Photog Arrested While Documenting Earth First Activists

A photographer who was arrested while documenting a group of environmental activists protesting in a remote forest in Southern Oregon says his civil rights may have been violated.

New York-based freelance photographer Christopher LaMarca and several activists were arrested July 28 by the Curry County sheriff's office on suspicion of interfering with an agricultural operation, a misdemeanor punishable with a maximum one-year jail term and $6,250 fine.

LaMarca was released on bail the next day, but the judge overseeing his case ruled that he could not leave the state until his case had been reviewed by the district attorney's office. After spending a week in legal limbo, LaMarca was told on Aug. 5 that all charges were being dropped and he could leave the state.

Hugh Duvall, LaMarca's attorney, says it's common practice in Oregon for authorities to write a citation for a misdemeanor and allow the accused to go free, pending a later trial date. Alluding to the arrest and release conditions placed upon his client, Duvall says LaMarca "got drug through the mud pretty hard."

The Curry County district attorney's office declined to comment on LaMarca's arrest. The cases involving the activists, who are aligned with the Earth First organization, are still pending.

LaMarca, 29, has been documenting underground activism in the environmental movement for more than a year. LaMarca says maneuvers by the Bush administration to make it easier for private companies to log public land has increased tensions between the U.S. Forest Service and activist groups. The group he was photographing when the arrests occurred were working to prevent the logging of a section of the Siskiyou National Forest that burned in 2002. The activists had built roadblocks and a "tree-sit" platform suspended 75 feet above the ground in hopes of disrupting the proposed logging.

When U.S. Forest Service officers and Curry County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene, LaMarca identified himself as a member of the media. The police immediately declared the area a crime scene and cordoned off LaMarca and the activists behind a police line as they brought in heavy equipment to take down the obstructions the activists had built.

After waiting for almost an hour without taking any pictures, LaMarca took three or four frames of the demolition, which was happening far beyond the police line. He was promptly put under arrest. LaMarca recalls one of the policemen saying "We don't like these kinds of pictures published around here."

LaMarca has been shooting the project on spec, and the photographer says his latest trip cost him $2,500 in lawyer's fees and a week's worth of lost wages. He has since retained a civil rights lawyer to look into his case.

"To tell you that I haven't been intimidated, I'd obviously be lying," LaMarca says. "At the same time we have to do this work and I can't be intimidated. I can't be scared because what I'm doing is legal and I should be protected."

Prior to traveling to Oregon, LaMarca consulted with fellow photographers and editors about how to best document the demonstration while protecting himself legally in the event that the authorities intervened. Upon receiving their advice, LaMarca left with a letter from New York Times Sophisticated Traveler photo editor Alison Morley explaining his project.

Wishing to avoid any future confrontations, LaMarca says he's now prepared to get official New York City press credentials, and he hopes he can land the backing of a magazine to continue the story.

"I'm not going to sit back [and do nothing]," he says. "At this point I'm going to go ahead with the counter-suit and continue this project. I'm just going to get smarter and more tactical about it."