Sorry, try again Sir. O, that's right, you don't get another 'again'. Next.
Posted on 10/28/2006 6:05:14 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
NEW YORK — Undeterred by violence, journalist Bradley Roland Will felt compelled to document what he called human rights abuses around the globe, so he headed to the volatile city of Oaxaca in Mexico.
As the situation turned increasingly dangerous, Will decided to stay. Despite his fears, he wanted people to know what was happening in Oaxaca.
"I am entering a new territory here and don't know if I am ready," Will wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to an ex-girlfriend. "Life is crazy."
The 36-year-old videographer from New York was killed Friday in the Mexican city where protesters have barricaded streets and occupied government buildings for five months in a bid to oust the governor.
The gunfire erupted in a rough neighborhood when armed men, possibly police, tried to remove a blockade set up by protesters who were demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
"It appears that Mr. Will was killed during a shoot out between what may have been local police" and protesters, Tony Garza, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, said in a written statement.
However, it wasn't clear who fired the shot that killed Will, who was working for Indymedia.org, an independent Web-based media organization, and selling video footage on a freelance basis.
Word that he died at a Red Cross hospital after being shot in the abdomen spread quickly in New York City, where he had lived for more than a decade.
Early Saturday, scores of friends crammed into a small bookstore here to remember Will, whom they described as a passionate activist.
Beka Economopoulous, a New York activist and friend, said Will's death would leave a void in places where journalists are needed.
"The community here will miss him," she said. "Not only because he was a beautiful person, but because the work he was doing was so important. He was passionate about documenting the ills of the world."
Will had been documenting the upheaval in Oaxaca in Internet dispatches for nearly a month. His reports showed he had strong sympathies with the movement.
"What can you say about this movement, this revolutionary moment," he wrote in a dispatch dated Oct. 16. "You know it is building, growing, shaping, you can feel it, trying desperately for a direct democracy."
Fellow documentarian Josh Bregman, who recently returned from Oaxaca, said he felt safe within the barricades among the citizens, but not when police were looming.
"The people that I was with thought my camera would keep them safe," Bregman said. "They didn't think anyone would shoot gringo journalists."
Friends described Will as tall and lanky with long brown hair, glasses and a scruffy beard. He loved folk music, played the guitar and had a huge heart.
"He was a warm, gentle person, who lit up the room with his songs and his cheer," said Brandon Jourdan, a former roommate.
___
Associated Press Writer Rebeca Romero contributed to this report from Oaxaca, Mexico.
___
On The Net:
http://www.indymedia.org
Sorry, try again Sir. O, that's right, you don't get another 'again'. Next.
On the bright side, he wasn't run over by a bulldozer.
Give that guy the Timmy Treadwell Award.
Note to self. Journalist = passionate activist
"Friends described Will as tall and lanky with long brown hair, glasses and a scruffy beard. He loved folk music, played the guitar and had a huge heart."
Hmm..sounds like a hippie and probably looked like one, too.
The big about the 'huge heart' is de rigeur, I suppose: all lefty journalists are equipped with one, posthumously if necessary.
I want to feel sorry for this man, but I have this sneaking suspicion he was not just filming things.
He also seems to have had no common sense about his own safety.
That was hard to miss. Guess he missed "Objectivity 101" at J-school.
Leni
I think he actually had arrogance, and assumed that, being a US journalist who lives for the 'common people', he was never going to be in any danger.
Note how clearly the article implies he was picked out by the police (something the article also implies the 'common people' would never do).
BTW, the only reason I had ever heard the word 'Oaxaca' before is that when I was a teenager back in the '70's, that's where the best marijuana was then coming from. I wonder if their economy has diversified any since then.
Someone needs to let Michael Moore know that there is a great opportunity to produce a documentary critical of President Bush in Oaxaca, Mexico.
"The people that I was with thought my camera would keep them safe," Bregman said. "They didn't think anyone would shoot gringo journalists."
More like the Darwin Award.
No comment needed.
Unknown men shoot at APPO members and reporters in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca; a foreign cameraman dies (Some FReepers wonder if this was the last photo taken by the journalist. I have nothing to support this, but the photo certainly looks like the last thing that some poor soul would ever see.
A cameraman, who looks foreign, died as a result of a bullet wound which he received during one of the shoot-outs recorded in the municipality of Santa Lucia, Oaxaca
A foreign cameraman died today during a shoot-out in the municipality of Santa Lucia against members of APPO and reporters
Per SaltyJoe's commentary with puts the situation into a gritty, realistic perspective:
"why the hell did they rip his friggin pants off?"
Loss of bowels/bladder control. Perhaps to clean him up. Fecal matter and urine don't do well with open wounds. If you ever see photos of Chinese executions, they usually tie up the pants legs with string probably to keep the dead bagged up as much as possible (with exception to the large caliber bullet effects on the head and face).
Don't mean to gross you out. Dying is often embarrassing and sometimes messy. Violent death generally is messy.
This is the effect of sin upon mankind.
SaltyJoe's commentary illustrates the human side of violent death. This was tragically someone's last moments on earth and his commentary brought that thought home moreso than any photo. Sudden, messy and altogether tragic. What a waste of life.
They obviously need to ban guns to keep these things from happening.
wow... it sure LOOKS like the "fatal shot.
evolution.......big time
"Undeterred by violence..."
What a joke... the man was a revolutionist there deliberately instigating it. Here is one of his "journalist" links, his email is bradley@riseup.net
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/31/18304978.php
Photos from Oaxaca City, August 2006 (part 2)
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net )
Thursday Aug 31st, 2006 2:06 PM
This guy was a photo-propagandist for the terrorist left in Mexico. I have about as much sympathy as I did for Rachael Corrie.
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