Not doubting their story but, would it be too much for people to take pictures and post them?
This is 2013 after all.
They may not have been allowed to take pictures.
This was a busload of senior citizens on a guided tour who were confronted and hustled by armed park service rangers. They weren’t even allowed to use the bathrooms before they were forced out of the park (a 2 1/2 hour process).
I don’t know exactly what was said, but I was on a tour of China in 1983. When we boarded a plane in Beijing to fly to Xian we were told not to take pictures of the Chinese Army guards that formed a phalanx along our path to the plane and not to look them in the eye. When armed government officials tell you not to do something — you don’t do it.
We just saw a woman shot to death for not getting out of her car in DC, FGS.