Are we feeling oppressed yet?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local01_20000903.html
http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local01_20000903.html
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Executive Orders enforced by SWAT?
- Thread starter madison46
- Start date
I think it's time to donate several copies of Unintended Consequences to the local Orick Library. Maybe send a few complimentary copies to the NPS office there also.
My first thoughts when reading this article were "someone needs to organize a group of armed men to interdict this SWAT team with vastly superior force, and the element of surprise."
I hope they can work it out in the courts . . . .
------------------
"Anyone feel like saluting the flag which the strutting ATF and FBI gleefully raised over the smoldering crematorium of Waco, back in April of ‘93?" -Vin Suprynowicz
My first thoughts when reading this article were "someone needs to organize a group of armed men to interdict this SWAT team with vastly superior force, and the element of surprise."
I hope they can work it out in the courts . . . .
------------------
"Anyone feel like saluting the flag which the strutting ATF and FBI gleefully raised over the smoldering crematorium of Waco, back in April of ‘93?" -Vin Suprynowicz
Here's the article:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Battle of the beach: Rangers' restrictions rile coastal town
By Sam Stanton
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Sept. 3, 2000)
ORICK, Humboldt County -- Postmaster Steve Hall was taking his normal route to work along the coast when he saw the five-man SWAT team lining up along a beach.
"It was like in the movies," Hall said of the sight that greeted him near this spectacular seaside tourist spot a few weeks ago. "I couldn't believe it.
"I turned around and went back by, and they really gave me the evil eye. It scared the hell out of me. They were just asking for trouble."
Sporting body armor and carrying weapons, the team stood out to many in this community, where the biggest trouble usually revolves around poaching or minor crimes.
Most people in Orick knew immediately why the team was there: The feds had called in backup.
After several years of planning and discussions over how to restrict public access to the community's main beach, anger toward the National Park Service has become so entrenched that officials felt the need to bring in extra security.
In recent years, seven pipe bombs have been found in or near national park grounds or offices, park rangers have been threatened, one arson fire has been set and a general sense of hostility toward parks personnel has enveloped the area.
Local residents say they are under siege by federal officials bent on slowly choking the life out of their hamlet.
"They are systematically trying to destroy the town," said Ed Salsedo, an Orick tavern owner who was arrested in mid-July after blocking rangers' access to the beach.
The dispute stems from plans by the Park Service to phase out overnight camping along a beach that is part of Redwood National Park and to curb access to fishing and driftwood collection from the beaches.
To federal officials, the matter is simply one of bringing the park, which is about 325 miles north of San Francisco, into compliance with the same rules followed elsewhere nationally.
Although travelers have enjoyed free camping along Orick Beach for 50 years, the Park Service is now phasing out the ability to camp there at all, saying that the campers detract from the natural beauty of the area, which offers sweeping views to motorists heading north on Highway 101.
"You come down off the hill and have this magnificent ocean vista," Redwood National Park superintendent Andrew Ringgold said. "And if you're here in the summertime, it's lined wall-to-wall with RVs. You basically have an aluminum wall that obstructs the view of the ocean for many."
But that wall of aluminum is a prime source of revenue for this area, which has about 600 residents. The loss of overnight campers, who buy groceries, gasoline and other items, could be crippling to the community, which already has been hard-hit by cutbacks in the timber and fishing industries.
"Pretty soon they're going to squeeze us off our beach out there," said James Simmons, a 32-year-old Orick native who has worked in timber and fishing and now toils in his father's redwood burl-carving shop. "Little by little, they're taking nips out of us."
The first nip came over the summer, when the Park Service began the move to phase out camping at the beach over the next two years.
Currently, anyone traveling through the area can pull into a mile-long parking area along Orick Beach and Freshwater Spit and set up camp for free, either in a vehicle or in tents on the dunes. It is a favorite spot for many Sacramento area residents seeking refuge from the summer heat.
All that will end in October, when the Park Service will begin charging a fee -- the amount has yet to be announced -- as part of a plan to eventually convert the beach to daytime use only.
"It just gets worse," said Linda Williams, who along with her husband, Bill, moved here on Labor Day weekend 20 years ago to run the Orick Market. "It just gets harder to survive."
The Williamses once had eight full-time employees working at the grocery. Now, they are down to two and say they depend on overnight campers for about 30 percent of their business.
Like many others in the area, the Williamses see the National Park Service quietly pursuing a plan to restrict access to many portions of the Redwood National Park.
"You would think they bought and paid for this land themselves," Linda Williams said.
Already, the Park Service has banned the collection of driftwood from the beach, something local burl shops have relied upon for much of the wood used in carving trinkets, birdhouses and other unusual items popular with tourists.
Area youngsters who once collected the wood to earn money from the burl shops are now out of luck, with wood collection prohibited unless it is for campfires on the beach.
A more serious restriction to many is the new requirement that fishermen using the beach must purchase $75 annual permits to continue to have access to areas they have fished for decades.
About 55 people purchased the permits, and no new ones will be issued. Fishermen who allow their permits to lapse from year to year will not be allowed to renew them.
The permits come with keys to open the three new gates that have been installed to keep unauthorized vehicles off the beach. Fishermen are allowed to take vehicles onto the beach to load their catch -- which they collect with hand-held nets while standing in the surf.
Locals who have traditionally driven their vehicles along the beach to follow schools of perch and smelt believe the permits are simply a precursor to banning fishing altogether.
"It's a great job, and now the Park Service is screwing it up," said Gene Logan, a second-generation fisherman who had hoped to teach his young sons the family business. "They're trying to weed us out. I know my time's coming, so we're going to fight them."
Some would say the fight already has begun.
The Park Service notes that since it began trying to restrict access to the beaches its employees have been threatened and a series of mysterious pipe bomb incidents have occurred.
"At times, we've experienced incidents that give rise to concerns for the safety of our employees and for the safety of the public," said Ringgold, the park superintendent. "I don't mean to imply there's a siege mentality here at all, or that the agency here is at odds with the local community."
The Park Service has said there is no direct link between the incidents and activists in Orick, but there clearly is unrest.
In 1996, an unexploded pipe bomb was found in a park restroom and another was found on a tree stump, officials say. Two years later, a student was detained after shooting paint balls at a Park Service building housing 20 people and was found to be carrying two pipe bombs, the Park Service said.
Two pipe bombs were found in separate incidents later in 1998 at a nearby state park restroom, and another pipe bomb exploded last November in a bear-proof trash can. That explosion came the same night that the California State Parks Commission, which shares the Redwood Park operation with the federal government, approved the new restrictions.
Orick residents say there is no link between the pipe bomb incidents and their concerns. Some say they believe the bombs are the work of one or two individuals.
Residents have formed a Save Orick Committee to consider suing to overturn the restrictions. Throughout town, Gatorade jugs and other containers sit on business countertops for donations to the committee, and a recent fish fry raised more than $7,000 to help with legal costs.
The committee is operating out of Salsedo's Lumberjack Bar, a dimly lighted local hangout that beckons customers with a huge sign of an ax-wielding lumberjack eyeing a pink neon martini glass.
Inside, the bar is lined with 22 stools where residents once stood three or four deep during healthier economic times.
Now, visitors are as likely to see protest signs being made and petitions being copied as they are to notice the giant saws and photos of lumberjacks that adorn the interior.
It is from the bar that Salsedo, a former Fresno and Sacramento resident, has set his effort in motion. He and his supporters have asked the Park Service to rescind its plans, but they have little hope that their requests will be taken seriously.
Salsedo, 56, already has been arrested because of his activism. In mid-July, when the Park Service was preparing to install three steel gates, Salsedo blocked one road leading onto the beach and refused to move until he was arrested.
The next morning, an arson fire was discovered in a pile of driftwood at a nearby beach site.
Federal officials say they are not linking the fire to the arrest, and Salsedo and area residents say they believe the blaze was simply a beach campfire left unattended.
Salsedo's arrest came the same week that the SWAT team -- or what federal officials say was simply a "special event team" of five rangers -- was posted along the beach.
Such security measures were necessary because of continued hostility toward Park Service employees, officials say, including the use of obscenities, threats to shoot one ranger and to throw another off a bridge, and "numerous instances of local residents pointing fingers at rangers and simulating a shooting action."
Some local residents concede that there have been difficulties between the two sides.
Ron Simmons, owner of the Wagon Wheel burl shop in town, said the SWAT team showed up a day after he had told rangers they could end up like the government meat inspectors who were killed in June in San Leandro, allegedly by a meat company owner who thought he was being unfairly targeted.
Simmons said the comment was meant as a joke, but few people are laughing about the situation here.
"When I was a kid, a park ranger was a great guy," Simmons said. "Now, they just stand there with their arms crossed and a gun."
Ringgold, the superintendent of the park, disagrees, saying residents had years of chances to give their input into how the park is managed and that the final decisions were designed to provide the best access for everyone.
"You can't please everyone," Ringgold said. "Parks can't be everything to everyone."
[/quote]
------------------
John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
See The Legacy of Gun Control film at: www.cphv.com
Do it for the children...
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Battle of the beach: Rangers' restrictions rile coastal town
By Sam Stanton
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Sept. 3, 2000)
ORICK, Humboldt County -- Postmaster Steve Hall was taking his normal route to work along the coast when he saw the five-man SWAT team lining up along a beach.
"It was like in the movies," Hall said of the sight that greeted him near this spectacular seaside tourist spot a few weeks ago. "I couldn't believe it.
"I turned around and went back by, and they really gave me the evil eye. It scared the hell out of me. They were just asking for trouble."
Sporting body armor and carrying weapons, the team stood out to many in this community, where the biggest trouble usually revolves around poaching or minor crimes.
Most people in Orick knew immediately why the team was there: The feds had called in backup.
After several years of planning and discussions over how to restrict public access to the community's main beach, anger toward the National Park Service has become so entrenched that officials felt the need to bring in extra security.
In recent years, seven pipe bombs have been found in or near national park grounds or offices, park rangers have been threatened, one arson fire has been set and a general sense of hostility toward parks personnel has enveloped the area.
Local residents say they are under siege by federal officials bent on slowly choking the life out of their hamlet.
"They are systematically trying to destroy the town," said Ed Salsedo, an Orick tavern owner who was arrested in mid-July after blocking rangers' access to the beach.
The dispute stems from plans by the Park Service to phase out overnight camping along a beach that is part of Redwood National Park and to curb access to fishing and driftwood collection from the beaches.
To federal officials, the matter is simply one of bringing the park, which is about 325 miles north of San Francisco, into compliance with the same rules followed elsewhere nationally.
Although travelers have enjoyed free camping along Orick Beach for 50 years, the Park Service is now phasing out the ability to camp there at all, saying that the campers detract from the natural beauty of the area, which offers sweeping views to motorists heading north on Highway 101.
"You come down off the hill and have this magnificent ocean vista," Redwood National Park superintendent Andrew Ringgold said. "And if you're here in the summertime, it's lined wall-to-wall with RVs. You basically have an aluminum wall that obstructs the view of the ocean for many."
But that wall of aluminum is a prime source of revenue for this area, which has about 600 residents. The loss of overnight campers, who buy groceries, gasoline and other items, could be crippling to the community, which already has been hard-hit by cutbacks in the timber and fishing industries.
"Pretty soon they're going to squeeze us off our beach out there," said James Simmons, a 32-year-old Orick native who has worked in timber and fishing and now toils in his father's redwood burl-carving shop. "Little by little, they're taking nips out of us."
The first nip came over the summer, when the Park Service began the move to phase out camping at the beach over the next two years.
Currently, anyone traveling through the area can pull into a mile-long parking area along Orick Beach and Freshwater Spit and set up camp for free, either in a vehicle or in tents on the dunes. It is a favorite spot for many Sacramento area residents seeking refuge from the summer heat.
All that will end in October, when the Park Service will begin charging a fee -- the amount has yet to be announced -- as part of a plan to eventually convert the beach to daytime use only.
"It just gets worse," said Linda Williams, who along with her husband, Bill, moved here on Labor Day weekend 20 years ago to run the Orick Market. "It just gets harder to survive."
The Williamses once had eight full-time employees working at the grocery. Now, they are down to two and say they depend on overnight campers for about 30 percent of their business.
Like many others in the area, the Williamses see the National Park Service quietly pursuing a plan to restrict access to many portions of the Redwood National Park.
"You would think they bought and paid for this land themselves," Linda Williams said.
Already, the Park Service has banned the collection of driftwood from the beach, something local burl shops have relied upon for much of the wood used in carving trinkets, birdhouses and other unusual items popular with tourists.
Area youngsters who once collected the wood to earn money from the burl shops are now out of luck, with wood collection prohibited unless it is for campfires on the beach.
A more serious restriction to many is the new requirement that fishermen using the beach must purchase $75 annual permits to continue to have access to areas they have fished for decades.
About 55 people purchased the permits, and no new ones will be issued. Fishermen who allow their permits to lapse from year to year will not be allowed to renew them.
The permits come with keys to open the three new gates that have been installed to keep unauthorized vehicles off the beach. Fishermen are allowed to take vehicles onto the beach to load their catch -- which they collect with hand-held nets while standing in the surf.
Locals who have traditionally driven their vehicles along the beach to follow schools of perch and smelt believe the permits are simply a precursor to banning fishing altogether.
"It's a great job, and now the Park Service is screwing it up," said Gene Logan, a second-generation fisherman who had hoped to teach his young sons the family business. "They're trying to weed us out. I know my time's coming, so we're going to fight them."
Some would say the fight already has begun.
The Park Service notes that since it began trying to restrict access to the beaches its employees have been threatened and a series of mysterious pipe bomb incidents have occurred.
"At times, we've experienced incidents that give rise to concerns for the safety of our employees and for the safety of the public," said Ringgold, the park superintendent. "I don't mean to imply there's a siege mentality here at all, or that the agency here is at odds with the local community."
The Park Service has said there is no direct link between the incidents and activists in Orick, but there clearly is unrest.
In 1996, an unexploded pipe bomb was found in a park restroom and another was found on a tree stump, officials say. Two years later, a student was detained after shooting paint balls at a Park Service building housing 20 people and was found to be carrying two pipe bombs, the Park Service said.
Two pipe bombs were found in separate incidents later in 1998 at a nearby state park restroom, and another pipe bomb exploded last November in a bear-proof trash can. That explosion came the same night that the California State Parks Commission, which shares the Redwood Park operation with the federal government, approved the new restrictions.
Orick residents say there is no link between the pipe bomb incidents and their concerns. Some say they believe the bombs are the work of one or two individuals.
Residents have formed a Save Orick Committee to consider suing to overturn the restrictions. Throughout town, Gatorade jugs and other containers sit on business countertops for donations to the committee, and a recent fish fry raised more than $7,000 to help with legal costs.
The committee is operating out of Salsedo's Lumberjack Bar, a dimly lighted local hangout that beckons customers with a huge sign of an ax-wielding lumberjack eyeing a pink neon martini glass.
Inside, the bar is lined with 22 stools where residents once stood three or four deep during healthier economic times.
Now, visitors are as likely to see protest signs being made and petitions being copied as they are to notice the giant saws and photos of lumberjacks that adorn the interior.
It is from the bar that Salsedo, a former Fresno and Sacramento resident, has set his effort in motion. He and his supporters have asked the Park Service to rescind its plans, but they have little hope that their requests will be taken seriously.
Salsedo, 56, already has been arrested because of his activism. In mid-July, when the Park Service was preparing to install three steel gates, Salsedo blocked one road leading onto the beach and refused to move until he was arrested.
The next morning, an arson fire was discovered in a pile of driftwood at a nearby beach site.
Federal officials say they are not linking the fire to the arrest, and Salsedo and area residents say they believe the blaze was simply a beach campfire left unattended.
Salsedo's arrest came the same week that the SWAT team -- or what federal officials say was simply a "special event team" of five rangers -- was posted along the beach.
Such security measures were necessary because of continued hostility toward Park Service employees, officials say, including the use of obscenities, threats to shoot one ranger and to throw another off a bridge, and "numerous instances of local residents pointing fingers at rangers and simulating a shooting action."
Some local residents concede that there have been difficulties between the two sides.
Ron Simmons, owner of the Wagon Wheel burl shop in town, said the SWAT team showed up a day after he had told rangers they could end up like the government meat inspectors who were killed in June in San Leandro, allegedly by a meat company owner who thought he was being unfairly targeted.
Simmons said the comment was meant as a joke, but few people are laughing about the situation here.
"When I was a kid, a park ranger was a great guy," Simmons said. "Now, they just stand there with their arms crossed and a gun."
Ringgold, the superintendent of the park, disagrees, saying residents had years of chances to give their input into how the park is managed and that the final decisions were designed to provide the best access for everyone.
"You can't please everyone," Ringgold said. "Parks can't be everything to everyone."
[/quote]
------------------
John/az
"When freedom is at stake, your silence is not golden, it's yellow..." RKBA!
See The Legacy of Gun Control film at: www.cphv.com
Do it for the children...
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Area youngsters who once collected the wood to earn money from the burl shops are now out of luck, with wood collection prohibited unless it is for campfires on the beach.[/quote]
OK, so you can collect wood to utterly destroy it by burning, but you can't have kids collecting it to earn money. After all, they might end up with the impression that there are rewards for hard work and initiative.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"At times, we've experienced incidents that give rise to concerns for the safety of our employees and for the safety of the public," said Ringgold, the park superintendent. "I don't mean to imply there's a siege mentality here at all, or that the agency here is at odds with the local community."[/quote]
So the SWAT, ooops, sorry, "special events team" is simply there for... what, exactly? And if this knucklehead really doesn't think the agency is at odds with the local community he should really, really try to get out more.
------------------
"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
OK, so you can collect wood to utterly destroy it by burning, but you can't have kids collecting it to earn money. After all, they might end up with the impression that there are rewards for hard work and initiative.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"At times, we've experienced incidents that give rise to concerns for the safety of our employees and for the safety of the public," said Ringgold, the park superintendent. "I don't mean to imply there's a siege mentality here at all, or that the agency here is at odds with the local community."[/quote]
So the SWAT, ooops, sorry, "special events team" is simply there for... what, exactly? And if this knucklehead really doesn't think the agency is at odds with the local community he should really, really try to get out more.
------------------
"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
What is scary is that an Executive Order type of policy is being enforced by gun point. Soon, if we create an agency for everything, Congress won't be needed, Executive Orders will rule the day.
"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans ..." "And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities." President Bill Clinton, 3-22-94, MTV's "Enough is Enough"
madison
"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans ..." "And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities." President Bill Clinton, 3-22-94, MTV's "Enough is Enough"
madison
mk86fcc,
ref: Siege mentality. I was thinking the same thing when I read that.
Funny how ALL of those pipe bombs never exploded. What was the one in the tree trunk suppose to do? The article never said if the tree trunk was near a bldg or anything else.
SWAT is there to keep you from picking up sticks on the beach. If you try to make anything with 'em, you vill be shot. You must burn them.
madison
ref: Siege mentality. I was thinking the same thing when I read that.
Funny how ALL of those pipe bombs never exploded. What was the one in the tree trunk suppose to do? The article never said if the tree trunk was near a bldg or anything else.
SWAT is there to keep you from picking up sticks on the beach. If you try to make anything with 'em, you vill be shot. You must burn them.
madison
Sounds like another case for the shunning of ALL Fed employees. Dont these park police, special event people have to live somewhere or doe they get trucked in. I'd like to see the local business owners refuse service to any State and Fed employees. No gasoline for the cars, no food for the family, no tire repair service for the sqaud cars, no restaurant service, no trash service, not water service... Make them feel like the POS's that they really are.
------------------
"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes."
-R.A. Heinlein
------------------
"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes."
-R.A. Heinlein
So here we have a beautiful place with a spectacular view, just be sure to move along, take your picture and enjoy it from the freeway folks, but don't even think about staying a day or two.
We're now managing public lands on the "looks pretty" premise. It looks pretty and so we're not going to actually let you use it lest it stop looking so pretty. Look but don't touch.
And if you don't like it, we'll shoot you. Gotta love the enviro-wacko agenda.
We're now managing public lands on the "looks pretty" premise. It looks pretty and so we're not going to actually let you use it lest it stop looking so pretty. Look but don't touch.
And if you don't like it, we'll shoot you. Gotta love the enviro-wacko agenda.
How dare those dirty, filthy, serfs of the Shire of Orick,Province of Kalifornia, think that they have any privileges. Are they so stupid they don't understand that the land and sea are the King's? The King's Land. The King's deer. The King's.... everything, including the very lives of the serfs.
And never forget, you serfs, for Federal SWAT teams, there is no such thing as a "bag limit" for serfs and slaves. Open season!
Bow down, all you serfs, and cast not your eyes upon the Magnificent Sun God, His Imperial Majesty, The Great Shogun, Lord of Lords, The Grand Caliph, Master of The Universe, and Ruler of All Lands of the Upper and Lower Mississippi, and All Lands and Waters East and West.
Bow down and genuflect!!! Or his Reeves of the Shire will shoot you all to pieces!
The Locomotives Continue Racing Toward Each Other.
J.B.
And never forget, you serfs, for Federal SWAT teams, there is no such thing as a "bag limit" for serfs and slaves. Open season!
Bow down, all you serfs, and cast not your eyes upon the Magnificent Sun God, His Imperial Majesty, The Great Shogun, Lord of Lords, The Grand Caliph, Master of The Universe, and Ruler of All Lands of the Upper and Lower Mississippi, and All Lands and Waters East and West.
Bow down and genuflect!!! Or his Reeves of the Shire will shoot you all to pieces!
The Locomotives Continue Racing Toward Each Other.
J.B.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TAZ:
Sounds like another case for the shunning of ALL Fed employees. (snip) Make them feel like the POS's that they really are.
[/quote]
This was done in Nevada. It caused the head Fish & Wildlife Service (I think) wonk quit. She felt intimidated.
Bruce
Sounds like another case for the shunning of ALL Fed employees. (snip) Make them feel like the POS's that they really are.
[/quote]
This was done in Nevada. It caused the head Fish & Wildlife Service (I think) wonk quit. She felt intimidated.
Bruce
Let me see if I understand this correctly. Federales can descend upon a community and scare the stuffin' outta a citizen because of their guns and whatnot, yet I can not open carry a handgun.
This kind of nonsense will only get worse until the executive branch is de-militarized.
This kind of nonsense will only get worse until the executive branch is de-militarized.