Dan Thomas: Reporter Prohibited From Digging For Evidence Of Oil Spill Beneath Sand On Gulf Beach (VIDEO)

A WEAR ABC 3 crew recently went to Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida to check on the state of the beaches in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.

Reporter Dan Thomas brought a shovel to check for oil underneath the sand, but was promptly stopped by Pat Gonzalez of U.S. Fish and Wildlife who told him he needed a permit to dig. When Gonzalez asked if Thomas was digging for "oil product," Thomas said, "Not necessarily. I just want to see what's there." Gonzalez immediately replied, "Okay, I'll tell you what. If you're not going to cooperate with me I'm going to get a National Parks Service officer out here. I'll get a law enforcement guy out here to talk to you."

Told that he could dig further down the beach, Thomas and his crew moved on to do just that. But moments after his shovel hit the sand, he was approached by a National Parks Service police officer who asked for "press documents," claiming it was illegal for them to film in a national park unless they could prove they were with the media.

After providing his press pass, the officer, A. Negron, told Thomas that he couldn't dig in a national park, insisting that the law even applied to building sand castles.

WATCH (via CNN):

Comments

[Thomas DeSoto]

08:23 PM on 09/27/2010

Who does Pat and these Rangers work for anyway?,... BP or the American public??? As you can clearly see they work for BP,... a large company from over sea's,... in the UK,... Thats right folks,... They got all this American land back many years ago and they are still calling all the shots to this day,... The cops know what they are doing is wrong and against everything our great constitution stands for but yet here they all are standing alongside shoulder to shoulder with the very criminals that started this whole mess in the first place, BP and Hallaburton,... their Government vehicles should all read, "protect and serve big oil at any cost".

[olddognewtrick]

01:24 PM on 09/23/2010

Guess they had a "no permit no problem" window back few months ago. The police were just trying keep these pirates from stealing BP's oil!

[The last sane American]

05:45 AM on 09/23/2010

Sounds like Mr. Thomas did not read this.

NPS Scientific Research and Collecting Permit

The National Park Service has a long history of encouraging educational discovery and scientific research in parks. Research and collection activities within Gulf Islands National Seashore are managed to prevent damage to the resources, to coordinate research activities, and to assist in the application of science to the management of the Seashore. For these reasons, a National Park Service permit is required for any collecting or research activity conducted within the Seashore. Permits may only be issued to official representatives of a reputable scientific or educational institution or a federal, tribal, or state agency to conduct scientific research activities. Persons interested in collecting or conducting research must make application to the National Park Service. Applications may be obtained from and submitted to the specific park of interest or online at: https://science.nature.nps.gov/research/ac/ResearchIndex.

Yes, go ahead. Google it. Apparently not another dirty commie (BP) plot

[erik59]

09:16 AM on 09/23/2010

Exactly. Plus the filming permit he would have needed:

When is a permit needed?

All commercial filming activities taking place within a unit of the National Park system require a permit. Commercial filming includes capturing a moving image on film and video as well as sound recordings

http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/permits.cfm?urlarea=permits

So move along folks, no story here except for another example of poor reporting.

[Karen Hanegan]

09:07 PM on 09/22/2010

This is just more governmental cover-up. I distinctly remember viewing a video that was made shortly after the oil had hit the beaches in Florida, published on the Boycott BP site. In the video, volunteers were struggling to scrape the oil off the beaches, but their progress was very slow. Finally they were ordered by one of the mayor's minions or someone in "authority" to just simply start burying the oil in layers of sand. The video recorded the volunteers' protests at this; and later comments made by the volunteers as to how sick it made them to have to follow those instructions.

Earlier this week I saw an article about a boy playing on the beach being told he could not dig into the sand to build a sand castle. The probable reason for this is the same as for your reporter; they do not want anyone to find the buried oil.

[swanie]

08:28 PM on 09/22/2010

Both of those so-called cops should be FIRED instantly ! ! !

./

[banker67]

06:33 PM on 09/22/2010

Ridiculous.
Above all, this idiotic police action strongly suggests to the public that law enforcement officers can be bought by BP.
It may not be true, but that's everyone's first guess, and that's a disaster for all law enforcement officers.
Obviously, you don't have to slip a $100 bill into the cop's hand; you just make a massive U.S.Supreme Court-approved donation to the re-election campaign of every sheriff with jurisdiction over a beach.
Thanks to the neocon court, there's no limit to how much BP can donate to any and every campaign in America, and when you claim profits of $1 billion a month, that's a lot of 100% guaranteed election results.
Think the beat cops -- beach cops -- won't toe the line to keep their jobs?
Too bad no local judges -- most of whom also must be elected -- will step up on behalf of the American taxpayers. You know, us.

[booker52]

03:55 PM on 09/22/2010

Cover up, wonder how much it cost BP.

[vibroluxor]

03:52 PM on 09/22/2010

thems some soul-less eyes, I tell ya!

[getsit]

02:45 PM on 09/22/2010

BP buried oil soaked sands under more sands. They didn't cleanup. I don't understand why they should be allowed to get away with it. It's likely the reason they didn't want people out on the beaches, because of their illegal activities. First trying to hide the problem, then trying to hide it by burying it. So, in some places, there is a layer under the sand of hard asphalt like oil and our government appears to be ok with it.

[Genders]

02:55 PM on 09/22/2010

multinationals are more powerful than republics.

[areachanging]

02:18 PM on 09/22/2010

Florida Chamber of Commerce

Mark Wilson, President and CEO • 850.521.1209

Headquarters
Florida Chamber of Commerce

136 S. Bronough Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32301
 
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 11309
Tallahassee, FL 32302

Phone:
 850.521.1200

Fax: 
850.521.1219

http://www.flchamber.com/contact-us.asp

[Huntsmen2023]

02:18 PM on 09/22/2010

its a bunch of bureaucratic bull shit, you can fill on national parks with out a permit unless you have a press pass this is so you don't have private groups and companies filming commercials and movies in Yellowstone and other pristine wild places across the country. as well with the digging it is considered prospecting and again you cant go looking for oil and other valuable minerals in our national parks, but as you can see bureaucratic laws intended to protect are now being used to hide the truth.

[areachanging]

02:27 PM on 09/22/2010

When bureaucrats try to hide evidence from citizens, the press has a responsibility to film/expose their corruption.

[Chad Dakin]

06:26 PM on 09/22/2010

That's what people don't get. An officer can lie to you to get information, that is not illegal. If you give your name and then lie that is illegal. So the point is make the officer prove that what he says is law is actually law.

Asking questions for clarification is not obstruction of justice. People better start to learn these things and stop assuming every reference to a law that comes from an officers mouth is the truth. Do you think an officer has memorized the over 6 million laws/statutes/acts/regulations that exist.

Do you think they make things up to be "right" when questioned? You bet!
Most are good people who believe they are doing the right thing, but some are on just one huge EGO trip were they are king and you better be a loyal subject ....or else.

[Dye]

02:00 PM on 09/22/2010

STORM OUR BEACHES !!!
The National Parks are the property of U.S. Citizens and who pays the salaries for the National Park Police. We do !

[Waterphoneman]

01:23 PM on 09/22/2010

Stop the oil gestapo from blocking freedom. BP does not own this country. Resist.

[doglove]

01:42 PM on 09/22/2010

If you are asking the media to resist, you are in for a big disappointment!

[Waterphoneman]

05:02 PM on 09/22/2010

Exposure could be everything, but I am placing no bets.

[areachanging]

01:16 PM on 09/22/2010

Repost:

TheCyclist 5 hours ago (8:23 AM)

Well, not exactly, Filming in a National Park is perfectly legal—including for commercial purposes—without a permit as long as you are not using lighting gear and not using actors / models. The officer is wrong on that count.
What can't be done is disturbing natural habitat. To camp in the backcountry of a National Park, you have to get a permit and follow certain rules that include how and where you might dig a latrine for your campsite.
Here's where the reporter went wrong: ALL beaches in Florida are PUBLIC beaches, if nothing else, up to the mean high-tide line. Using any kind of serious shovel is, at best questionable on the beach. So you go at low tide to a beach and then using a kid's sand castle building kit, you do your story.
Of course if you just want to cover the Gulf Islands National Seashore, then after this, you call up and ask for permission and clarification (filming the call). When you are turned down, you just keep going up the chain of command.

[Huntsmen2023]

02:21 PM on 09/22/2010

if you film any thing on public land with out a permit and intend to use it in a film or commercial for monetary gain you have to pay some kind of permit. just like if you want to hunt on public land you still have to buy a hunting license.

[areachanging]

02:23 PM on 09/22/2010

Huntsmen2023 -

http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wear_vid_10993.shtml

[freddychef]

01:06 PM on 09/22/2010

So, I was just on the holocaust denier story, where the wingers are calling for freedom of speech.

Are they here?

No, not so much.

I guess wingers believe in freedom of speech when its from a bigoted POV.