http://tinyurl.com/2lybv4I suspect the fan will be hit soon.
American gestapo
July 28, 2007 - 4:02am.
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.
