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Ranger Smith Is A Thug
The National Park Service was established in 1916 with a bill that mandated the agency “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” The Roosevelt Arch at the northern entrance to Yellowstone Park is inscribed as follows: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.”
No one at that time could imagine a scenario in the future where employees of that agency — on behalf of the federal government — would be engaged in acts of strong-armed intimidation of innocent visitors enjoying parks and monuments the public owns and pays for.
If you’ve been following the news since the faux government shutdown, you’ll know I’m not exaggerating. In addition to locking up open-air monuments like the World War II Memorial and threatening to arrest 80-year-old veterans, the NPS has spent extra staff time and money (during the aforementioned “shutdown”) putting up fences and barricades on public roadways in attempts to deny Americans the pleasure of even viewing national treasures like Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Tetons, and the Grand Canyon — from the road.
One of the worst example of NPS thuggishness occurred in my neck of the woods, Yellowstone Park, where rangers ordered seniors and foreign visitors back on their tour bus and accused them of “recreating.” Not only that, the busload of guests were ordered to not venture outside of the Old Faithful Inn, lest they see the famous geyser erupt. Armed NPS rangers stood outside the doors to make sure it couldn’t happen. Some of the foreign guests thought they were under arrest, and some seniors said they’d witnessed “Gestapo tactics.”
There’s long been a sickness in the National Park Service. I once heard a ranger explain to a fellow bureaucrat in Yellowstone that the NPS could really run the place well “if there weren’t all these damned people in it.” Another time, while interviewing park law enforcement for research for a novel, I was told by the highest-ranking park cop that he thought of his rangers as a “small army” that “could hold their own.” This, while showing off his massive armory of automatic weapons, combat shotguns, and tactical SWAT gear.
How did the NPS go from an agency charged with managing our national parks “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People” — to a para-military force that would do this?
Is every NPS employee a thug? Of course not. But when the faux-shutdown ends I don’t think Americans will think of the NPS as benevolent Ranger Smiths of Jellystone Park ever again.
Image courtesy of Hanna-Barbera Productions
Published in General
Agreed. ·25 minutes ago
C’mon guys! This is real likely. We can’t get heads to roll over F&F or Benghazi – ?what chance is there for doing anything with the NPS. ·5 minutes ago
You’re right. We should simply roll over and look the other way. That’s the ticket.
Agreed. ·25 minutes ago
C’mon guys! This is real likely. We can’t get heads to roll over F&F or Benghazi – ?what chance is there for doing anything with the NPS. ·2 minutes ago
Please, no investigations – the Democrats will call us mean names, which we will deserve. Just ask some of Ricochet’s pragmatic members.
Alternatively, people don’t understand the IRS, don’t live in Benghazi, and don’t care about Mexico. Maybe they will finally pay attention about national parks.
Think hard. ·3 hours ago
No need to search for government maps–just look at your cell phone provider’s USA coverage area. It is the exact negative of federally managed lands. I remember being annoyed with my lousy phone service when traveling in the west a few years ago. I now realize my provider had nothing to do with it. We are affected by immense government power in ways we never consider.
We are driving from Western WA to Vegas in about a week and a half. We’ll keep you up-to-date about what we see all along the way. Tabula, we will be in SLC on Wednesday the 23rd on our way.
Think hard. ·3 hours ago
No need to search for government maps–just look at your cell phone provider’s USA coverage area. It is the exact negative of federally managed lands. I remember being annoyed with my lousy phone service when traveling in the west a few years ago. I now realize my provider had nothing to do with it. We are affected by immense government power in ways we never consider. ·0 minutes ago
As one hails from the age of Stone Knives and Bearskins. Only purchase a disposable cell phone while travelling in the States for emergencies. As to your point, Americans have become a soft and pitifull breed sold and addicted to ease under the governments influence. You bought it, You own it. When enough dissagree, there may come change. Until then buy a map !
You missed my point entirely with the map of the State of Washington.
If Federal lands were shuttered in these áreas the state would come to an economic standstill.
Perhaps that may be why the Administration is selective in park closures. Nasty biz that.
Doc, you are bad.
Kervinlee, I’m realistic. There are some people who just refuse to be pushed around and are armed. I happen to be one of those but my sanity meter lies quite a bit closer to normal than Mr Dallas. Guns make people polite and if the Yellowstone rangers were dealing with fifty armed ranchers I bet they’d ask nice and respectful and trust those boys to move on without hassling them. Thugs with badges cut no ice with me.
Seems to me this should be an easy win for the House Republicans. Draft an appropriations bill ordering the various non military and law enforcement branches to lay off their swat teams and turn over the excessive arsenals for sale to allied foreign military or something. Create a few more SWAT jobs at the FBI, and then direct all the other agencies to call the FBI for assistance when needed.
All the possible arguments the Dems could use to stop it are essentially pro 2nd amendment arguments twisted in a way that shows they think their government departments are more important than the lives of regular voters.
It’s only a matter of time Kervinlee.
So when this crap is happening am I supposed to believe that most people’s reaction is “Those damn republicans!”?
Then, of course, there’s things like this. http://www.infowars.com/tsa-loudspeakers-threaten-travelers-with-arrest-for-joking-about-security/ Sorry – iPad won’t allow me to link.)
CJ – as lonfg as government remains “civil” and no one is at real risk of either jail or worse, we may as well roll over, as all the complaints we generate go nowhere. So unfortunately, nasty as it would become, I am with DocJay.
Look at his reference – Dallas. Dallas was about to be arrested for “poaching” when in fact all he was doing was existing. But the government ALREADYT tells us when and where we can hunt, how, etc.
The TSA already tramples our 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, & 10th amendment rights. And that says nothing about the Patriot Act or the NSA.
?When – and more particularly HOW – is it going to stop.
I side with DocJay. With great sadness and a real wish for it to be otherwise, guys like Brent 67 and Cruz, Lee, & Rand to the contrary, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that only with guns will it be settled – one way or another. I REALLY wish it weren’t so.
Devereaux, I hope to hell that you are wrong. It would be a bloody mess, make no mistake.
I believe the scenic overlooks along the GW Parkway here in Virginia were closed during the 1995-6 shutdowns. In any event, it seems to me that, if the Park Service was intent on causing maximum disruption and inconvenience, it would have closed entire parkways – not just the scenic overlooks that open off of them. For those interested, a discussion of the history and legal background of government shutdowns can be found here.
Congress told the Park Service to spend money only on “essential” services during a lapse of appropriations. Because some of the parkways with overlooks and turnouts were also deemed “essential” for folks to get from point A to point B but nonessential for “recreational” purposes such as sightseeing, the parkways were left open but their overlooks and turnouts were closed. Crazy, I know, but that’s the government. ·
I think the critical phrase here is “spend money on.” If you have a wide place in the road from which one can see a view, ie a scenic overlook, it costs more money to send people out to barricade it than it does to leave it alone, doesn’t it? What about sending armed agents out to keep the Pisgah Inn closed, thus potentially decreasing government revenue by endangering a business that pays rent to the government? I don’t really think you can blame this on cost cutting or on Congress.
I think the critical phrase here is “spend money on.” If you have a wide place in the road from which one can see a view, ie a scenic overlook, it costs more money to send people out to barricade it than it does to leave it alone, doesn’t it? What about sending armed agents out to keep the Pisgah Inn closed, thus potentially decreasing government revenue by endangering a business that pays rent to the government? I don’t really think you can blame this on cost cutting or on Congress. ·30 minutes ago
Lucy, it has nothing to do with cost cutting or saving money. It has to do with respecting Congressional prerogatives. If you spend money on nonessential functions before Congress has appropriated it, you are in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act and are subject to criminal penalties for doing so. Thus, in the Alice-In-Wonderland world of the federal bureaucracy, it makes sense to avoid spending money to keep overlooks open, patrolled and maintained by closing them down, even if it costs more money to close them than would have been spent (illegally) keeping them open.
I imagine it depends on what kinds of scenic overlook you are talking about. Many really require no patrolling or money to keep open as they are, truly, just wide bits of shoulder, which cannot be closed without creating barriers that did not previously exist. It should be noted that we have had many other government shutdowns, but this is the first time any of these have been closed. I really think it requires a fairly creative reading of the law to get to your interpretation.
Precisely, Lucy! But deemocrats have been nothing if not creative when it comes to the law. Look how much of the constitution they have bypassed with such “creative reasoning”.
I believe the scenic overlooks along the GW Parkway here in Virginia were closed during the 1995-6 shutdowns. In any event, it seems to me that, if the Park Service was intent on causing maximum disruption and inconvenience, it would have closed entire parkways – not just the scenic overlooks that open off of them. For those interested, a discussion of the history and legal background of government shutdowns can be found here. ·5 hours ago
I can’t find any documentation of scenic overlooks having previously been shut down. I can find lots of documentation that privately run businesses on park land have never before been shut down. There is also the fact that the Washington Times found a NPS employee who admitted that “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.” I think you are giving these people far too much benefit of the doubt.
Agreed. ·October 12, 2013 at 8:21am
When the shutdown is over, there definitely needs to be a reckoning with the NPS.
We’ll see what the Republican party is made of whether congressional GOP stirs itself to act or not (well, yeah, the answer is self-evident, but worthwhile to ask the question anyway).
I can’t find any documentation of scenic overlooks having previously been shut down. I can find lots of documentation that privately run businesses on park land have never before been shut down. There is also the fact that the Washington Times found a NPS employee who admitted that “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can.” I think you are giving these people far too much benefit of the doubt. ·1 hour ago
Nor can I find documentation that they were left open. I did find two articles, one about the status of businesses on Park Service Land the other about the status of the parks themselves. My bottom line? I’m just happier that we’re arguing about whether the Obama Administration is enforcing the Antideficiency Act too zealously and not about whether the Act is just another example of a law that can be ignored at the Administration’s whim.
Did you know many great American sites are accessible from the North — and they’re still “open” from this side?
No arguent from me, Doc; I completely agree. The Claude Dallas reference was just a too delicious thumb in the eye of our fascist overseers not to note. I’d like to see some muscular resistance to this latest oppression, myself.
Does 54 years in the area qualify me as a long-term resident? It seems to me that one intrepid reporter could answer many questions by cranking up his (or, of course, her) subscription to LexisNexis, pulling up the Interior and/or Park Service shutdown plans for 1996 and 2013 and comparing them as to what is to be closed or left open. I’m also still confused about why political appointees bent on maximizing inconvenience and disruption didn’t simply close the GW and other local parkways under their jurisdiction. But I don’t want to give anybody ideas.
My take on today’s NPS
Having recently enjoyed a car ride with a furloughed NPS manager, I know this has less to do with any native NPS predilection for jackbooted thuggery and everything to do with hyperactive political appointees with authority in and over the agency exerting extreme pressure to assure this result. The manager felt that the Administration was really shooting itself in the foot with its heavy handed shenanigans, but lamented that our corrupt press would present a warped and partisan view of events, if any at all.
In the case of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s privately held and exhibited home, NPS tried to Barrycade the parking areas related to the Mansion. It turns out the NPS contributes maintenance to the parking areas (which are adjacent to the NPS maintained George Washington Parkway), but they are wholly owned by the private foundation that operates the site. When the facts were established, with some Congressional emphasis, a red-faced NPS came and collected their Barrycades.
The civil servants with jurisdiction know better, the Obama operatives are showing themselves to be the same incompetent clowns close observers have seen all along.
Basil, no previous administration barricaded the pull offs for shut downs according to long time residents. The picnic areas with gated parking lots, yes, but not the pull offs. “Civil disobedience” has been taken up largely by the joggers and the cyclists and pet walkers, most picnickers seem disinclined to risk police dogs and mace to exercise their prerogatives in these public spaces.
Tragically, the posted announcements of the facilities’ closing have suffered horribly in the harsh weather of the shutdown. Many can be found crumpled by the elements, littering the park grounds.
You may have missed it in the “mainstream” media, but a recent Rasmussen poll shows a slim majority of Americans cheering the shutdown and the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, another Northern Virginia landmark, closed for the first time in 40 years. The staff was run off by NPS because it operates on NPS park land, despite operating entirely on private funds.
Does 54 years in the area qualify me as a long-term resident? It seems to me that one intrepid reporter could answer many questions by cranking up his (or, of course, her) subscription to LexisNexis, pulling up the Interior and/or Park Service shutdown plans for 1996 and 2013 and comparing them as to what is to be closed or left open. I’m also still confused about why political appointees bent on maximizing inconvenience and disruption didn’t simply close the GW and other local parkways under their jurisdiction. But I don’t want to give anybody ideas.
Yes, but I live off the Parkway, and have for over a decade as have the neighbors I polled. Closing down federal highways is a whole different order of disruption, and falls under the umbrella of national security issues. I have no reason to think the bumbling one didn’t try to make that happen. Lexis Nexis for 1996 would depend on full and accurate reporting from mainstream media.