A smaller than normal New Year's crowd of about 12,000 people showed up at
Glamis to celebrate the Millennium. Included in those 12,000 were a great
many rookie BLM Rangers and Law Enforcement specialists, furiously writing
citations.
This weekend marked the ascendancy of the
Banshee-mounted
patrol. Their job was to aggressively locate violators, and then call
in the regular truck-driving Rangers for the cite. In making a stop, they
cut off their target and then stomp on the brakes, a very dangerous maneuver.
Then, in a disgusting display of hypocrisy, they cite the riders for
safety violations.
This practice differs widely from approved law enforcement infraction stops,
which usually involve using a visual or audible indicator such as lights
and siren, before such dangerous stop attempts, which are likely to cause
a motor vehicle accident.
That this was the normal mode of activity was verified by observing enforcement
activity at the base of Oldsmobile, on New Year's Day, between noon and 2
p.m., and at other times.
Crackdown in response
to 'increased lawlessness'
This crackdown, now entering its second year, is in response to increased
lawlessness in the dunes, according to BLM. However, longtime observers including
myself have noticed no real increase in actual criminal activity. Glamis
has always had its quota of drunk operators as well as assorted minor punks.
But now that street driving laws apply to the dunes, and with dozens of new
laws applying to off-roading in general, it becomes clear that the only
reason there is all this "lawlessness" lately, is because there are now a
lot more laws to break. BLM is using this newfound "crisis" situation to
justify its aggressiveness against duners, to leverage itself more funding,
and also to expand its power and staffing in the dunes area and in off-road
areas in general.
This crackdown is failing in every aspect: It is killing goodwill in the
dunes, and it is destroying the good name of the BLM. The fee program was
enacted in a display of greed unbecoming to a federal agency. The strategy
was curious, in light of government's miserable record in profit-making
enterprises, and the outcome is no surprise.
The solution is to terminate the crackdown, end the
failed
Fee Demo Program as implemented in the ISDRA, and restore previously
existing policies of dune management that have served so well for decades.
This is not going to happen soon, because of the contractual obligations
with the private parking company, and the stipulations of the law that authorizes
the parking fees, not set to expire until late 2001.
In the midst of all this and more -- unanswered questions about the bidding
process abound, including the astonishing fact that only one bid was
received in the parking fee scheme -- Congress is taking another look at
the Fee Demonstration Program, as implemented nationwide, on a case-by-case
basis -- and not a moment too soon. An investigation of the cloudy circumstances
of this scheme's start seems justified.
By the way, the back of each
parking permit --
which is the size and is printed on the same kind of paper as a gas pump
receipt -- and written in extremely light ink, has not been changed. It still
says:
"100% OF YOUR FEES ARE
RETURNED TO THE DUNES!"
At this point, far less than that of the fees are going to the dunes. This
is fraud, and the current legal opinion is that all duners who have purchased
a permit could recover their funds on this basis.
