Storm Chaser Arrested For Simply Doing His Job?

I received this from an E-Mail group I'm a part of which can be found at

http://groups.google.com/group/mid-west-weather-?hl=enn. This has got to be
the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of in my life! Arrested for doing
something good for the community? What gives!

by Victor Lopez
NewsWest 9
CRANE COUNTY--Chasing storms is what Brian Barnes does for a living. And it
was while he was doing just that, that he says he found himself in a
difficult and strange situation involving a Crane County Sheriff's Deputy.
Barnes was out on Tuesday in Crane County as severe weather moved across the
region. Crane County was under a tornado warning for about an hour Tuesday
night.
"I told him that I was helping out the National Weather Service in San
Angelo, and they were relaying my reports to Midland. He told me he didn't
care, and that I needed to go."
Barnes thought it was his obligation to stay put and follow the storms, a
decision that landed him in jail.
"He jumped out and put me in handcuffs. I turned around and I remember him
slamming me up against his vehicle, and then it all got kind of scary."
Among the witnesses was Dennis Greer, who had a similar run-in, with the
same deputy, just minutes earlier while he was shooting picutures of the
same storm for the local newspaper.
"His first words to me were, 'are you a blankety-blank idiot?' He told me
if I didn't leave, I was going to jail, flat out," Greer said.
Barnes was arrested at a road side park on Highway 385 and charged with
obstruction of a highway or other passage way.
According to witnesses, there is plenty of room on on the road in front of
the park for a vehicle to get by. That's why they are questioning the
validity of the charge.
Dennis Greer says, "The guy wasn't blocking anything. He was able to drive
a full size truck by with no problem."
In addition to the charges, people were taken aback by the deputy's
attitude.
"He came down there, and was just very abusive in his language. Never once
did he state to me why he would arrest me, or why he was doing anything",
Greer says.
Barnes adds, "He continued to say that I was the example why people were
stopping and that I was putting those other people at risk, because they
were stopping behind me."
Barnes says that during his years of storm chasing, this is the first time
anything like this has ever happened to him. And despite this one incident,
he has good things to say, about West Texas.
"I have to say that every time I come to West Texas, the people here are
outstanding. They are the most friendly people I've ever met," he said.
Barnes was released on a $2,000 bond. He plans to hire a Dallas attorney to
handle his case.
Calls to the Crane County Sheriff's Office for comment were not returned.