Journalists Trespass, Assault Tesla employees at the Gigafactory

[MsElectric]

I guess the only certainty is that reporters are unlikely to trespass on Tesla property again.

And if they are caught trespassing, they will stay put until law enforcement arrives.

Tesla should just hire actual police officers to patrol the perimeter and they can put an end to the trespassing and having to deal with all the drama in the aftermath of a trespass incident... The cost in having actual police officers patrol the perimeter is trivial and they have full law enforcement powers to deal with any trespasses.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Knowing how Elon never seems to back down in these kinds of situations (he's lost a few lawsuits in the past), it will be up to the journalist to sue Tesla and take it to court if he has any grounds. Tesla won't settle.

On the flip side, sounds like Tesla lawyers are not actually pressing charges...

 

[Andyw2100]

Obviously none of us know what happened.

But I think a reasonable guess as to what may have caused the escalation, based on what we've heard from both sides, could have been one or more of the Tesla Security guards asking for or attempting to take the photographic equipment. Presumably the guards thought it was their job to prevent the unlawfully taken pictures from getting out. Based on what others here have written, it sounds like legally the guards would not have had any right to attempt to do that. Assuming that is correct, I think it is safe to assume the photographer and reporter would know that.

So at that point you have the Tesla guards, who think they are lawfully doing their jobs in trying to obtain the photographic equipment from the trespassers, and the trespassers who know they have no right to do so. The result is the escalation that we don't know the true details about.

That's just my guess as to how things may have gotten ugly fast.

 

[dsm363]

Tesla guards allegedly smashed journalists car window during Gigafactory incident | The Verge



wow. big difference in story. for some reason, I believe the journalist's story over Tesla's.

There is no publicly accessible area I believe that overlooks he factory that doesn't have a No Trespassing sign.

 

[hobbes]

Obviously none of us know what happened.

But I think a reasonable guess as to what may have caused the escalation, based on what we've heard from both sides, could have been one or more of the Tesla Security guards asking for or attempting to take the photographic equipment. Presumably the guards thought it was their job to prevent the unlawfully taken pictures from getting out. Based on what others here have written, it sounds like legally the guards would not have had any right to attempt to do that. Assuming that is correct, I think it is safe to assume the photographer and reporter would know that.

So at that point you have the Tesla guards, who think they are lawfully doing their jobs in trying to obtain the photographic equipment from the trespassers, and the trespassers who know they have no right to do so. The result is the escalation that we don't know the true details about.

That's just my guess as to how things may have gotten ugly fast.

Sounds right. After all, no good publicity and nothing gained for anyone - RGJ has been reporting quite positively on Tesla AFAIK, and if the guards would have let the photographers go, they could have still made their point with the police to keep others from trespassing.

 

[bonnie]

Knowing how Elon never seems to back down in these kinds of situations (he's lost a few lawsuits in the past), it will be up to the journalist to sue Tesla and take it to court if he has any grounds. Tesla won't settle.

On the flip side, sounds like Tesla lawyers are not actually pressing charges...

Once someone got hit, it's not up to the Tesla lawyers to press charges. It's up to the district attorney. I'm sure they're gathering evidence and deciding if they have a criminal case or not.

 

[markb1]

Once someone got hit, it's not up to the Tesla lawyers to press charges. It's up to the district attorney. I'm sure they're gathering evidence and deciding if they have a criminal case or not.

The district attorney might not go forward unless someone wants to press charges, but I think it might be the Tesla employees that were injured that would need to press charges, not the company itself. It's not easy to prosecute something like this without the cooperation of the victims.

 

[slcasner]

I have a good idea which hill they are talking about. It is the location from which several of the pictures we have seen were taken. I hiked up that hill in May of this year. At that time there was a place where a car could park off the street. There was no fence, but there were two pairs of "no trespassing" signs on either side of the dual-track road heading up the hill, one pair near the bottom and one near the top.

 

[Canuck]

I read the Verge article and RGJ's position but it doesn't make sense to me. This is where their version becomes suspect:

"Glogovac [the journalists' lawyer] says that Barron was then dragged out of the car and pushed "face-first in the dirt with a knee or foot in his back," while the guard taunted him, saying: "Now who’s the tough guy?"

If the guard says "Now who's the tough guy" and RGJ's version of events is:

"Glogovac claims that the RGJ's reporters, Jason Hidalgo and photographer Andy Barron, had parked the newspaper's Jeep in a "publicly accessible" area overlooking Tesla's factory before getting out of the car to take photos. He says they were then confronted by security guards who demanded Barron's camera and followed the pair back to their Jeep. The guards then allegedly rammed the car with an ATV and forced it to a stop, before one guard jumped on the hood of the car and another smashed the driver's side window with a large rock."

It makes absolutely no sense for the guard to say "Now who's the tough guy" following this version of events. It only makes sense to say that if the guards were rammed by the journalists and not the other way around.

So RGJ loses me by their own version of events. It makes no sense to me.

 

[bonnie]

I read the Verge article and RGJ's position but it doesn't make sense to me. This is where their version becomes suspect:

"Glogovac [the journalists' lawyer] says that Barron was then dragged out of the car and pushed "face-first in the dirt with a knee or foot in his back," while the guard taunted him, saying: "Now who’s the tough guy?"

If the guard says "Now who's the tough guy" and RGJ's version of events is:

"Glogovac claims that the RGJ's reporters, Jason Hidalgo and photographer Andy Barron, had parked the newspaper's Jeep in a "publicly accessible" area overlooking Tesla's factory before getting out of the car to take photos. He says they were then confronted by security guards who demanded Barron's camera and followed the pair back to their Jeep. The guards then allegedly rammed the car with an ATV and forced it to a stop, before one guard jumped on the hood of the car and another smashed the driver's side window with a large rock."

It makes absolutely no sense for the guard to say "Now who's the tough guy" following this version of events. It only makes sense to say that if the guards were rammed by the journalists and not the other way around.

So RGJ loses me by their own version of events. It makes no sense to me.

Agree, Canuck. Couple that with it was Tesla security who called law enforcement & that it was the RGJ employee who was arrested. Like I've been saying, the truth will come out.

 

[Larry93428]

To drive up a dirt road, then get out and walk suggests they have gone beyond anywhere they should.
If posted a slcasner tells us, is that adequate? It certainly would be for me.
~Larry

 

[TEG]

I have a good idea which hill they are talking about. It is the location from which several of the pictures we have seen were taken. I hiked up that hill in May of this year. At that time there was a place where a car could park off the street. There was no fence, but there were two pairs of "no trespassing" signs on either side of the dual-track road heading up the hill, one pair near the bottom and one near the top.

But didn't Tesla's blog account say "they had climbed through a fence designated with 'private property' signs."
Is there a fence blocking that hill now?

By the way,

Attorney: Tesla guards roughed up Reno journalist

(Photo: Jason Bean/RGJ)

RGJ Attorney Offers Other Side To Gigafactory Trespass Story: Tesla Guards Roughed Up Journalists
(lots of follow-up comments posted to that story)

 

[slcasner]

But didn't Tesla's blog account say "they had climbed through a fence designated with 'private property' signs."
Is there a fence blocking that hill now?

That's what I'm wondering.

 

[LetsGoFast]

It makes absolutely no sense for the guard to say "Now who's the tough guy" following this version of events. It only makes sense to say that if the guards were rammed by the journalists and not the other way around.

So RGJ loses me by their own version of events. It makes no sense to me.

I'm not sure that they are claiming to have reported every detail of the interaction. "Now who's the tough guy" is more likely to have followed some trash talking than to have been precipitated by one vehicle hitting another. It is clear that the RGJ version is cherry-picking what aspects to reveal and what aspects to conceal.

 

[yobigd20]

"Glogovac [the journalists' lawyer] says that Barron was then dragged out of the car and pushed "face-first in the dirt with a knee or foot in his back," while the guard taunted him, saying: "Now who’s the tough guy?"

it sounds more like the guards assaulted the journalist. thats definitely more believable. i dont think journalists go around looking for a fight. but these security guards seem more like the rough bouncer types that are looking to start trouble when they can. personally, i hope the journalists fire back assault charges at the guards. there was no reason for the guards to escalate it to that level.

 

[AnOutsider]

it sounds more like the guards assaulted the journalist. thats definitely more believable. i dont think journalists go around looking for a fight. but these security guards seem more like the rough bouncer types that are looking to start trouble when they can. personally, i hope the journalists fire back assault charges at the guards. there was no reason for the guards to escalate it to that level.

Well, if the journalists went crazy trying to hit people with their car, I could see the above being the end result. In any case, I still don't think both sides are being 100% truthful. Will be interesting to see this play out in the courts.

 

[Super_Popular]

Hopefully Tesla will now put body camera's on it's security staff.

 

[brucet999]

But didn't Tesla's blog account say "they had climbed through a fence designated with 'private property' signs."
Is there a fence blocking that hill now?

By the way,

Attorney: Tesla guards roughed up Reno journalist

(Photo: Jason Bean/RGJ)

RGJ Attorney Offers Other Side To Gigafactory Trespass Story: Tesla Guards Roughed Up Journalists
(lots of follow-up comments posted to that story)

Why is there no glass under the rock?
Presumably, the car was driven back to RGJ garage, so why is the rock in the middle of the floor rather than pushed out of the way of driver's feet?
Glass is rather evenly distributed on the floor even though there should have been two legs and feet in its path as it fell.

 

[TEG]

...Why is there no glass under the rock?...

It looks like maybe they rearranged things to get the photo. The side view has it in an asphalt parking lot, not a dirt road.
Yeah, I bet someone drove it back, then set things up (including draping the seat belt on the edge of the seat) so they could make whatever point they were trying to make.

 

[stopcrazypp]

It looks like maybe they rearranged things to get the photo. The side view has it in an asphalt parking lot, not a dirt road.
Yeah, I bet someone drove it back, then set things up (including draping the seat belt on the edge of the seat) so they could make whatever point they were trying to make.

I believe the photos were taken in the RGJ parking lot (it says that somewhere in the article). So the contents would have naturally resettled after the car had been moved. The placement of the seat belt obviously is deliberate however (likely to demonstrate their point). The rock might be too.