Saturday, January 22, 2005
Summary of the “bodyguard” story
With the story so scattered and developments in updates and comments, I thought I would post this so everyone can see the mains points of what it was about.
1. Patrick Burk is one employee of Gavin de Becker & Associates who was assigned to protect Michael Moore. As far as anyone can tell, Burk accompanies Moore to NYC on 1/11 or thereabouts.
2. Burk attempts to leave NYC for California via JFK without Moore. Again, Moore is not with Burk, Burk is not protecting Moore at this time, Moore is in no way involved. Burk presents his registered, licensed firearm, which is secured according to FAA regulations for transportation on a commercial airline, and for reasons unknown to Gavin de Becker & Associates, the Port Authority cop decides to arrest Mr. Burk. Patrick Burk is arrested by the Port Authority for illegal possession of an unlicensed firearm.
3. Fox News, getting word of the arrest somehow, chooses to write a short, somewhat misleading article and posts it to their website.
Michael Moore’s Bodyguard Arrested on Airport Gun Charge
NEW YORK -Filmmaker Michael Moore’s bodyguard was arrested for carrying an unlicensed weapon in New York’s JFK airport Wednesday night.
Police took Patrick Burke, who says Moore employs him, into custody after he declared he was carrying a firearm at a ticket counter. Burke is licensed to carry a firearm in Florida and California, but not in New York. Burke was taken to Queens central booking and could potentially be charged with a felony for the incident.
4. That news story is posted to (and commented on at) Moorewatch.
5. Gavin de Becker, the man in charge of Gavin de Becker & Associates, contacts Fox News to correct the story. Fox not only doesn’t make any corrections, they do not respond in any way to Gavin de Becker & Associates.
6. Gavin de Becker contacts Moorewatch to correct details of the story, and we issue a correction. I start a dialog with Gavin de Becker to try to get more details. What I get is that yes, Burk has protected Moore. So while the headline “Michael Moore’s Bodyguard Arrested on Airport Gun Charge” is misleading, it is not false. I also learn that when the judge who arraigned Burk found out that Burk brought the firearm to the counter and declared it, he immediately brought the proceedings to a close and releases Burk on his own recognizance. When I asked point-blank if Burk specifically told the Port Authority that “Moore employs him,” I did not receive a direct answer. If anyone asked me to speculate, I would guess Burk identified himself as a security employee of Gavin de Becker & Associates, and when they asked who he was protecting in NYC, he gave Moore’s name as his last assignment. My bet is that someone at the Port Authority contacted Fox or they have someone who watches the airports for developments, and when Moore’s name came up, they ran with the sensationalistic angle.
It’s my opinion that the Moore connection is sensational, but unrelated to the actual event. The real story for the rest of the world is that a professional, complying with all FAA regulations, was arrested by some gung-ho NYC Port Authority cop due to an overbearing and possibly illegal local law. If I were Gavin de Becker $ Associates, I would fight the hell out of this. There might even be a “restricting interstate commerce” avenue to take. How can a professional security guard protect a client if he can’t fly in or out of JFK because of this idiotic law? What happens when there are no other choices for flights, and the armed guard has absolutely no choice but to fly in to JFK, but has no plans to be *in* any of the five boroughs? Should that guard even be hassled at JFK much less arrested?
For our purposes here at Moorewatch, the part of this story that matters is that Moore, a man who has said he would become the president of the NRA if only to dismantle it, a man that advocates, at the very LEAST, extremely heavy gun control that works against the average law-abiding citizen and violates the Constitution, has decided that his life is worth protecting with a firearm. The “culture of fear” that he spent an entire film denouncing is one that he chooses to take advantage of when it comes to protecting himself. You protecting yourself? Not as important. Besides, you’re all rich enough to hire Gavin de Becker & Associates to protect you, right?
That’s our Moore. Always fighting for the little guy’s rights.
Hopefully this brings this dumb story to a close. Fox should have done some more digging. Burk was technically Moore’s bodyguard, just not at the moment of arrest. Gavin de Becker & Associates is trying to protect the reputation of a guy that sounds like a decent, hard-working security professional. That is understandable. I hope that people can see the two elements of this story that matter: Moore’s hypocrisy and the idiocy of the NYC law that resulted in Burk’s arrest.
For archival and context purposes, here is the AP version of the story that de Becker called “more accurate.”
Less...A bodyguard who has protected outspoken moviemaker and gun-control advocate Michael Moore was arrested at Kennedy International Airport for allegedly carrying a pistol without a New York license, authorities said Thursday.
Patrick Burk, 34, was arraigned Thursday evening on a felony charge of criminal possession of a weapon and was released on his own recognizance, said Patrick Clark, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney’s office. A return court date was set for Feb. 3.
Burk was questioned by police Wednesday night after he notified a United Airlines ticket agent that he wanted to carry his weapon — unloaded and in a bag — on a flight to Los Angeles, said Port Authority spokesman Tony Ciavolella.
The bodyguard, who works for the California-based security firm Gavin de Becker & Associates, told police he had traveled to New York with Moore earlier this month, Ciavolella said. He produced licenses for his Mauser handgun from California and Florida, but not New York, which prompted his arrest.
Burk’s attorney, Marc Greenwald, said his client “was following proper airline procedures when he was checking in and informed the airline that he had an unloaded and locked weapon in his checked baggage, which he is entitled to do.”
Moore spokesman Mark Benoit said the filmmaker “wasn’t there and had nothing do with this.”
Burk has been assigned to protect Moore at times in the past but is not his personal bodyguard, Gavin de Becker said.
De Becker defended Burk, saying he had followed proper procedures at the airport. He called him “a leading professional in his field.”
Moore, the director of Fahrenheit 9/11, won the documentary Academy Award for 2002’s Bowling for Columbine, a scathing look at the gun culture in America.
In an interview last year with Playboy magazine, Moore called the National Rifle Association a “radical, freaky group.”
“Most Americans are with me on this,” he said about stricter gun controls. “They understand duck hunters don’t need Uzis and cop-killer bullets.”
When asked to comment Thursday on the arrest of Moore’s bodyguard, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said: “Based on empirical evidence, this is the height of hypocrisy.”
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