WINNSBORO, TEXAS – THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2012 – Two journalists working for the New York Times were handcuffed, detained and then turned away from private property by local law enforcement employed as private security guards for multinational pipeline corporation TransCanada. The journalists reporting on the first tree blockade in Texas history, now in its third week of sustained resistance to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, were grabbed by police, physically restrained, and prevented from approaching the blockade site or making contact with protesters. These repressive actions took place on private property, indicating that TransCanada is employing a private police force to actively patrol beyond the boundaries of the Keystone XL easement without landowner permission.
A Times spokesperson released a statement saying, “While reporting a story on how protestors in East Texas are trying to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from being built, [a Times reporter] and a Times photographer were detained yesterday by local police and a TransCanada security guard; they were told for trespassing. They identified themselves as media and were released but told they needed to leave the private property where they had positioned themselves (with the permission of the landowner). They complied.”
Minutes after the first two journalists were handcuffed, police barred another group of journalists from approaching even within sixty feet of the Keystone XL easement, an arbitrary designation with no legal precedent.
Yesterday’s events came only one day after the arrests of another two journalists, Lorenzo Serna and Elizabeth Arce, who one week ago had climbed to the top of the blockade’s timber scaffolding to interview several courageous protesters. Although the two journalists were allowed to climb the wall without harassment, police waiting on the ground threatened Serna and Arce with arrest as soon as they attempted to climb back down. Despite clearly displayed press credentials, the two were arrested upon descent ultimately to have their charges dropped only after spending a night in Wood County jail.
These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a free press suffer the same disrespect and abuse that TransCanada has shown to families along the Keystone XL pipeline route for years. Reports have included open threats of arrest on private property, the confiscation of cameras and video equipment, and arrests of by-standers on public right of ways. All the while, questions linger regarding the legality of policing the Keystone XL pipeline easement in this way.
Arthur Judge, a Wood County deputy sheriff, admitted to Texas landowner Susan Scott that TransCanada was paying the police by the hour to work private security details. “He was patrolling the easement on my farm and he informed me that his mandate was to arrest anyone at anytime that sets foot on the easement,” attests Ms. Scott. “The officer also demanded that I show ID or he would arrest me, all this while I was standing on my own private property in the middle of the woods. TransCanada is ordering police to arrest me just for trying to take a walk across my own farm.”
Tar Sands Blockade is a coalition of Texas and Oklahoma landowners and climate justice organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
“What TransCanada is doing is illegal,” contends Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson Ron Seifert. “TransCanada does not own the property; they have no rights over the property other than permission to install a pipeline. So long as a landowner is not interfering with their ability to use the land for the purpose of installing and maintaining a pipeline, that landowner still has the ability to do whatever they want on the land. TransCanada is paying the police to violate civil liberties and constitutionally protected land rights.”
Loading tweets...
5 comments
13 pings
Skip to comment form ↓
Eric Stuyvesant
October 12, 2012 at 3:10 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/color_of_law
Abuse of civil rights under color of law is a federal felony.
greg
October 12, 2012 at 3:11 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
why do you feel entitled to break any law at any time? then cry to the media when you get arrested. too bad you couldn’t use your free time to stop child/women abusers or fight for women’s rights in the middle east. we need oil (yes, even your hybrids need grease that comes from oil) but instead of buying from canada, you seem to support, indirectly, buying oil from the middle east, where women are treated like shit.
there is big/better things you could do, to fill your need, fulfill your desire to feel special or self importance than trying to stop a pipeline (which isn’t the first or the last, but built within the law).
what a waste of time and energy. get a life and do something worthwhile
Fed up to here with it
October 12, 2012 at 5:05 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
This violation of civil rights and freedoms has got to stop! Maybe it’s time to speak with the FBI OR someone else in the U.S. Justice Department if they would do anything? Maybe Judge Bosworth would rule correctly on THIS specific issue of violation of civil rights? I guess to expect help from THE MAN himself is too much to expect when the blockaders are using civil disobediance. Just keep getting the press to go out there (TV too) more and more until this thing backfires in TranSchmanada’d effing face. Ron S., keep up the good fight: we are watching, man!
Fed up to here with it
October 12, 2012 at 5:19 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Since THE MAN will not allow folks to exercise their Constitutional rights, even when they are on fully private property and even when it is the press, the only thing I know we can do is to keep sending the press over there to the site until it blows up in TransCanada’s face, like a shit bomb! Hand in there all of you for we are watching and following the action. I’ll be back up there soon.
Caroline
October 12, 2012 at 8:42 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Has the NYT journalist looked into the (il)legality of providing eminent domain access to a foreign company even when a citizen landowner has never signed a contract re land use?
Police Paid by TransCanada Detain New York Times Journalists on Private Property » Tar Sands Blockade « ArtStarzz : Just My Opinion .
October 11, 2012 at 8:49 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Police Paid by TransCanada Detain New York Times Journalists on Private Property » Tar Sands Blocka…. Rate this:Share this:FacebookTwitterMoreLinkedInPrintEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. [...]
Transcanada Seizes A Grandmother On Her Own Property, Detains NYTimes Reporter, & Pays Local Police to Make Arrests… As The Tar Sands Blockade Digs In | Planetsave
October 11, 2012 at 10:47 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] from approaching the blockade site or making any contact with the protesters. The NYTimes issued a statement confirming the [...]
Journalists Reportedly Detained At Keystone XL Protest |
October 12, 2012 at 3:20 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a [...]
Tar Sands Blockade <<Facebook « SunnyRomy
October 12, 2012 at 8:15 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Read the NYTimes’ official statement and details here: http://tarsandsblockade.org/freepress/ [...]
Journalists Reportedly Detained At Keystone XL Protest | Demete - The Breaking News
October 12, 2012 at 12:52 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a [...]
Journalists Reportedly Detained At Keystone XL Protest | US Mag - The Breaking News
October 12, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a [...]
Eradicating Ecocide in Canada - New York Times reporters handcuffed, detained at Keystone protest
October 12, 2012 at 4:46 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] after their detainment, claimed a statement from protesters, “police barred another group of journalists from approaching [...]
Journalists Reportedly Detained At Keystone XL Protest « CrimeAlertBlog.Com
October 12, 2012 at 6:06 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a [...]
Keystone XL Protests: New York Times Reporter Detained While Covering … « Montana Votes
October 12, 2012 at 6:35 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: These events mark the latest in a series in which journalists and the Constitutional ideal of a [...]
We’re On the Front Page of the New York Times Online! » Tar Sands Blockade
October 13, 2012 at 1:47 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] ongoing repression of free press access to our peaceful protest. Including the handcuffing and detainment of the Times reporter, Dan Frosch, who was reporting on this story while standing off of the [...]
Tar Sands Blockade: NY Times Journalists Detained | FavStocks
October 14, 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Tar Sands Blockade: Two journalists working for the New York Times were handcuffed, detained and then turned away from [...]
Video: TransCanada Denying Food and Water to Peaceful Blockaders (Day 21) » Tar Sands Blockade
October 14, 2012 at 6:33 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] protestors with trumped up felonies, and have orders to handcuff anyone, including New York Times journalists, who attempt to get close enough to even cover the [...]
Keystone XL Pipeline Protests: TransCanada Security Detains New York Times Reporter | Common Sense Canadian
January 3, 2013 at 6:16 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Tar Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and climate activists opposing the pipeline, said in a statement: [...]