April 02, 2003
The Likely Explanation
Well, first off, be sure to read this post which was trackbacked into my previous item:
According to Sergeant Schmautz, the issue centered around the ongoing "orange alert" status, which, he said, mandates escorts for visitors to the police station, and Ms. Bott's apparent disavowal of any knowledge of Bix (which he discussed in his initial report on the matter, as well as his subsequent followup).
Given that Ms. Bott said she had no idea who Bix was (and why that is certainly isn't clear, though I'm willing to bet it was the native caution of someone who wasn't sure who was giving her name and didn't want to agree to something that would get her in trouble later), SGT Schmautz said he had no choice but to refuse admission to the press conference.
This, presumably, was what they were on their way down to the lobby to tell me. Or, indeed, it's possible that Bott was coming to see if meeting me and hearing my explanations would jog her memory. We'll probably never know, because she apparently isn't interested in offering the full explanation. Which is, frankly, odd, since, while the above explanation would remain annoying, it would not be entirely out-of-bounds and wouldn't require that much effort to tell me.
Whatever. What remains at this point is doing what we can in order to ensure that such denials of entrance don't happen again in the future.
For possible directions in that regard, click through the link above and read the rest of the item in question. In general, the proposal on the table is this: Creating a "consortium" of local independent media which would be responsible for "credentialing" independent journalists.
Those interested should probably click through and comment on MPH's post directly, although you are welcome to do so here as well.