It's already being called "The Biden Curtain," as new videos from Lahaina, Maui, reveal miles of black curtains erected to prevent people from seeing what's happening at the origin site of this month's catastrophic wildfires in Hawaii.
Geoff Cygnus, a citizen journalist on TikTok, posted the video, with a caption reading: "Miles and miles of black fencing being put up in Lahaina. Ground Zero is now behind the Biden curtain."
"There seems to be a huge emphasis on ensuring that the media and anyone else can't see what's going on," Cygnus reported.
"There are miles and miles of this black fence going up that was not here before that is obscuring ground zero and making sure no one can see what's going on inside of there from the road, no one can get in there, no one can take any pictures."
"I was almost immediately, after these 20 seconds, National Guard came and chased me off, yelled at me, told me to get back in my car and keep moving. So you cannot pull over. You can't even stop you car anywhere near any of this anymore."
In addition to the National Guard, Cygnus says there are "regular police, and what I have dubbed 'special police,' which are these police cars that are foreign made. The people that are driving them are not – they don't look like any police I've ever seen in the United States. So kind of a bizarre situation, but they have a huge presence standing guard ensuring that nothing can be documented."
The journalist voiced a palpable fear for his personal well-being just by documenting what's happening in the aftermath of the blaze.
"The footage that I have has been uploaded to the mainland to multiple people that have the credentials to my social media," he explains, "so if anything does happen to me, it's not going to prevent the story getting out."
Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, reportedly says it was asked by Maui officials to stop posting "new imagery of damage/disaster/debris starting now."
A letter posted on X by Anthony Cabassa shows an Aug. 19 correspondence from FEMA Office of External Affairs Director Justin Angel Knighten, who states:
"They are asking for a full stop in disaster imagery going forward. At this time, we have not been asked to take any photos or videos down. Our team on the ground is coordinating with the County for further guidance to ensure we remain fully aligned. Cultural sensitivity is of the utmost importance in all our response and recovery activities to this disaster."
https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1693763982912614591
"Why are Maui officials so desperate for a media blackout?" notes a commentary on Women System.
"Is 'cultural sensitivity' their main concern, or is something more dubious driving their desperation to stop the world from seeing what is really happening there?"
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