UPDATE: I’ve posted some of the the video here.
I guess it’s my fault, since I forgot my press badge. But I also feel like I just suffered some possible anti-gay harrassment from overzealous Dallas police officers.
You see, I was down at the peaceful ExxonMobil protest outside the Meyerson this morning with my Flip camera, getting some video to go with our coverage. At one point some crazy lady, presumably an ExxonMobil shareholder, stopped in the middle of the street and began yelling at the protesters, “Shame, shame, sinners!”
So I followed the lady across the street and kept filming her. She turned around and asked whether I was a reporter. I responded that I was and asked whether she was a shareholder. “Why?” she said before turning around and walking inside. At this same moment, a Dallas police officer yelled over my shoulder, “Leave her alone.”
So I turned around and filmed the officer briefly. Incidentally, this same officer had also warmly greeted the crazy lady as she walked past, after he failed to do anything as she stood in the middle of the street yelling, creating an obvious traffic hazard. But apparently he didn’t like the fact that I filmed him. That, and I didn’t have a press badge.
A few minutes later another cop approaches me and says I need to be on the same side of the barricades as the protesters. “I’m with the media,” I said. “Dallas Voice.” He asked whether I had a press badge, and I told him I left it at the office. Guess he didn’t believe me, because he told me to get on the other side of the barricades. (This was, mind y0u, after I had been on the public side of the barricades for about an hour filming. It was also as other reporters stood nearby on the public side of the barricades.)
Funny thing was, I just so happened to have DPD Chief David Brown’s business card in my pocket. I went to the gay LULAC chapter’s monthly meeting last night, where Brown spoke, and he handed me a card afterward. It was a fairly late night, and I had forgotten to grab my press badge before I left the office. So I didn’t have it with me when I left the house this morning at 7:30 for the ExxonMobil protest. But I did have Brown’s business card.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out the card and told the officer, “I don’t have my press badge, but I do have Chief Brown’s business card.”
“Go ahead, call him,” the officer said in the whiniest of tones.
I pleaded with an undercover detective who I’ve seen at every gay-rights protest I’ve attended in the last three years. “You know me, and you know I’m with the media,” I told her. But she claimed she didn’t recognize me and told me I’d have to listen to the officer. Who knows, maybe she really didn’t recognize me. I recently got my hair cut really short. I’m willing to give DPD the benefit of the doubt here, but frankly it just seemed like retaliation for filming the crazy lady and then filming the officer, who seemed overly sympathetic to the lady.
Anyhow, I needed to get back to the office anyway, so I left. David Taffet is still down at the Meyerson, and he’ll be posting a report later. Thanks for your time.
Must be a slowwww blog day! Your posting is one total stretch. Seems to me you’re trying soooooooooo hard and desperately searching to find any example, no matter how flimsy, of discrimination or hatred. Seriously, if an Exxon shareholder had passed gas in front of you on his way to the meeting, I’m sure you would have found a way to spin that into an anti-glay slur!
A couple of other points:
Number one, you’re a dumb-ass for forgetting your press pass. Unless you can provide proof of your colleagues with other media outlets being given free access to this or other events if and when they forget their press passes….I don’t quite understand why you think rules should be broken just for you?
Two, very pathetic and low class of you to try to intimidate and passively threaten a police officer by dropping David Brown’s name. After all, a Xerox Copier salesman could just have easily had Mr. Brown’s business card after a recent sales call. Geez…it’s not a golden ticket!
Your posting doesn’t do much to bolster the concept of journalistic integrity.
Has GetEQUAL taken any hostages yet?
Keep an eye on them. Their “demands” are useless without hostages or maybe a bomb or something. These misfits are only making people LAUGH at us.
Last night Obama said to Kip Williams “nice to see you again, all ONE of you.” Then, everyone laughed – at us. Thankfully, the media has ignore this latest stunt.
There are 20 million LGBT person in America and only 20 GetEQUAL self-absorbed clowns.
We don’t need laughs, we need results. GetEQUAL is about getting 15 minutes of MSNBC fame and not about changing any minds or generating any support for our equality.
The DPD does whatever suits them at the time. It doesn’t matter that they’re inconsistent, ego-maniacal or abrasive. I’ve said it before: if you’re a fellow officer or you own a donut shop, then you can always count on the DPD for protection. Everyone else is on his own.
Abolishing the DPD would certainly solve two of our city’s biggest problems: (1) organized crime and (2) the budget deficit. Personally, I’d feel a lot safer WITHOUT the DPD.
Wow jon cooper, angry much? name calling? you need to edit your fingers more.
I found the story relevant and timely. Thank you for this live reporting!
Not angry at all Tom P. Mr. Wright is clearly creating news to “report” on (not to mention blatantly pandering to sensationalism) when there is obviously no real news to report. So, when I see crap, I’m going to call it. One would also think for such an event that has such importance and relevance to the gay cause, that Mr. Wright would have demonstrated more responsibility when it came to remembering that press pass.
Also to Mr. Wright….kudos to you for outing an undercover detective in front of all those spectators! I’m sure you’re winning friends left and right within the Dallas PD; especially at a time when the community is trying so hard to get help from the department with the recent assault in Oak Lawn!
I’ve posted the video here: https://dallasvoice.com/instant-tea/2010/05/26/watch-crazy-lady-screams-at-lgbt-protesters-outside-exxonmobil-meeting/
Jon, hang it up and let it dry. Jeez. Let me share something with you about the DPD regarding the “help” (your word) with the assault in Oak Lawn: there’s no help coming. Period. I realize I’m stating the obvious, but…well, sometimes the obvious *has* to be stated for those that just don’t see it.
Well in response to this I am an Assistant Manager for Exxon and proud to be a lesbian. I have pride all over my car. So I am definetly not in the closet to anyone. I have been with the company almost 8 years. Personaly the only discrimination that I see is when the vp came to my store last year I was requested ( not told) to park in the back of the building. I also know that there is a gay store manager in dallas. So I really dont see where they really discriminate toward us. Where they are is not a gltb issue. Sorry cant go into it ongoing investigation right now but needless to say I really dont agree with it. As for the lady in the clip we all need to pray that she finds the truth about us not the homophobia that she grew up with. I might be the minority but am a gay christian and believe that she is just misslead by fear based teaching.
Park in the back of the store. Good idea. If Exxon Mobil was a transportation company, they’d make black people sit in the rear of the bus (or plane, or train, or…).
These little publicity stunts aren’t helpful – they’re just a few people looking for attention. To add the fact that the Reporter for the Dallas Voice is ALSO engaged in trying to create an “event,” just makes it sillier.
Exxon Mobil, like many other companies need to catch up with the rest of America and have a policy of non-discrimination in place. It is coming. But, it will not come any sooner because we “send in the clowns.” In fact, that may actually delay it.
This idea of complaining and demanding is childish. In today’s world we have CONVERSATIONS. Talking to each other, not yelling. Demanding doesn’t work. Persuasion does.
Let’s hope these embarrassing stunts end soon.
I really don’t think the Voice reporter intended to (or did, for that matter) represent the community in am embarrassing fashion. I think the police officers with whom he had a run in acted irresponsibly, but we ARE dealing with the laughingstock of law enforcement here, so it stands to reason that there will be trouble anytime the DPD is involved. And if there’s not trouble, the officers will MAKE trouble. It’s how they’re trained, it’s how they work and it’s just the way they do things. A competent law enforcement officer is qualified, decent, educated and sensitive to his/her fellow citizens. These officers take pride in what they do and they represent their communities with the utmost of professionalism. It takes a truly committed, dedicated group of officers to make this happen. Obviously, the DPD officers don’t qualify.