National Guardsman rescued Joplin tornado victims in his Wal-Mart job

JOPLIN, Mo. (May 26, 2011) — Some people would call him a hero, but to hear Spc. Jeffrey Price tell it, he was just doing his job. Price, a heavy equipment operator for the Carthage-based 294th Engineer Company of the Missouri Army National Guard, helped rescue dozens of people following Sunday’s deadly storm that left hundreds dead, hundreds more injured and much of this city of about 50,000 people in ruins. Price, 22, was on duty at his job in the automotive department at a local Wal-Mart SuperCenter Sunday as the deadly tornado that flattened area homes, destroyed businesses and gutted St. John’s Mercy Hospital, approached.

I personally know a number of the people who have been sent to Joplin to work in the tornado response. I do not know the officers in this CNN video. I do know, with near 100 percent certainty, that if there were a serious problem with the morgue operations I would be getting some very angry phone calls; my relationship with law enforcement from my community is good enough that I would have been on the list of reporters to get the “whistleblower” phone call.

In other words, I think it’s clear that the CNN reporters were barking up the wrong tree.

However, remember what happened with the post-hurricane gun grabbing in New Orleans? In disaster situations, people will sometimes do things that should not be done because they think they’re trying to help but actually are violating the Constitution. We’re a country of laws and not of men, and the laws are written so we know **IN ADVANCE** how the government is supposed to handle extreme situations.

No matter what we think of the actions of those reporters, there are Constitutional issues here. This is a public street and it is not legal to order people to put down their cameras or order them to be secured in the back of the vehicle.

If there’s a public safety issue, police can block a roadway. That’s what the yellow “Police Line Do Not Cross” tape is for. But if the roadway is open to the public, is is not legal to tell people that they can’t do what they want on a public street.

I think I understand where the police were coming from of not wanting photos of dead people in the public press. Personally I’ve seen more than enough dead bodies in twisted wreckage of cars, burned-out shells of houses, etc. I don’t have any desire to show that type of gruesomeness to my readers — I can usually get the point across about the consequences of DWI or C&I driving much more effectively with a photo of a mangled car since it’s not uncommon for the dead person to look a lot better than the vehicle. Why hurt the victim’s family even more with dead body photos? I have a standing policy, known to all law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics and EMTs who I deal with in my county, of not photographing dead bodies or even living crash victims or fire victims. I deal with emergency response personnel at a crime scene, not the victims, and there’s a reason for that.

But we need to remember that the Constitution protects things we may not like. The government that can take away a reporter’s camera in a disaster can just as easily take away people’s guns in a different disaster. That’s why we have a Constitution to control the power of government. We can no more limit the First Amendment because of obnoxious reporters than we can limit the Second Amendment because of irresponsible gun owners.

I suspect once this footage showed up on CNN, an after-action review happened and the problem was taken care of. Frankly, the whole problem seems quite unnecessary, and likely could have been solved with police tape. That’s what it’s for.

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