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Citizenship Demands We Obey and Resist
Weeks Bay National Estuarine Reserve, Pt. Clear, Alabama — On 2 July 2010, while covering coastal response measures to the BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I was ordered by a private contract security guard to stop taking photos and videos of the efforts to contain the spill while I was working in a public access area of the Weeks Bay National Estuary.
When I arrived on scene, I introduced myself and colleagues to the guards, stated our purpose, and at all times stayed in non-fenced areas still open to public access. We obeyed all posted restrictions.
After about 15 minutes of shooting a BP subcontractor arrived and instructed the guard to tell us to stop filming. The guard informed the subcontractor that we had a right to film from our present location. From his enclosed area, the subcontractor then started shouting at us to stop filming and threatened to physically stop us.
That was his second mistake.
I confronted the irate subcontractor, letting him know that we had a right to continue to report — and that we would continue to do so. The guard, who fortunately remained reasonable and demonstrated a far better grasp of the situation and issues involved.
Although we’ll skip the specific words used by the parties to this contentious discussion,” I essentially informed the subcontractor that he could attempt to stop us at his own legal and personal peril.
Such is the proper response to illegal orders —regardless of the authority claimed by a person or entity.
The First Amendment always requires intellectual defense, but it also needs some physical exercise from time to time. There may be costs, of course, but not on this day.
I completed my work.
Faced with a someone clearly actions outside their authority; I confess that my own initial visceral response was to hotly resist. In such situations, rationality can be washed away by more primitive and defensive emotions. I was so initially incensed by the encounter that afterwards I deliberately pushed the envelope. I made a point to defy the defy a posted 65-foot exclusion zone around operations.
I try to live the creed to “never draw first, but always draw first blood.” Accordingly, before things cooled, I was spoiling for a fight, hopeful that the BP subcontractor would again provoke a confrontation and try to make good on his threats.
Eventually things did cool down, and so I later took time to more reasonably explain the situation (and law) to the subcontractor. He was a local chap from a nearby inland town. “I need this job,” he said. “I’m just trying to do what they tell me.”
We parted on good terms.
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Reports of confrontations such as have floated around on multiple media platforms for weeks. Dozens of journalists, writers, scientists, and other citizens have encountered similar situations. Still, I admit I was stunned at the attempt to obstruct coverage, and the naked threat of physical violence, especially when reporters are playing by the posted rules.
What fills people with the hubris to think they have such power? BP might have a “open access” policy on paper, but the widespread nature of these conflicts with reporters and citizens show that it is a sham. A opposite message is somehow filtering down to the subcontractors that creates an atmosphere of fear and volatility.
At some point, even with the best communications systems in place, disasters prove chaotic. Tensions, frustrations, and other emotions can, as above, quickly run hot.
While maintaining safe distance from operations is, of course, a reasonable request, the bans posted or imposed seemed oddly arbitrary and lacking legitimate authority.
The Coast Guard has the right and responsibility to ensure the safety of vessels and personnel involved in the clean-up. They have established a mechanism for media to gain access to restricted areas and for we’ve been out dozens of times with various groups without problems.
Otherwise, as deeply as I respect the Coast Guard, I am also deeply disturbed by their dependence on BP. In some cases, I understand it from an engineering perspective, but it should be made clear whether regulations posted come from the authority granted the Coast Guard and/or local law enforcement or are simply created and promulgated by BP or one of its subcontractors.
None of the signs post around the Weeks Bay containment site, for example, cited any recognized authority.
It is also arguably a humbling experience for Americans to have just a small taste of what it might feel like to live in Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other hot spot and have a military subcontractor or civilian company of mercenaries assume the power to put up a fence, declare an area off limits, patrol in an aggressive posture, and to issue threats, injunctions, or orders.
Regardless, I’ll argue that is always proper to stand your ground and exercise your rights as a citizen, except when your stance can lead to disorder or perils that threatens others.
One can resist within the law, but one should always show some discretion so that general civil order is preserved and innocent lives (including those of law enforcement officers trying to impose order) are not threatened. The property and rights of others should not be infringed in the exercise of your rights.
The Civil Rights movement in America moved forward with peaceful marches. It took steps backward when riots erupted. In a democratic republic with a sense of decency and order, violence rarely plays to the advantage of the perpetrator. This is never truer than when violence is the response to minor transgressions (e.g., brief non-violent disruptions). The “Bloody Sunday” attacks on civil rights protestors crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965 actually struck blows for freedom that galvanized support and ultimately yielded passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
I remain alternately impressed and unimpressed with the response mounted by BP and our government. In some engineering respects the response is impressive, In other matters, the response borders on, at best, gross incompetence.
Given human nature, I would be shocked not to find isolated incidents of abuse or illegal/ improper actions during the spill and cleanup, but the geographically widespread pattern evolving — and its frequent pattern of incidence — hints at deeper issues and communications problems within BP. Months into the very pubic operation, one has to question what drives the need to silence or obstruct media access?
On this 4th of July, let us also remain mindful that citizenship demands that we obey reasonable regulations, but resist those that tread on fundamental rights. We should all be continual advocates of press freedom (and press responsibility too) because protecting the press protects all of us.
Photo: BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill containment and cleanup efforts continue along the Gulf Coast. Workers position surface containment booms in the Weeks Bay National Estuary near Point Clear, Alabama, July 2010 © K. Lee Lerner / LMG. All commercial rights reserved.
