Apparently taking photographs of BP refineries that are allegedly pumping out toxic waste is now a crime. Is there a reason why the federal government is going along with this game of delaying a story and protecting BP? Everyone gets the national security aspect but it sounds like that was overplayed. It’s not as though BP has a clean history of refineries so it’s understandable that the media – in this case the independent media – was doing something about it. MSNBC:

A photographer taking pictures of a BP refinery in Texas was detained by a BP security official, local police and a man who said he was from the Department of Homeland Security, according to ProPublica, a non-profit news organization in the U.S.

The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said he was confronted by the officials shortly after arriving in Texas City, Texas, to work on a story that is part of an ongoing collaboration between PBS and ProPublica.

Rosenfield was released after officials looked through the pictures he had taken and took down his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information, the photographer said. The information was turned over to the BP security guard who said this was standard procedure, ProPublica quoted Rosenfield as saying.