While drug-related asset forfeitures have expanded police budgets, critics say the flow of money distorts law enforcement - that some cops have become more interested in seizing money than drugs, more interested in working southbound than northbound lanes. In Texas, with its smuggling corridors to Mexico, public safety agencies seized more than $125 million last year.
And that doesn't include tens of millions more the agencies got from state asset forfeiture programs. Justice Department figures show that in the past four years alone, the amount of assets seized by local law enforcement agencies across the nation enrolled in the federal program-the vast majority of it cash-has tripled, from $567 million to $1.6 billion. As a tactic in the war on drugs, law enforcement pursues that drug money and is then allowed to keep a portion as an incentive to fight crime.Īs a result, the amount of drug dollars flowing into local police budgets is staggering. His latest work is entitled TRANSFORMATION: Water as Art.John Burnett/NPR / Tamez searches an engine compartment for hidden drug money.Įvery year, about $12 billion in drug profits returns to Mexico from the world's largest narcotics market - the United States. Roger now likes to hang out of a helicopter to do aerial photography in Greenland and Iceland. He has also walked up a river chest-deep in water, to be just feet away from hungry grizzly bears. It also involved crawling on his hands and knees towards cheetahs in Africa, so he could get an eye to eye connection to their spirit. His original creative focus was on wildlife, and had him doing things such as camping in the blizzards of Antarctica, in order to photograph and film emperor penguins in their natural habitat. Roger now creates his own art projects with which he seeks to engage, challenge, and inspire others to live their lives in a more full, present, and purposeful way. To live his own childhood dreams of art and adventure…Īnd to make a difference in the lives of others, and in our planet. To spend quality and quantity time with his wife and son… However, when his son was born, his life was changed…and he changed his life… He had a successful career in corporate America, and eventually created his own successful business. So, he worked seven days a week and 80-100 hour work weeks. He was driven to be financially successful in life, and to never be poor again. While his family did not have the resources to travel, Roger dreamt of exploring the world by reading National Geographic, watching Jacques Cousteau, and studying wildlife and different cultures from around the world. Although his family was financially poor, Roger was well-loved. Roger grew up in Orange, Connecticut, a small town of 16,000. So allow yourself to be transported to-and perhaps transformed-by the world of water in all of its extraordinary glory and power. This extraordinary perspective of looking straight down onto planet Earth eliminates any familiar visual context, thus requiring you to fully engage your imagination. These photographs were shot in Greenland and Iceland, while hanging out of the open door of a helicopter. In this series, you will experience architectural icebergs, abstract water and melting ice sheet compositions, and calligraphic glaciers.Īll of these images are created to be emotionally evocative in order to generate intrigue and engagement with the subject matter. This collection defines and explores a fourth state: Water as Art. Water itself can transform between three different states: liquid, vapor, and solid. It creates and sculpts life, societies, and our planet.
Three atoms, two hydrogen and one oxygen, combine to transform into water.
This four-part collection explores water as a symbol for our innate ability to transform our lives-and the world we live in-for the better.
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