Posted on 10/15/2013 3:44:35 PM PDT by llevrok
PORT ANGELES, WASH. — People who pulled into a ranger station at Olympic National Park over the weekend were given $125 tickets for "violation of closure" — entering the park during the government shutdown.
Three of the cars were a group of international students from Peninsula College led by host Kelly Sanders, a teacher from Port Angeles, the Peninsula Daily News reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1bU12WZ ).
They pulled off Highway 101 at Lake Crescent, got out and posed for a picture behind the Storm King Ranger Station when Ranger Jennifer Jackson pulled up and wrote all three drivers tickets. Each carries the $125 fine.
The students from Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and China were puzzled, Sanders said.
"I didn't know how to explain it to them because I can't really understand why all this happened myself," Sanders said Monday.
"I know they were surprised that we would get a ticket for trying to go for a hike."
The driveway into the Storm King lot was partially blocked by orange road cones and a sandwich board with a sign stuck to it with duct tape reading, "Because of the federal government shutdown, this National Park Service facility is closed," Sanders said.
"It was a really wide opening —wide enough I could get my car through easily," said Leanne Potts of Sequim, who also received a $125 citation from Jackson.
Potts set out that morning for a hike up the Mount Storm King Trail with her friend, Laura Clemons.
"If I knew I was going to get a ticket, I probably wouldn't have gone in there," she said.
Both Potts and Sanders were confused by the wording on the sign.
"When I think of facilities, I think of buildings or bathrooms or features or something," Potts said.
"I just assumed that it meant the bathrooms were closed, not that I would be breaking the law," Sanders said.
Ranger Jackson was sympathetic and said she wasn't being paid during the shutdown.
"She said she was just doing her job," Sanders said of Jackson. "I understand that she thought that was her job. It just seemed a little excessive."
"She did say, 'Feel free to complain. We welcome your complaints,'" Potts said.
So were the Nazis and Chekists in their day.
WA state ping
Its apparent which side the Park Rangers are on...
Bttt. Adding this story to my long list of Nat’l Park Service tactics.
welcome to Amerika, exchange students. Now, your papers bitte !!! Mach Schnell!!
So who is paying these people to write tickets if the govt is shut down?
THIS LAND’S NOT YOUR LAND
Tune: “This Land Is Your Land”
As sung by King Obama
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
If you go driving an interstate highway
And see an orange cone, you’ll do it my way
You will obey me and not go forward
This land’s not made for you to see
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
You’ll want to travel and go to Mount Rushmore
But at Rapid City, you won’t go much more
Guards will surround you, their voices sounding:
This land’s not made for you to see
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
If you oppose me, I’ll make you suffer
Come near memorials, I’ll put up a buffer
I am Obama, I am your land lord
This land’s not made for you to see
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
If you go looking, you’ll see a sign there
And on the sign it says: “There’s No Trespassing”
And on the other side: “No Looking or Nothing!”
Both sides were made for you to see
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
At the Redwood Forest, in the land of the Canyons
By the Gulfstream Waters, you’ll see my minions
As they stand there guarding, you’ll stand there wond’ring:
Is this land safe for me to see?
This land’s not your land, this land is my land
Shut down or open, it comes from my hand
From Barack Obama to the bitter clingers:
This land’s not made for you to see
No one can stop me, my mind is made up
As I go putting my Barrycades up
Nobody living can make me give your land back
This land’s not made for you to see
New voices:
But King Obama, this land is our land
So shut your piehole, you can go pound sand
From the bitter clingers to Barack Obama:
This land was founded to be free
This land ain’t your land, this land is our land
So shut your piehole, you can go pound sand
From the bitter clingers to Barack Obama:
This land was founded to be free
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3076078/posts
Rip it up and throw it in their faces.
Then get ready for the arrest.
F ‘em.
What no sign warning the drivers that you should turn around or the little bitch at the ranger station will give you a 125 dollar ticket? Outrageous...
Now THAT is CLEVER! :)
Alas, THAT is actually a crime, whereas it is highly debatable if the national parks can actually close without violating federal law, or if national parks officials (or rangers) have the legal ability to deem you trespassing on public land for anything other than an actual emergency (forest fire, mudslide, active police investigation or public health hazard.)
So feel free to engage in debate, but don't litter.
Access is cut off but the NPS has got its personnel geared up for shakedown patrols.
Sounds like Obamacare.
Take away park rangers guns and I don’t think they’d have the guts.
An armed society is a polite society unless it’s the government that has the guns.
It’s too bad one of the drivers didn’t beat the crap out of the Nazi rangerette.
Screw the National Park “Service.”
I only have two words for these tree cops and I won’t repeat them here.
This administration decides which laws to enforce.
They have to work without pay but can probably get unemployment compensation in the mean time, and then collect back pay later.
whoopie!
Rut-ro!..... that is in my neighborhood.
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