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Drone Photos Lead to Indictment For Texas Polluters

Posted by timothy on from the river-of-pig-blood dept.

In January of this year, we posted news of a major pollution site in Texas that was the subject of some anonymous amateur sleuths with drones, who used their UAVs to document the release of a "river of blood" (pig blood, that is) into the Trinity River as it flows through Dallas. Now, garymortimer writes, that documentation has resulted in legal action in the form of an indictment from a Dallas grand jury. "The story went viral and continues to receive hits nearly a year later. I believe this is the first environmental crime to be prosecuted on the basis of UA evidence. Authorities had to act because of the attention the story was receiving."

11 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Would have preferred by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Would have preferred to see: "Authorities had to act because it was the right thing to do". Not because it has become a public spectacle.

    1. Re:Would have preferred by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously.

      Folks lambaste the "Court of Public Opinion" for subverting the justice system, but that seems to be the only one that works sometimes.

  2. I believe this is the first by koan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And most likely one of the last as new regulations pushed forth by corporate lobbies will restrict drone use or create "air space" restrictions over corporate land.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  3. You are so naive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Morality only applies to commoners. The first casualty of wealth is the soul.

    Authorities largely exist to protect the wealth of the rich. Ostensibly they also protect the safety of the poor, but orders of magnitude more law-enforcement money is spent on protecting the rich from threats to their wealth.

    I agree that this is not how the world should be. But this state of things is a natural consequence of human behavior. Our only defense against it is eternal vigilance (and that means you).

    1. Re:You are so naive by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm getting really sick of this tiresome rant popping up on every single Slashdot story. Government is corrupt. Corporations rule the world. We are all slaves. blah blah blah!

      Can't you guys give it a rest?

      Why do you always post your rants as AC anyway?

      And why twist any poorly phrased summary into a soap box?

      There is only this one guy, Gary Mortimer, stating that "public pressure forced the government to act". More likely it was the first time someone brought them proof sufficient to obtain a warrant to search over private lands. You clowns would be the first to complain if the government started flying their own drones, or trespassing across private lands to sample the creek.

      Take you tinfoil hat off for just a few minutes each day.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:You are so naive by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "I'm getting really sick of this tiresome rant popping up on every single Slashdot story. Government is corrupt. Corporations rule the world. We are all slaves. blah blah blah!

      Can't you guys give it a rest?

      Why do you always post your rants as AC anyway?"

      Sadly, while I might once have agreed with everything you said, I fear that times have changed -- or perhaps it's just that the Net has allowed the truth to be revealed in a way that governments can no longer control.

      Everywhere you look these days, there are many and varied examples of government being driven, directed and controlled by industries and those with lots (of money) at stake.

      Look at Kim Dotcom for instance -- the MPAA/RIAA may have had plenty of legal justification for some of what they did -- but certainly not all of it and not the way it was done. Hell, the FBI/MPAA/RIAA triad even bullied the New Zealand government in engaging in "unlawful acts" to carry out their dirty deeds.

      We've seen the problem of politicians protecting the rich at the cost of the poor grow to become a major problem down in this part of the world (NZL) and it's plainly obvious that the situation is far worse elsewhere.

      Bureaucrats (ie: central and local government) spend most of their time simply working to cover it's own ass -- in case things go wrong.

      Just look at most of the laws and regulations out there. They're not to improve the safety or to benefit the public nearly so much as they are to ensure that when something goes wrong, some bureaucrat somewhere can say "not my fault, we passed a law/regulation against that and the offender(s) broke those laws/regulations".

      Look at gun control for instance...

      It's illegal to murder someone with a firearm (or anything else for that matter) -- so the problem of firearms is solved! If someone goes postal or kills innocent pupils/teachers in a rampage -- it's not the fault of any bureaucrat - after all, they've made killing illegal so it's not *their* fault that kids can get their hands on assault rifles so easily.

      And they're doing it again with terrorism... they're making just about *everything* illegal -- so when a terrorist does attack and innocent folk are killed, they can turn around and say "not our fault, we made everything illegal -- what more could we do?"

      As for drones -- well yes, they're almost certainly going to make them illegal (in the hands of private individuals) too. After all, if there's one thing that bureaucrats *don't* like, it's having their actions spied on by those they're allegedly employed to protect.

      Sorry but the "perfect" world never existed and never will.

      And look... not posting as an AC! :-o

    3. Re:You are so naive by icebike · · Score: 5, Informative

      Way to Cherry Pick.

      Meanwhile:
      Madoff is in Jail for life
      2 Generals and two different cabinet officials have been forced to resign
      Seattle PD is under Justice Department microscope
      Book publishers forced to repay customers for price fixing
      BP pays huge fine and has Executives indicted
      Entire trading firms under indictment

      Its a mixed bag. It always is.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    4. Re:You are so naive by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not only that, but saying that the world isn't perfect is not a justification for not trying to make it better. It's also in human nature to try to improve things.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
    5. Re:You are so naive by sjames · · Score: 4, Informative

      See also this. It has a better description of how much blood and where it ran.

      And yes, that much blood IS toxic to the environment and can lead to fish die-offs in the same way that fertilizer runoff can. It can also create an awful stench as it decays on the banks.

      And it's 12 months after a citizen presented rock solid evidence of wrongdoing. It was years since the complaints started.

    6. Re:You are so naive by trevelyon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I would agree those were cherry picked so how about we look at a few of the major trends:

      Trust of politicians and government in general: http://www.people-press.org/2010/04/18/public-trust-in-government-1958-2010/

      Income disparity (who is getting all the new wealth): http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3629

      I don't have a particular link to environmtal damage but if you can't see that in just about every news source (even the terrible US ones) then you are working hard not to see it.

      I will say that not everything is gloom and doom butpeople commenting on corruption, corporate greed and increase in power seems to me just being perceptive not overly negative. Most statistics I've seen and real world experience for the average person seem to support this. I would also point out there is strong evidence that government control is increasing and "rule of law" is decreasing. Again I don't have specific metrics for these but I certainly can point to several pieces of legislation as well as personal experience dealing with governmental institutions (border crossings, airports, traffic stops, tax assessment, building departments). Apparently you do not see this trend but the large number of comments about this just might be from people who see these trends or have experienced them first hand.

      Finally, the impetus behind pointing this out just might be a desire to fix some of these issues. The first step in fixing a problem is to identify the problem. Refusing to acknowledge real problems does no service to people facing them or to resolving the problem itself. Just a few things you might want to consider. Hope this helps,

  4. Scandal that isn't by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The story is self-congratulatory and implies that the authorities only did their job because of the publicity on the issue. While it is true that the authorities only acted because of the original story, there is no evidence that once they were made aware of the story that they did not move at a deliberate pace in order to determine how widespread the infraction was and to prosecute it. The fact of the matter is that depending on how the plant was set up, there would have been no reason for a government official to observe the pollution. That is the only reason that they needed the original story in order to act. They had to know there was something to act on.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison