The whole oil spill thing is making me angry, but there is one thing right now that’s really well and truly chapping my hide: BP’s hired security thugs not allowing anyone perceived as media onto public beaches or allowing them to speak to or be near the clean-up workers. Watch this video, and see if it doesn’t make you angry as well.
The reporter is absolutely correct that unless someone is local jurisdiction law enforcement, the Coast Guard, or the military (or hired by these enforcement branches), they really have no leg to stand on in ordering anyone around as far as where people can go on public beaches. Particularly interesting was a member of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department asking the little creeps in their matching blue polo shirts who they were working for.
Sheriff’s Deputy: “Who are you employed by?”
Blue Shirt: “Talon Security. It’s on our shirts.”
Sheriff’s Deputy: “I can see that. I mean, who’s employing Talon Security?”
Blue Shirt: “That, that I’ve …
Blue Shirt 2: “We’ve been instructed… (mumble, mumble – presumably “instructed not to tell you)”
In what universe does anyone get away with not answering the questions of law enforcement officers?! These BP Blue Shirts from Talon Security do seem to be well above the law, and that gets right under my skin. In fact, it’s so far under my skin, I am becoming seriously tempted to pack up all my cameras and recording devices and head to the afflicted coastal areas to get myself arrested for going wherever I please and speaking to whomever I like on a public beach.
Now I won’t go as far as this reporter and say the shield on the Blue Shirts’ blue shirts is that of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department, seeing as the security thugs say their employer’s name in on their shirts and the actual Sheriff’s Deputy says he can see that, but the security thug is, in fact, wearing what appears to be a handgun on his hip. Since Louisiana is an open carry state, perhaps if I decide to pack up my cameras and recording devices and head to the coast to push buttons, I’ll have to pack a firearm as well. It’d be interesting to see how the Blue Shirts react to that. Not well, would be my guess.
All I know is that someone needs to push these guys’ buttons harder than they have been pushed so far. They can’t arrest anyone. They aren’t cops. All they can do is beat someone or shoot them. Yes, both of those would suck to be in the middle of, but I bet it’d make the national news and maybe get some answers about who the Blue Shirts are, who hired them, and why they think they are the law on Jefferson Parish beaches. It’s only an 8 hour drive from here, and if I get much more angry about this, it is entirely possible I’ll feel overwhelmingly compelled to make the trip just to get in some Blue Shirts’ faces to see what happens. I’m feisty like that … and I’ve been needing a vacation adventure anyway. This certainly sounds like it might be an exciting option for getting the adrenalin pumping and feeling really alive, and it might help get the word out more than there is something completely stinky going on at public beaches other than waves of oil and dead sea life washing ashore.
Something is not right here. Are you saying the Blue Shirt Thugs won’t allow the Sheriff’s Deputy on the public beach, or inform them, SO, under what jurisdiction/authority they are working under that gives them the authority to keep people on a public beach? If that is the case the problem is not with the BST, the problem is with the SO for allowing the BST to dictate to them what they can and will do. I’m guessing here, but maybe some government agency, say DHS, has hired Talon Security.
This is such a “F”ing mess.
Put some gas in that old Dodge Dart of yours and head on down there, and force the issue. :bounce:
Yeah, the Talon guys would not tell the sheriff’s deputy who had hired them. BP has admitted to hiring security for the workers on the beaches, but they say they have no problem with press or anyone being there and talking to them/taking photos, but they can’t really tell the security people how to run things, which is really a WTF moment. They hired them, so yes, they should be telling them what the parameters of their job is.
In my world, if a cop asks you a question, you answer unless you need a lawyer to protect you from your own stupidity. Who hired a security group isn’t such a question, so had I been that deputy, there’d have been a whole lot more questions, most likely at the office. I mean, public beach and someone saying they’ve been hired as security and no one can go where they like? And they won’t say who hired them? That’s just wrong.
This is just the kind of thing that gets me totally fired up, because “EXCUSE ME? You are not the boss of me, Mr. Rent-a-Cop on a public beach!” Right? I’ve been wanting to go to New Orleans for a while now anyway to do some photography and see how things are going there (post Katrina), so I might just have to go spend a weekend and see how much trouble I can get into. LOL!