Cops beating up, stealing cameras of New Orleans photojournalists!

[theearthisround]

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1002

Two veteran photojournalists - NPPA member Rick Wilking of Reuters and Getty's Mark Wilson - were robbed of cameras and computer equipment today while on assignment in a neighborhood in New Orleans, and a photojournalist and a reporter were confronted at gunpoint and slammed against a wall by police following a shoot-out between looters and cops that left at least one person dead.

Another photojournalist - Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star - was knocked to the ground by police, his gear taken from him initially, when he photographed them shooting at looters and then beating one. In response to the growing violence and an increasing sense of despair among the stranded survivors, some television networks have hired armed private security firms to protect their journalists as they work to cover the story.

.........
Toronto Star staff photojournalist Lucas Oleniuk was taken to the ground by police in the Spanish Quarter after he photographed a firefight between looters and police, and police were then reportedly “beating on” a looter. A coworker at the Toronto Star told News Photographer magazine tonight, “The cops saw him and put him down, and took his gear. At first they were going to take all of his cameras, but he talked them into only taking the memory cards and letting him keep the cameras.” Oleniuk’s coworker says the photojournalist, who was not injured in the incident, went to New Orleans the day after the hurricane hit.

(more)
http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1002

[LiberalEsto]

1. Are these NOPD, National Guard, or what?

I want to know which agency(ies) are putting the cops up to this.

[gkhouston]

3. aren't there some mercenaries in NOLA now? n/t

[glitch]

8. Blackwater was hired to provide security - article a few days ago.

Wish I could search DU for it.

[sattahipdeep]

13. Blackwater link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4570927&mesg_id=4570927

[mshasta]

2. and this....

Penn accuses Bush amid rescue chaos

He told the Liverpool Daily Post: "I couldn't describe how bad the authorities were. --Just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own little snapshot albums.

-----------"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts. When the girls refused, they said 'Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."--------------------------------
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[LiberalEsto]

5. To which I respond:

hey Georgie Dubya, show us your balls, if you've got any.

[mshasta]

4. I am fucking pulling my hair right now.....

shit!!! and I m crying because I am so fucking piss off..!!!!!!!!!...:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Karenina]

6. Same POLICY as in Iraq.

But being on American soil gets you roughed up rather than shot dead.

[theearthisround]

14. True, its systemic oppression

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. When the Democrats take back the Govenrment,

the police, and the FEMA and other officials involved in all this, need to be prosecuted as aiding and abetting the slaughter, and do hard time for 30 years; just like many of their counterparts in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany were hanged.

[Occulus]

15. No. They deserve to be hanged. Period. n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. I don't have a problem with that.

Ironical, isn't it. They are traitorous terrorists, while the so-called insurgents in Iraq are resistance fighters.

History repeats itself in a way. I remember hearing quite recently on the History Channel that someone witnessed black GIs being told to give up their seats on a train for German prisoners.

[Spazito]

9. Until there is proof of this, I am sceptical, to say the least

There seems to be an inordinate level of rumours of this kind, always pointed to the local officials in NO without ANY proof that this really happened or, if so, that they were NO officials.

[Imagevision]

11. Proof? the "cops" have it on the memory cards...!

[Imagevision]

10. geeez, sounds like they're in Iraq...!

[patcox2]

12. If they took a picture of a dead cop, this kind of thing will happen.

Or if they took a picture that could get a cop in trouble, something showing that the cops were in the wrong in shooting anybody.

But it certainly is no sign of some government secrecy thing.

Taking pictures of the dead will get some people upset.

[Occulus]

16. yes, yes, defend those corrupt police officers,

because we ALL know a man with a badge will do no wrong.

Don't apologize for the fuckwads who would do things like this, and think they can get away with it because they hold a badge. It makes you as bad as them.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

17. Some wealthy person needs to donate money to protect the media NOW n/t