The story of my second arrest | You can’t have my job, but I’ll tell you a story

July 19, 1994. About 3 pm. I’m standing on a canal bank in south central Bakersfield, talking with some members of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department’s Search and Rescue team. They have been called, as have I, to this location for a report of a little boy who has disappeared in the canal’s waters. I don’t know it, but in about 10 minutes, I’m going to be arrested for the second time in my career. And that’s the nature of photojournalism, that’s how quickly a situation can turn on you. One minute you’re talking with deputies and officers you know. The next minute, one you don’t know shows up, decides you don’t belong there, and all hell breaks loose. And that’s what happened on this day.