Levees.org Lives on YouTube: The Little Take Down Notice That Couldn’t
Oh, joy! A high-school student produced web video is once again the talk of every form of New Orleans media. Levees.org has reintroduced their New Orleans Levee Spin 101 video to YouTube.
Anti-SLAPP
They were given a take down notice by the American Society of Civil Engineers in response to this satirical film produced by students of the AP government class at the Isadore Newman School. Sandy Rosenthal announced Wednesday that Levees.org has obtained pro bono legal council from Two prominent law firms, Adams and Reese, LLP and Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. From Levees.org reposts controversial video.
In a letter to ASCE general Counsel Thomas Smith III, one of the attorneys for Levees.org warned that any lawsuit against the organization might trigger Louisiana’s “Anti-SLAPP” statute, which allows courts to weed out lawsuits designed to chill public participation on matters of public significance.
SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.”
“While this may not be a criticism the ASCE enjoys, it is nonetheless a fully protected exercise of free speech on the part of Levees.org,” wrote Samantha Everett, an attorney with Cooley Godward Kronish
Finally, An Organization We Can All Despise
So often it is the case in the affairs of the City of New Orleans that I don’t know what to think. I’m so grateful to the American Society of Civil Engineers for giving me something that is so easy to find despicable.
Like many people enamored of social media, a take down notice (cease-and-desist) by a monster organization against a small organization or individual is immediately suspect. More often than not, the small organization or individual is well within their rights, but the potential litigation is not well within their budget. This is one of those classic cases of a big monster organization trusting the legal department to do their public relations. It’s the sort of thing that electronic speech advocates challenge on principle.
The Levees.org story really does belong on Boing Boing with all the rest.
The Story So Far
It starts with the Neuman High School AP government class producing a satirical video.
Well, actually, it beings about two years prior, with the an unprecedented failure of federal infrastructure, the collapse of the flood walls in the outfall canals of New Orleans and the levees around St. Bernard Parish a mere category 3 hurricane. Your fellow Americans living within this travesty tend to think that civil engineering, as it was practiced by the Army Corps of Engineers in our region is lacking.
Levees.org is an organization that advocated for consolidating the levee boards. They are now advocating for an 8/29 Commission, an independent investigation of the failure of the federal levee system on August, 29th 2005.
The video is satirical advocacy for an independent investigation. It draws attention to the conflicts of interest of the ASCE. It implies conflict of interest and it makes a single accusation. It accuses the ASCE of lying. Why? Because they are dirty rotten stinking lairs. What did they lie about? The lied the about the death of our fellow citizens. Thanks to Matt McBride for picking over the IPET. In one of his investigative emails Reminder: Let the Corps Hear You Matt McBride reminds us that:
Two weeks ago, I helped push a story into the media about numerous errors in the much vaunted Risk & Reliability Study put out by the Corps of Engineers under their IPET banner. Included in those errors were:
- Mistakes in projected flood heights, and then mistakes about those mistakes.
- Downgrading of the Katrina death toll, calling it out as “more than 700,†when it was well over 1000.
- Over 200 errors in presentation of projected death tolls were a storm to hit today (they presented the pre-Katrina death toll numbers in the post-Katrina columns, which is an error which makes things look worse than they really are).
Yes. They lied. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe they are pathetic.
From the comments of Controversial Levees.org video.
Levees.Org has a copy of a letter written by an ASCE exec documenting the $900,000 the Corps paid ASCE for the ERP. I saw it on WWL TV reported by Lee Zurik a week ago.
For proof of the medals, just check the ASCE website.
And if you look at the IPET you can see yourself that of the top three leaders, two work for USACE and one did for 15 years (1986-2002). In all of the co-team leaders, 6 work for the Army Corps and 7 work for Army R&D (sister to Corps). Three (3) are government scientists and/or employees. Only 7 (out of 23) are non-government.
Well within the realm of protected speech. Criticism of the failures of the ASCE. It is great for Matt McBride and others to dig up these failings, but it takes some clever satire to draw to these failings the attention that they deserve.
A Stunning Own Goal
When the take down notice arrived, the ASCE managed to stir up a universal sentiment.
Levees, Newmanites and Smartassery by R. Eustis.
The ASCE: unable to locate engineering flaws, incapable of finding a fact (probably couldn’t see it behind all the loot…), and totally at a loss when it comes to Constitutionally protected satire. A fine outfit, gentlemen. A damn fine outfit. (Disclaimer: I am no lawyer, but I was reared by one and have dated a couple of ‘em, and used to bother them for a living in my former life. That makes me as qualified as the ASCE to make these kinds of judgments.)
Engineer group not amused by online spoof of levee review by Greg Peters.
Umf. Yes well. But the video is defamatory, as it accuses you of being pawns of the Corpse, which you admit to being, and unethical, which you admit to being. Other than a whine that the video implies that the ASCE was “in some way bribed or corrupted by the corps” (looks like government contracted SOP to me) I don’t see any refutation of the video’s points.
Profiles in Pusillanimousity by Mark Folse.
Apparently, the ASCE takes umbrage at the video for pointing out that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid ASCE close to $1 million for the study. They don’t deny it. They just take umbrage. And they sort of fess up to opening an internal investigation into improprieties associated with this study.
Now Sandy Rosenthal is back on every news channel in New Orleans and Levees.org is on the front of the Metro section. A stunning own goal on the part of the ASCE and they don’t seem to know it.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
From a letter (that I’ve yet to read fully) by Raymond B. Seed of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. The letter from Raymond B. Seed can be found at Levees.org.
In my own view; these past two years were not mainly about who did well or poorly, nor
about who was to blame for the New Orleans disaster, nor even who got what right in the technical
investigations that followed; it was a search for truths and hard lessons, and it was also a battle for
the ethics and the soul of the Profession.And that important battle is not yet won. Indeed, current indications are that it may
presently be in the process of being lost.Three precious things were lost to Hurricane Katrina. One was the City of New Orleans; a
more tragic loss than many have yet fully appreciated as the prospects for eventual recovery
continue to dim. The second was a blow to the public’s perception of the Civil Engineering
profession, and their confidence in our ability to suitably protect them. And the third was a loss of
integrity within the Profession in the aftermath of the initial disaster; a profoundly important loss
led in no small part by the two most important Civil engineering agencies/institutions in the world.
And that loss is currently still going unaddressed and unrepaired on the part of ASCE.
I expect a lavish apology from the ASCE for it’s attempt to quash the sentiments of the people that it is supposed to protect. Don’t we all?
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There is already a rollicking discussion of the sorry state of ASCE affairs in the post…
New Orleans Levee Spin 101
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