the_universe
New Member
My jurisdiction is: Texas
Dear to whom it concerns,
This letter concerns the complete disregard of my rights and the corruption of the National Park Service law enforcement division, and how they screwed up my life by getting me fired from my job working as a concessionaire at Chisos Mountain Lodge located in the heart of Big Bend National Park. In this letter I'll give a time line of the events starting on Nov 9 that led up to my termination that's resulted in me being homeless for about 3 weeks now. Well Nov 9 was one of my days off work and some of my friends from work were all going to go hike up to Emory Peak although before we went hiking my friend Tim and I decided to explore some of the back country roads past my campsite and when we were retuning we saw a Park Ranger parked out front of my campsite looking through my campsite so we pulled up behind him, got out of the car and we engaged him in conversation for about 10 minutes. Initially he told us he was headed past our campsite to investigate some campers that were supposedly camping without a permit that they had observed using photographs that surveillance planes had taken. Then he asked me if he could see my cars registration. I went to go through my car to find it digging through my documents when he told me he knew I didn't have it, because he already knew it had expired 3 days ago. Since my car was further back than his truck was and since he didn't walk behind my car to see my license plate I was wondering how he already knew that and then I became skeptical that he had just stopped at my campsite to make sure everything was ok like he had initially told us. I started cleverly asking how he knew it was expired because he didn't even see my plates or look it up on his computer or anything. Then I finally got him to admit that he had checked my camping permit which the park service ask you to give your license plate number and drivers license number for safety reasons. Typical example of giving up freedoms for a sense of security and losing both instead. Anyways back to my story it also turned out that my driver's license had also expired 3 days previously also. Then I saw him go back to his Park Ranger truck to write me tickets for expired license and tag which took me by surprise, because I thought I was in the clear for the moment since I wasn't even pulled over. I also know that usually law enforcement won't do computer checks of driver's paperwork issues and go to their homes and wait for them to get back to give them a ticket for it. Well I saw him about to write me tickets for it so I walked over to his truck and asked him if he was writing me a ticket. He told me to go sit back down and then before I went to go sit back down I asked a couple times if I could get a warning instead since it just expired a couple days ago and since I am from Georgia making it much hard to keep up with paper work issues. Plus Big Bend National park is like 90 miles from the nearest city Alpine if you would even consider that a city. I go sit back down and I guess he had called in backup judging by another Park Ranger showing up. The Park Ranger that I had been dealing with so far names was Park Ranger Phil Basak. He apparently didn't know how to write a warning and even told me that we don't write these. Phil Basak had to ask his backup a question about how to write the warning. Phil told me I have a week to get it taken care of and that I had to come back within the week to either his office or call his cell phone to show him the updated paperwork, or he was going to come find me. This traffic stop on Nov 9 of my parked car was far from over, but it's not critical to my complaint. After I was finally allowed to leave I drove straight to the Visitors Center and started asking questions nicely like "Hey I wasn't aware that when I gave yall my license plate number that you were going to do background checks to see what you can ticket me for since you tell everyone it's for their own safety. I asked if I could see a book with the laws, rules, and regulations of the park. They initially told me no and we can answer whatever questions you have. After I explained my situation to them they said that I shouldn't have been breaking the law. To me that sounded like a completely scripted answer that someone told them to respond to the public with and it didn't fit my situation at all since I wasn't complaining about a ticket or any form of punishment. I then said I had received a warning and not a ticket which I was met with the response of then if you're not in trouble why are you even complaining. I then asked to see a book of laws which was denied to me, although they did let me look at a copy of their compendium. Neither of us found anything about using someone's license plate number from their camping permit to enforce traffic violations. Finally they told me I couldn't stay in the visitor's center and that it was online so I could find it on there. I thanked them and left.
Then came Nov 11 and I went back to work. While at work my General Manager Jerry pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to switch roommates. The job is to far away from anywhere to live so everyone who works in the park lives in it. I told them no, because I like my roommate. Then Jerry told me to go back and live in the trailer and to stop camping. Jerry then said that the rangers came to talk to him about telling me to stop camping. He also told me that I needed to lay low multiple times through the initial conversation. Then about 10 to 15 minutes later I asked Jerry who was still in the dining room if I could talk to him again. I told him that the real reason the park rangers might have wanted me to stop camping was because I had gone to the visitors center and was asking some questions about illegal police conduct. Jerry was then like "Yea yea I know LEAVE IT ALONE." I was like well they did something illegal. Jerry was like I don't care just leave it alone. The park rangers see this as you taking on the entire park service. Anyways our second conversation was pretty repetitive, although Jerry also told me that he promised the park rangers he'd shut me up which is probably why he told me to lay low. Jerry wouldn't even listen to my side of the story and whenever I tried to tell him he kept saying "LEAVE IT ALONE."(angrily) Told me that the park rangers could shut down Forever Resorts for whatever reason they wanted and if I didn't stay out of this situation the park rangers would shut down Forever resorts and get everyone fired and that they can't have me working for them if I didn't "leave it alone". I just wanted to keep my job and enjoy the park so I became a victim of Jerrys pathetic threat. The Park Rangers violated my Right to Privacy. I lost my sense of security in my own home since my right to freedom of speech and whistle blower rights were violated. Couldn't use freedom of speech towards law enforcement through fear I'd lose my job. I lost the ability to defend myself against illegal law enforcement.
A week after the warning I still wasn't able to get my license and tags transferred to Texas, because I had to get my some of my information sent to me like my social security card and a copy of my birth certificate sent to me since my driver's license apparently didn't count as a valid form of identification since it was expired. I called Park Ranger Phil Basak to let him know the situation of what happened when I went to the dmv and that if he wanted to find me I'd be working up at the restaurant if he wanted to know where he could find me. I figured since Phil told me that the warning would turn into a ticket in a week and he was going to come find me and write me tickets. I knew the restaurant would be a safe location with plenty of witnesses and also that you can't give someone a traffic citation while their working and if their car is parked out front. I was right about that one when he showed up and I explained what happened when I went to the Dmv and that I was waiting for my other forms of identification to come in the mail so I got another week to get my paperwork taken care of or else I would be arrested and the tickets would be finalized. I also mentioned that I saw his footprints around my new campsite and he told me that it wasn't him who was out there looking around my campsite for me while I was at work, but he did say that another park ranger apparently was sent to my camp site to find me.
Dear to whom it concerns,
This letter concerns the complete disregard of my rights and the corruption of the National Park Service law enforcement division, and how they screwed up my life by getting me fired from my job working as a concessionaire at Chisos Mountain Lodge located in the heart of Big Bend National Park. In this letter I'll give a time line of the events starting on Nov 9 that led up to my termination that's resulted in me being homeless for about 3 weeks now. Well Nov 9 was one of my days off work and some of my friends from work were all going to go hike up to Emory Peak although before we went hiking my friend Tim and I decided to explore some of the back country roads past my campsite and when we were retuning we saw a Park Ranger parked out front of my campsite looking through my campsite so we pulled up behind him, got out of the car and we engaged him in conversation for about 10 minutes. Initially he told us he was headed past our campsite to investigate some campers that were supposedly camping without a permit that they had observed using photographs that surveillance planes had taken. Then he asked me if he could see my cars registration. I went to go through my car to find it digging through my documents when he told me he knew I didn't have it, because he already knew it had expired 3 days ago. Since my car was further back than his truck was and since he didn't walk behind my car to see my license plate I was wondering how he already knew that and then I became skeptical that he had just stopped at my campsite to make sure everything was ok like he had initially told us. I started cleverly asking how he knew it was expired because he didn't even see my plates or look it up on his computer or anything. Then I finally got him to admit that he had checked my camping permit which the park service ask you to give your license plate number and drivers license number for safety reasons. Typical example of giving up freedoms for a sense of security and losing both instead. Anyways back to my story it also turned out that my driver's license had also expired 3 days previously also. Then I saw him go back to his Park Ranger truck to write me tickets for expired license and tag which took me by surprise, because I thought I was in the clear for the moment since I wasn't even pulled over. I also know that usually law enforcement won't do computer checks of driver's paperwork issues and go to their homes and wait for them to get back to give them a ticket for it. Well I saw him about to write me tickets for it so I walked over to his truck and asked him if he was writing me a ticket. He told me to go sit back down and then before I went to go sit back down I asked a couple times if I could get a warning instead since it just expired a couple days ago and since I am from Georgia making it much hard to keep up with paper work issues. Plus Big Bend National park is like 90 miles from the nearest city Alpine if you would even consider that a city. I go sit back down and I guess he had called in backup judging by another Park Ranger showing up. The Park Ranger that I had been dealing with so far names was Park Ranger Phil Basak. He apparently didn't know how to write a warning and even told me that we don't write these. Phil Basak had to ask his backup a question about how to write the warning. Phil told me I have a week to get it taken care of and that I had to come back within the week to either his office or call his cell phone to show him the updated paperwork, or he was going to come find me. This traffic stop on Nov 9 of my parked car was far from over, but it's not critical to my complaint. After I was finally allowed to leave I drove straight to the Visitors Center and started asking questions nicely like "Hey I wasn't aware that when I gave yall my license plate number that you were going to do background checks to see what you can ticket me for since you tell everyone it's for their own safety. I asked if I could see a book with the laws, rules, and regulations of the park. They initially told me no and we can answer whatever questions you have. After I explained my situation to them they said that I shouldn't have been breaking the law. To me that sounded like a completely scripted answer that someone told them to respond to the public with and it didn't fit my situation at all since I wasn't complaining about a ticket or any form of punishment. I then said I had received a warning and not a ticket which I was met with the response of then if you're not in trouble why are you even complaining. I then asked to see a book of laws which was denied to me, although they did let me look at a copy of their compendium. Neither of us found anything about using someone's license plate number from their camping permit to enforce traffic violations. Finally they told me I couldn't stay in the visitor's center and that it was online so I could find it on there. I thanked them and left.
Then came Nov 11 and I went back to work. While at work my General Manager Jerry pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to switch roommates. The job is to far away from anywhere to live so everyone who works in the park lives in it. I told them no, because I like my roommate. Then Jerry told me to go back and live in the trailer and to stop camping. Jerry then said that the rangers came to talk to him about telling me to stop camping. He also told me that I needed to lay low multiple times through the initial conversation. Then about 10 to 15 minutes later I asked Jerry who was still in the dining room if I could talk to him again. I told him that the real reason the park rangers might have wanted me to stop camping was because I had gone to the visitors center and was asking some questions about illegal police conduct. Jerry was then like "Yea yea I know LEAVE IT ALONE." I was like well they did something illegal. Jerry was like I don't care just leave it alone. The park rangers see this as you taking on the entire park service. Anyways our second conversation was pretty repetitive, although Jerry also told me that he promised the park rangers he'd shut me up which is probably why he told me to lay low. Jerry wouldn't even listen to my side of the story and whenever I tried to tell him he kept saying "LEAVE IT ALONE."(angrily) Told me that the park rangers could shut down Forever Resorts for whatever reason they wanted and if I didn't stay out of this situation the park rangers would shut down Forever resorts and get everyone fired and that they can't have me working for them if I didn't "leave it alone". I just wanted to keep my job and enjoy the park so I became a victim of Jerrys pathetic threat. The Park Rangers violated my Right to Privacy. I lost my sense of security in my own home since my right to freedom of speech and whistle blower rights were violated. Couldn't use freedom of speech towards law enforcement through fear I'd lose my job. I lost the ability to defend myself against illegal law enforcement.
A week after the warning I still wasn't able to get my license and tags transferred to Texas, because I had to get my some of my information sent to me like my social security card and a copy of my birth certificate sent to me since my driver's license apparently didn't count as a valid form of identification since it was expired. I called Park Ranger Phil Basak to let him know the situation of what happened when I went to the dmv and that if he wanted to find me I'd be working up at the restaurant if he wanted to know where he could find me. I figured since Phil told me that the warning would turn into a ticket in a week and he was going to come find me and write me tickets. I knew the restaurant would be a safe location with plenty of witnesses and also that you can't give someone a traffic citation while their working and if their car is parked out front. I was right about that one when he showed up and I explained what happened when I went to the Dmv and that I was waiting for my other forms of identification to come in the mail so I got another week to get my paperwork taken care of or else I would be arrested and the tickets would be finalized. I also mentioned that I saw his footprints around my new campsite and he told me that it wasn't him who was out there looking around my campsite for me while I was at work, but he did say that another park ranger apparently was sent to my camp site to find me.