Why Is BP Controlling Louisiana’s Cops? (Washington Independent 5/25)

Why Is BP Controlling Louisiana’s Cops?
By Mike Lillis 5/25/10 11:33 AM

Mother Jones reporter Mac McClelland spent two days recently trying to get out to the Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge, “stymied at every turn” by law enforcement officials who claim they’re getting their marching orders from BP.

In an excellent piece published Monday, McClelland describes the hurdles that she and John Hazlett, a former professor of hers at the University of New Orleans, encountered before they finally made it out to Elmer’s.

The blockade to Elmer’s is now four cop cars strong. As we pull up, deputies start bawling us out; all media need to go to the Grand Isle community center, where a “BP Information Center” sign now hangs out front. Inside, a couple of Times-Picayune reporters circle BP representative Barbara Martin, who tells them that if they want passage to Elmer they have to get it from another BP flack, Irvin Lipp; Grand Isle beach is closed too, she adds. When we inform the Times-Pic reporters otherwise, she asks Dr. Hazlett if he’s a reporter; he says, ”No.” She says, “Good.” She doesn’t ask me. We tell her that deputies were just yelling at us, and she seems truly upset. For one, she’s married to a Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy. For another, “We don’t need more of a black eye than we already have.”




Martin goes on to tell McClelland that BP is dictating who can visit Elmer’s because “it’s BP’s oil.”



read all of it here: http://washingtonindependent.com/85648/why-is-bp-controlling-louisianas-cops

Here's the orginal story:

“It’s BP’s Oil”

— Photos by John Hazlett and Mac McClelland

Running the corporate blockade at Louisiana's crude-covered beaches.

— By Mac McClelland


Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are "so big you could park a car on them."

http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/05/oil-spill-bp-grand-isle-beach



More photos and full story at the link.

Everything and everyone is bought and paid for - including police protection.


The transnational corporations write the rules.

Hey BP. Keep your fucking oil off our beaches. Keep it off our birds, fish, turtles, plants, and any other living thing that YOU don't feel is worth protecting. And while you're at it, get your God damned oil off our beaches, birds, fish, turtles, plants, and everything else that your monumental fuck up has covered with it.

# An SUV just plowed into my car. No kidding. Minor injuries only, but this counts as irony, right? 24 minutes ago via txt

# Back to SF soon. And just in time for running into the #BP people at Subway to start getting really, really awkward. about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck

# Hm. Grand Isle #oilspill workers, who are visible to the public, are wearing protective suits. The ones behind the police blockade weren't.

https://twitter.com/MacMcClelland

:kick:

to be getting what's happening quite yet.

>>Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, even after all the warnings, looks worse than I imagined. Pools of oil black and deep stretch down the beach; when cleanup workers drag their rakes along an already-cleaned patch of sand, more auburn crude oozes up. Beneath the surface lie slimy washed-up globules that, one worker says, are "so big you could park a car on them."

It's Saturday, May 22nd, a month into the BP spill, and I've been trying to get to Elmer's Island for the past two days. I've been stymied at every turn by Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies brought in to supplement the local police force of Grand Isle, a 300-year-old settlement here at the very southern tip of Louisiana. Just seven miles long and so narrow in some spots that you can see from the Gulf side to the inland side, Grand Isle is all new clapboard and vinyl-sided bungalows since Katrina, but still scrappy—population 1,500, octuple that in tourist season. It's also home to the only route to Elmer's, a barrier island to the west. I arrived on Thursday with my former University of New Orleans lit prof, John Hazlett; a tandem kayak is strapped to his Toyota Tacoma. At the turn to Elmer's Island Road, a deputy flags us down. Can't go to Elmer's; he's just "doing what they told me to do." We continue on to Grand Isle beach, where toddlers splash in the surf. Only after I've stepped in a blob of crude do I realize that the sheen on the waves and the blackness covering a little blue heron from the neck down is oil.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

Sonzabitches!

:kick: again!

You didn't really think this government was of by and for the people did ya?

:dem: :kick: