University Chronicle Extras:
Movies
|
Rate a Pic
|
Horoscopes
|
Career
|
Scholarships
|
Travel
|
GradZone
News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Commentary
Evanescence security acts shamefully
By Eric O'Link
Published:
Monday, February 23, 2004
Eric O´Link -- Staff Essay
University Chronicle readers might wonder why we borrowed photographs of Evanescence from the St. Cloud Times for today's paper.
Quite simply put, it's because two wrongs don't make a right.
That's a clich saying, but it cost us our photos, and left me wondering, once again, why we don't live in a more civil world.
Here's what happened.
Our visuals editor, Adam Masloski, had planned to shoot the concert. When he checked in with UPB, he asked about shooting restrictions - he was told there were none.
One of our staff photographers, Ching Fung, found Masloski before the concert and asked if he could shoot the assignment instead. Masloski decided that was fine.
This wasn't a problem initially. Fung said he was out in the crowd shooting pictures when somebody from UPB motioned for him to come up to the front to get a better angle. He did, and the UPB representative told him that there was a photography rule - media photographers could only shoot photos of Evanescence for the first three songs. This was the first Fung had heard about it.
Fung stopped shooting after those first three songs, but did pull out his camera during the fifth song and took a picture of the audience - not the band. This is not the first time that photographers, ours included, have violated the "three song" rule at an SCSU concert. In the past, right or wrong, similar "three song" rules have not been enforced.
This time, the rule was. Fung was immediately escorted out of the gym by concert security, he said. He told me that the Evanescence security personnel surrounded him and demanded that he hand over all of his film and memory cards, or they would call the police to arrest him. Fung said he was afraid of being arrested, so he handed over the memory card, the only one he had, that was in his camera (both belong to University Chronicle).
Fung said the security people then searched his backpack and coat, publicly, while Public Safety officers watched. Evanescence security told him to leave Halenbeck, he said, and told him that if he came back, he would be arrested.
Fung called me after all this happened, while the concert was still going on. After consulting with our adviser Michael Vadnie, Masloski and SCSU Public Safety, I headed down to Halenbeck after the concert had wrapped up.
We needed to get our card back.
Vadnie said he believed that what Evanescence's security people did was, in effect, stealing. They were private people working for a private business who took property from another private person.
I hoped that I could go to Halenbeck, talk to somebody from Evanescence, apologize for the misunderstanding and resolve the issue. When I got there, I was told by UPB representatives that it was not a good time to talk to Evanescence staff; they were busy packing up. UPB's Ryan Meints assured me that they were working on getting our memory card back. I know Meints and respect him, so that was good enough for me.
But the UPB representative who talked with Evanescence's security chief and production manager had no luck. And that was that. Evanescence headed out of town with our property, which we believe was wrongfully obtained.
The Chronicle feels badly about what happened. We understand that concert security is tight to prevent unauthorized people from taking photographs of the band - as it should be. But this situation, involving the media, was a simple misunderstanding that we tried to apologize for and correct.
If Evanescence's security people acted professionally and with a degree of civility, we might have been able to resolve this misunderstanding respectfully.
Instead, Evanescence security acted like thugs. We are seeking legal advice.
Forum:
No comments have been posted for this story.
Post a comment
