On and on and on it goes. Living in a state of fear.

[easymoney]

Report: Armed rangers forced senior-citizen tourists to stay inside their hotel during Yellowstone visit because of shutdown

posted at 2:41 pm on October 8, 2013 by Allahpundit

Via Breitbart and Ace, who’s demanding that the National Park Service pay some sort of price for serving as “the shock troops of the punitive bureaucracy” through all of this. I’ve written similar things over the past week, and right now I can’t understand why either of us would bother. They’re not going to pay any price. We all know it. Issa will haul the director and his deputies before the Oversight Committee and they’ll mouth the requisite perfunctory regret and warnings not to judge the whole department by the behavior of a few “overzealous” rangers. Maybe someone will receive a few weeks or months of “administrative leave,” i.e. paid vacation, a la Lois Lerner, but then he’ll be quietly reinstated when no one’s paying attention anymore. News outlets and bloggers will get a few days of content out of it when the hearings are being held and then that’ll be that. Nothing will change. No lessons will be learned. No scalps will be taken. That’s how it goes now. If anything, the White House will be more reluctant to fire someone over this than they were over the IRS scandal because ranger-enforced shutdown theater helps them spread the liberal message that closing the government is an unconscionable hardship.

No one’s going to pay for this. Even if it involves a ranger with a gun warning your grandma to get back in her hotel and away from the scenery.

The bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos.

“She responded and said, ‘Sir, you are recreating,’ and her tone became very aggressive,” Vaillancourt said.

The seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door.

“They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside,” she said. “Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals.”

Supposedly, on their way out of the park, the tour guide wanted to pull over at a dude ranch inside the perimeter so that the seniors onboard could use the restrooms there — but couldn’t, because the park rangers told the dude ranch that its license would be revoked if they permitted it. So unbelievable is all this, even by the standards of NPS behavior over the past week, that I doubted whether it was true. But there’s corroborating evidence for at least some of it: The tour guide was interviewed by a different newspaper a few days ago and accused the Park Service of — wait for it — “Gestapo tactics.”

Hodgson said in a phone interview Monday that a ranger pulled up behind the bus and told him he would have to get everyone back on the bus — recreation in Yellowstone was not allowed.

“She told me you need to return to your hotel and stay there,” Hodgson said. “This is just Gestapo tactics. We paid a lot to get in. All these people wanted to do was take some pictures.”

Hodgson said the ranger told him he could be convicted of trespassing if he disobeyed.

“The national parks belong to the people,” he said. “This isn’t right.”

He didn’t mention armed rangers outside the hotel, but he was told that “his group would not be allowed to walk on any of the boardwalks located just outside their hotel, or visit any other geyser basins in the area.” All they could do, per Hodgson, was eat dinner in the dining room, which squares with the claim that rangers wouldn’t let guests inside leave until they were ready to leave the park altogether. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” said an anonymous ranger to Wesley Pruden last week. Mission accomplished.

The only redress here, I think, is for tourists to sue. They’d probably lose, but it’ll be useful to know as a matter of law that national parks belong to the National Park Service and not to the public. I’m curious as can be to see a judge explain how trespassing laws don’t apply to park visitors who are engaged in “First Amendment activities” but do apply to tourist photography, which, as a somewhat artistic endeavor, would seem to fall pretty squarely within the First Amendment. At the very least, the bad press from the suit would do some much-deserved damage to the agency’s reputation. Which, it seems, they’re increasingly worried about:

[AQUAMAN]

I wonder if these are the regular Park Rangers hired here, or a new recent replacement group that takes this way too seriously? Certainly, this is not in their normal scope of duties. Gestapo tactics fits this scenario perfectly.

[XLFD]

Nowadays, just about every federal government entity has their group of SWAT-trained thugs who have left the old-fashioned idea of public service behind them.  Park Rangers have become the latest storm trooper outfit, courtesy of our executive's directives, and stressed further in my latest thread Valley Forge Besieged by the Empire.

[AQUAMAN]

People, stupid and otherwise, come to Parks like this to enjoy free time with nature, fresh air, wildlife, and not be molested and maligned with dirty politics. These particular Rangers are illustrating that quite plainly. Your old worn out soapbox is moot in realities Streeter.

[XLFD]

Most parks aren't in their busy part of the year, but many states are trying to run some Federal parks during the times they're being shut down by our Feds.  Obama is even relenting a little, particularly since he's extorting money from the States to do so:  http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&i...

This kind of makes a strong argument against unilateral control of these resources by the Federal Government.  Perhaps it would be a smart idea to have cooperative agreements go into effect when situations like this happen.

[XLFD]

Tea Party members are about the farthest thing away from needing to be babysat, they pride themselves on self-sufficiency, self-rule, and all those other hyphenated self words. 

The ones needing to be babysat are the sheeple, what Romney would call the 47 percenters, all those looking for what the government can do for them-- not for what they can do for their country.  These are the people that are constantly getting teabagged by the government they promote, and like it.

[Dave]

I'd might agree with you if we were talking about people out romping all around the park.

Instead we are talking about senior citizens taking pictures and going to the bathroom... or at least attempting to do so anyway.

I'll concede that there is probably more to the story... for instance, if the park was closed, how did the bus get in? Most the pictures I've seen of entry way into national parks have shown those entry ways blocked.

Also, there is a lot more respectable way of handling things then how it appears the park rangers handled things. They were pretty rude and abrasive, you want your rangers to be congenial and friendly so that visitors will want to come back.

[Jane]

streeter your a dimwit. That parkland is OUR property, if we want to go fall over a waterfall who the hell are you or a park ranger to tell us no.

We need our own armed SWAT groups to take out the gestapo american government .

[Willy]

I disagree with you john. Public lands belong to the "people" and are managed by the "peoples" employees, the Park Service. The Government does not own land.

[AQUAMAN]

It's NOT the Park Rangers in general that are at fault, or at suspicion at all! It's these particular Gestapo-type Rangers in this particular incident being questioned, and observed, for all their actions/in-actions!  And quite contrary to ordinary regular/legal Ranger actions/responsibilities that are ordinary, responsible/ legal that I question! Trying to convolute this situation into something in reverse, is totally objectionable imho. Babysitting is in the eye of the liberal beholder, not the realist! But, do continue into more soapbox theries/lies, because they do intrigue the masses, esp. the real "stupid ones" as you also say Streeter.

[easymoney]

John, why is it I get the distinct impression that you are a die hard liberal Dem.

Who worships the throne of O'bama and his court jestors? ( Reed Schumer Pelosi and the like?) I guess you believe the gov. is here to babysit everyone?

Good lord, Carter looked good compared to this guy.

[AQUAMAN]

Since it's Sunday, it's only proper to refer to the "good book" and say, thou shall not worship false prophets, which is exactly what Obama appears to be for anyone with a thought process over their shoulders. That boat to Communist China still has some seats left too.

[AQUAMAN]

Did you get that notice Streeter, the ship to Communist China is still open for ya! And for Murph or anyone else that likes that kind of gov't.! Last Call, get ABOARD!