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Abuse of power by National Park Service police

By DOUG THOMPSON

The last place you expect to run into a federal government goon squad is the Blue Ridge Parkway, the scenic highway that runs through Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

But the abuse of power spawned by the Bush administration and the rights robbing USA Patriot Act runs rampant throughout the federal bureaucracy, as I learned this week while traveling the Parkway to get to an assignment photographing a summer music festival for my newspaper.

The festival, FloydFest, draws thousands of people each July to a picturesque patch of land just off the Parkway not far from the Blue Ridge hamlet of Floyd, VA. Now in its sixth year, the festival enjoys a national reputation. It also provides an opportunity for the National Park Service police to harass patrons of the festival.

For the last two years, the Park Service has brought in its "CIT" (Criminal Interdiction Team) from Asheville, North Carolina, to police crowds that use the Parkway to reach the festival. The team, composed of swaggering young officers with little regard for due process or civil rights, is the embodiment of federal excess.

As I drove towards the site Thursday, I passed two CIT Park Police officers that had pulled cars over and were forcing the occupants to pull everything out of the car so they could search coolers, back packs, luggage, glove boxes and consoles.

I pulled off the road ahead of the second NPS patrol car, grabbed my camera and headed back to take a photo of the police action. As I approached, the Park Service officer wheeled around and pointed at me.

"Sir, if you raise that camera to take a photograph I will place you under arrest," he barked.

I identified myself as a working journalist on assignment and said I was simply covering a news event.

"Sir," he retorted, "this is U.S. government property and under the provisions of the USA Patriot Act you cannot take photographs of official government activity without authorization. Put your camera down now!"

I could not believe what I was hearing. I grew up in this part of the country and have photographed on the Blue Ridge Parkway since my days as a high school student. I asked for his badge number. He refused to reveal it.

"Sir, you have 15 seconds to leave or you are under arrest." He had his hand on his gun so I left. Media General, our newspaper's owner, has strict rules about interaction with police. At the top of the hill, I stopped and shot some photos back towards the scene.

At the festival, patrons told numerous horror stories about encounters that day with the Park Service Police. One young woman was pulled over because she had beads hanging from her rear view mirror. They detained her for more than an hour while they searched her car and found nothing. Another young man was stopped because he had a bolt missing from his license plate frame. When the cops found no drugs or alcohol, they ticketed him for "improper equipment."

On Wednesday night, the CIT team pulled over a car driven by Shannon Zeman, the sheriff of Floyd County, VA. Zeman later told a Virginia State Trooper that the parkway cops were rude and abusive, even to a fellow cop.

Calls to the Park Service police headquarters were not returned Friday. According to the National Park Service web site, park police "provides highly trained and professional police officers to prevent and detect criminal activity, conduct investigations, apprehend individuals suspected of committing offenses against Federal, State and local laws."

Nice to know the park service cops have professionals on board. Next time, let's hope they send the pros instead of the goon squad from the Criminal Interdiction Team in Asheville.

Yes. That is the sick icon. I can't even pretend to have the words to describe what I feel.

"Drop that camera or I'll shoot!" And, if he did, he'd probably be cleared of any charges. Get used to this kind of abuse because you're going to see a lot more of it. The scary thing is that most of these modern day Hitler youth storm troopers don't even know what they're doing is wrong thanks to our dumbed down public education. Why the arrogance? Unaccountability. Why the unaccountability? The enabling Patriot Act, which makes all Americans "terrorists" in the new American fascist police state.

Joe

You can read about these kinds of incidents and intellectually understand it and the danger it poses, but you have to personally experience it to truly understand it. I suspect that more and more people will either witness such incidents or have their own in the not too distant future.

Joe

It's not a failure of the education system Joe, it's a failure on the part of people, parents who fail to impart values, morals and ethics to their offspring, a training system that teaches these young LE guys that they ARE the law, and everyone needs to bow down to their commands, and these two items are only a very small part of the issue. You can then get into the personal psychology of the officers involved, and where their hardwiring may be off the blueprint of 'normal', or maybe it is just simply brainwashing at it's best.

It happened in Germany, it can happen here

Frazier, I don't think this is a 'values' issue, it's a control issue. For some reason, some people just 'get off' on controlling others and being 'the boss' or having the final word on the matter.

It's probably due to their lack of having no control over their own lives. I've seen this many, many times - especially with traffic control cops (...who really are not cops ) and so-called 'security' guards.

I cite the character of 'Cartman' on South Park. Whenever he dons his cop uniform, he demands of the people he's abusing, "Respect my authority."

These are simply todays young republicans. I'm seeing more and more of them in all walks of life. Young and swaggering, listening to Rush and Ann, influenced at an early age by the arrogant power displayed by the Bush administration and its minions. These boys like wars, love weapons, are pissed off that the weakling democrats have thwarted their victory in Iraq and believe nuclear warfare is the answer to most foreign disputes.
A failure of the parents? au contraire! The parents generally see it as a success, where do you think they first heard the prophetic words if Rush Limbaugh? Global domination must begin at home and those America Hating festival goers probably looked in need of some domination. What you witnessed was no failure at all but a brilliant success of the republican agenda.

Actually Doug, I've gone over and over your story, and these guys' refusal to be photographed and their veiled threats of violence combined with a refusal to show you any identification makes me think that they may have been part of Al Quaida cell - "probing" our "way of life" for "vulnerablilities" before they "strike us".

They're here. May Almighty George have mercy on us.

Fermi paradox,

I'd worry more about Ranger Rick pumped up on steroids and the Patriot Act probing my nether regions with a flashlight or nightstick.

Joe Keegan

Back in the early 70's I got my first taste of investigative journalism, Doug. The stories you relate sound exactly like the stories I was hearing then, coming from the Sheriff's Departments of various southern Mississippi and Louisiana counties and parishes. Back then it was long hair, killer weed and commies.

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. The more that things change, the more they stay the same.