftops. HCR gets away with condemning other countries, but excludes the U.S. and Israel, among others.
Use your individual voices to inform your networks of this discrepency and keep the pressure on.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
That Bill of Rights thing sounds cool. How do we get one here in Amur'ka?
The 4th amendment pretty much no longer exist. Over the last 10 years, the paper it is written on has been used as toilet paper. Down the toilet.
About six or seven hundred thousand of us should all grab our cameras and video equipment, a few airplanes, big trucks and camping equipment, and head down to the landfall sites, and start recording away. We have resources, why don't we put them to use? Texas isn't that far from any of us. The resulting resistance from BP and the government would be what would end up being recorded. Let's just flood the area with good intentions to document and help in any way we can... they can't stop us.
THEY CAN'T STOP US!
this clearly shows who is in charge here.
Nothing new here in Canada.
The RCMP was acting on behalf of the various oil and gas companies when they surveilled, infiltrated and intimidated people and groups attending book readings or discussions about Wiebo Ludwig, back when he was accused the first time of blowing up oil field equipment and sheds. Acts which were later revealed to have been committed by the RCMP themselves in the effort to entrap Mr. Ludwig, leading to his arrest, trial and imprisonment. All on fabricated evidence and perjured testimony.
And this all happened more than ten years ago.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Sheet man, the RCMP has been acting on behalf of those with the money for ages now. Remember, during the 30s they beat a bunch of canucks who were riding the rails to Ottawa to demand relief from the Great Depression. At that time the parliament was debating bible verses rather than deal with the economic troubles...
I would guess the RCMP were friendly with Hudson Bay personnel who slaughtered sled dogs as their masters shopped in the company store in order to make the Inuit less migratory and more dependent on Hudson Bay.
Area 51. Oops, I mean A52.
Mia Culpa Nevada.
Nope, just downtown America!
Kind of like paranoid third world countries do.
Welcome to the brave new world of CORPORATE FASCISM !
You mean he wasn't take to a camp where a sign hung over the entrance saying, "Oil Makes You Free" ?
Everyone's already seen many examples where BP and the government (and all it's minions) are organising and controlling things in tandem.
Expect many more to become apparent because it's steady climb into a state of 'normality' in the USA.
Whether people as a whole will accept such increasing draconian changes remains to be seen but judging what's gone before it, they already have done so and will continue to because they are wilfully wantonly ignorant and fearful.
USA, sucks to be you.
Nope, just a camp with a sign that said Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter! Jerry Falwell was the camp gropen fuhrer!
Silly Rabbit, the oil companies have run things here for a long time, and even longer in Texas. Go shopping....
Company goons in cahoots with local cracker police and the feds to deny constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Trumped up suspicion of terrorism used to restrict information that might tarnish the company image.
Just a another day in the heroic struggle to keep the Homeland secure...
Since when is reporting on a catastrophe a crime?
Since the Obama administration is in collusion with BP,
Since BP is protected by the Depraved Pentagon of Demoniac Power;
Since BP supplies 80% of the gasoline and diesel fuel for the war folly in Iraq.
Since BP, the Obama administration and the Pentagon are all part of the Fascist overlords who own us,
Since we still support the oppressors who push their heels into our faces.
Since we do not have the wisdom and courage to throw down the false gods of power.
Since we bow and worship them every day.
Turn and embrace the multi-headed beast!
If you have time, please watch this 10 minute piece of reporting by Anderson Cooper. Posted on YouTube. BP and the Obama Administration have prohibited the press from covering the blowout areas without permission and under penalties and felony charges.
They are using the full force of the Coast Guard to prevent the public's right to know about their crimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJBsjKhRTo&feature=player_embedded
Even scarier is the SILENCE from the MSM about FREEDOM OF PRESS. If you look at CNN there is NO mention of that story at all.(or at least hidden on the site). Where is the outrage? Look at the last decade or 2. Everything has been out in the open in the information age and they keep getting away with it. It seems only us CD readers are the only ones mad. We have no power and you have to accept this..... after 2000 election, 9/11, 2 wars, financial corruption, healthcare corruption, and now the BP spill. The info is there, we see it, law sees it soooooo why has no one of importance in jail?????? Do you really believe in activism NOW. It is all lost folks..... save yourself and the ones you love. Because the US you think your fighting for has been bought, sold, and paid for. No need getting angry,(I've been that for 10 years now), it does nothing. If you speak up, protest, or in this case take a pictures, they will put you in jail....fair or not. We are wasting our breath here folks. I live in NZ now people.... get out while you can or at least off the grid. George Orwell was right all along we are 1984.....period. Oh most americans don't read so if your on this sight you probably have so your ahead of the game, you know how the book finishes.
The following is related to the article:
http://carlosmiller.com/2010/07/01/we-were-permanantly-
banned-from-the-miami-dade-metrorail-for-taking-photos
"You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists."
-Abbie Hoffman
Non Serviam - I will not serve
State your Business to Police = Business Police State.
Corporatism plus a police state equals fascism...
Let's not make the elitist mistake of thinking that people are choosing to turn their backs on what's going on. Between feckless stenographers (JINOs) and the daily struggle, their attention is fully engaged at home, which is how the Obamas, BPs, Petraeuses, et al. want it to be: the People as mushrooms.
Ordinary working people are our allies and co-victims. They mightn't know it yet, but they are. They are not our enemies, even if some might be so bamboozled as to think we are theirs.
Now that is a great comment. It's like the military term "cover-fire".....keep their heads down so they cannot shoot back.
Shame on this President. Not only is he letting BP get with murder, he's silenced the Coast Guard.
We should all be supporting organizations like Pro Publica.
They are doing the work that will save whatever vestiges of democracy still exist in this country.
Everyone from the thronesquatter in the oval orifice to the "lowliest" security guard knows that the corporatist juggernaut is under dire threat from its own wicked excesses, from its earlier destruction of Latin American and East Asian economies to its recent massive theft of public treasure in the USA to the gargantuan ecological disasters induced by its relentless campaigns to stoke fossil/material gluttony.
The corporatist juggernaut lurches at rabble-rousing journalists/activists in its frantic attempts to preserve the gilded status quo. It's busy upping the ante in bribing law enforcement and courts, and it's turning up the muzak in a vain attempt to drown out the rumbling sounds of populist revolution.
Thanks to most of the earlier commenters. Decades ago, I worked as a temp in the mail room at the Chevron oil Refinery in Richmond, CA. One day at lunch, I sat up high on a hill inside its fences and took a few pictures with my small Instamatic camera. For my troubles, my camera was taken by Chevron security. They promised to give back my camera and any non-Chevron pictures that I had taken before. True to their word, I got my camera back and some photos. I was a little surprised by the whole episode. All though I was a good progressive, I had no plans to raise any kind of protest about Chevron. I guess that they were just a little paranoid...
Fascism equals fear. Fear of government, fear of powerful corporations, fear of police, fear of secret police. More laws, more regulations, fewer rights.
Read the history of Germany in the thirties and forties and look at what is happening here. Veeerry similar.
Uhhh....history. I don't believe in that stuff..... I'm an average American, All dat history stuff is stupid wat I need dat stuff fer???
History really, your avg. fox reading, republican voting, illiterate buffoons are gonna walk happily into their own destruction. Get out of the country while you still can people.... There will be no justice in the US not today, not tomorrow..... The corps will CONTINUE to p*** on us and tell us it's raining, as they have been for decades. God Bless America....you can have it, I GTFO!!!!!!!!!
"In Louisiana, as in many places, it's legal for police officers to wear their uniforms regardless of whether they're acting in an official capacity or working for a private corporation. Which is why Andrew Wheelan, the environmentalist mentioned above, was unaware that the cop who pressured him to stop filming a BP building and later pulled him over so that a BP official could question him wasn't on duty at the time. The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office told me that the deputy who pulled Wheelan over is just one of 40 in the parish who are working for BP on their own time. And the BP-police collusion goes beyond uniformed deputies moonlighting. In nearby Lafourche Parish, for example, the sheriff's office is filling 57 security positions a week for BP; the shifts are on the clock, and BP reimburses the sheriff's office for them."
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/BP-private-police-force-louisiana
Shades of Gilded Age v1, when states gave police powers to company thugs.