The NPRO weekend rally started off Saturday evening in the Port of Long Beach – not only an amazing landscape for photos, but a place known to regularly trample on photographers’ civil rights. So we were shooting for about five minutes when a security guard drove up and immediately yelled out, “You can’t take pictures of the refinery!” When pressed why not, she was clearly stumped. There was some back and forth. Eventually she said, “I don’t care about the law…I care about me doing my job working for that refinery.”

After an exasperated “Fine, whatever,” she left and apparently called Harbor Patrol. Four units arrived on the scene, saying they’d been told there was a physical altercation. You can watch the video; how is that defined as a physical altercation? (More on the Harbor Patrol encounter to be posted later.)

Now, truth be told, this security guard tried very hard to ultimately keep it civil – and she’s just doing her job, granted – but this video is a perfect example of how woefully untrained security personnel are. Instead of having any laws, or even company policy, to bolster her argument, she’s just regurgitating a very vague rule handed down by higher-ups.

Doesn’t the refinery owe it to their employees to give them more training? What if there were actual terrorists out there? You can’t tell me they’re legitimately worried about terrorism if this is how they’re protecting themselves.