Defying government shutdown, national park visitors play ‘catch me if you can’

Christian Science Monitor ^ | 10-8-13 | Patrick Jonsson

[RKBA Democrat]

With the US government shutdown well into its second week, growing numbers of Americans are gleefully engaging in what they call “civil disobedience” by tossing aside cones or jumping over government shutdown-inspired barricades around national monuments, malls, and park entrances.

SNIP

Yet the barricaded federal lands issue has particularly focused on whether it’s really necessary to close off public lands that aren’t regularly patrolled, that are leased to private entities, or are simply open-air monuments without pay gates. For some areas, millions of dollars in tourism revenue is at stake.

“We’ve gone from ‘this land is your land, this land is my land,’ to the government saying this land is its land,” writes University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds in an e-mail. “President Obama said that government is just a word for the things we do together. Apparently that includes kicking WWII veterans off their memorial.”

SNIP

One area where the government seems to have the clear right to put up barricades or “closed” signs is where there are pay gates to enter an area. But for parks and monuments where people can simply wander onto federal lands, blocking access touches on a “a huge [legal] gray area,” says Dale Goble, a land policy expert who specializes in the sagebrush rebellions of the West.

One issue that remains unclear is the legal foundation for those closure protocols, including what authority rangers have to either remove “trespassers” or even ticket and arrest them. If the rangers don’t have that power, then many of the barricaded areas are, by default, still open to the public.

[nomobs]

If they put this much effort at the border, especially the national parks in Arizona, we would not have had a protest at the national mall today.

[Inyo-Mono]

I was going to go Yosemite this weekend but a snowstorm just closed the east entrance road (SR 120) into the park.

[KittenClaws]

Its easy for these park rangers to “do their jobs” with a sidearm, confronting grandma and grandpa...it’s called intimidation.

Betcha they wouldn’t do that if grandma and grandpa brought an escort.

Sniveling little punks. I know for a FACT that I’d quit my job before I did what some of these rangers are doing. I know this because I have quit a job over ethics.

[KittenClaws]

I can imagine what the MSM would be saying if Bush did the same thing.

---

Although I agree, I say screw the MSM. They don’t own me, I don’t respect them or their opinion....and bozo does not own National Parks.

[Mad Dawgg]

"And that will be the shot heard around the world in the 21st century."

If that happens I foresee 1 million bikers and 1 million truckers surrounding the ass wipes who fired said shot. And they won't have enough ammo to save themselves.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Sorry to hear that. The weather at Natural Bridge is supposed to be excellent this weekend (low-45, high-75) and it is going to be peak fall colors.

We're going to leave hear at o'dark-early so we're there at sunrise. It's going to be a great day.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Gaah! Here, not hear.

Sleep, I need sleep.

[Inyo-Mono]

Hope you have a great time! The Fall colors are peaking in the High Sierra and Yosemite right now too.

[SisterK]

Hide and Go Seek in the park. We can be like kids again.

[SkyDancer]

They’d be running 24/7 screaming their heads off. Having hissy fits. I remember reading where Bush wanted to allow people to put 10% of their FICA money into stocks and the media went ballistic - I despise American media and the whack job talking heads on the alphabet news orgs.

[justa-hairyape]

The modern version of Don't Tread on Me from the article.

“Catch Us If You Can”

[Trteamer]

“Actually, we need to move into the public lands in the thousands and thousands. Too many to be fined or jailed.”

That’s going to happen this weekend in Colorado. It’s called elk season....

[pax_et_bonum]

Every single park ranger or any officer who participates should be held personally legally responsible for his or her actions with no legal recourse to a defense argument of simply following orders.

If they they really think that they’re doing the right thing, then go for it.

If they aren’t sure that they want to be held personally for, for example, forcing a busload of elderly sightseers to drive 2 1/2 hours on a bus with no restroom breaks, then they need to have the guts to say No.

These folks are showing character traits disturbingly similar to the guys who had what it took to load people onto cattle cars and to open the gas supply to group showers.

[Venturer]

You have described the Dick-tator perfectly.

[KittenClaws]

They’d be running 24/7 screaming their heads off. Having hissy fits. I remember reading where Bush wanted to allow people to put 10% of their FICA money into stocks and the media went ballistic - I despise American media and the whack job talking heads on the alphabet news orgs.

---

When I realized I despised the media, I I quit listening to them.

That's about it in a nutshell.

Those who take what the media says to heart, well, I pity them.

The media, and those who take their words as gospel, are not worth my time to worry about. They can all stew and spew all they want.

[sport]

And if you don’t think that these same park rangers would load your butt and mine into a boxcar without batting an eye, you got another think coming.

[SkyDancer]

I get my news on-line where it’s verifiable. You can check to see what’s true and what’s slanted and what stories are missing from being told.

[Charles Henrickson]

“We’ve gone from ‘this land is your land, this land is my land,’ to the government saying this land is its land,”

DUmmie FUnnies 10-07-13 ("This Land's Not Your Land": DUmmies down with Obama's park shutdown)

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

[pax_et_bonum]

And if you don’t think that these same park rangers would load your butt and mine into a boxcar without batting an eye, you got another think coming.

****

Exactly.

[livius]

I think we’re at that early point when government employees can assure themselves that they’re “just” doing such and such and so and so because they’re ordered to do so for show and it’s not going to do any permanent harm and they’ll get to keep their jobs and it will all blow over...

Would they go further? I don’t know. The Germans did, obviously. I think a lot of rangers - who really didn’t go into their jobs to be police in the first place - might slip away and not go along with the program. But probably most of the people who work for the government in any capacity will rationalize it and do exactly what most Germans did.

They learned to ignore more and more and simply focus on the mechanics of their job and never even think about what they were actually doing.

Obama’s constant references today in his faux press conference to the “Tea Party” as terrorists, revolutionaries, etc. is clearly meant to stir up hatred and fear and legitimize any future attacks on his enemies. I found it very frightening.

Worse, the “Tea Party” doesn’t actually even exist...there are some groups that share certain opinions and objectives, but there is no such thing as an organized Tea Party. So that means that anybody can be accused of being a “member,” because it’s not necessary (or even possible) to have an official membership but yet be accused of being a subversive or even a terrorist.