couzin wrote: ↑Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:38 pm
There was a bit of pushback from rank and file as well as senior recreation management. I seriously doubt it was held in anticipation of a potential democratic potus. The whole recreation/operations side of the Corps is kinda schizophrenic. The rangers and management have historically been an interpretive and recreation oriented group. Even the adoption of the Ranger uniform was a bit of a battle, assigning citation authority was even controversial. The Corps was doing all they could to avoid looking or acting like law enforcement. Times have changed. The Corps is hard core not wanting to authorize a contingent of Ranger law enforcement such as the NPS, BLM, USFS, FWS, has - simple because the Corps is not in that part of the business - but it may get forced on them. The job is tough enough being unarmed and dealing with poachers in the middle of the night, the occasional meth head, or the mess of a domestic dispute at a campsite, without the added weight of the possibility that everyone in the campground, or on a boat, is armed and the Ranger has nothing but verbal judo, some defensive moves, and pepper spray. I am not arguing good guys with guns here. The Corps is just trying to navigate some very murky waters and maintain the concept that Corps lands and waters are places to take your family and feel safe. They are great folks and will do the right thing, it just may take some time.
My problem is not with the rank and file staff of any of the Federal bureaucracy - it is with the management.
The statement "without the added weight of the possibility that everyone in the campground, or in a boat" personally rankles me. I'm both an RVer and a sailboater. Like the LTC community, both of those groups are historically more law abiding than than general public by a wide margin. I've literally been all over the country in both of those and never had problems with my fellow boaters or RVers. But both can be magnets for outsiders who want to prey on them. Whatever empathy I feel for the Corps rangers, I extend to the people I know personally who have been victimized - as I was - by roaming criminals. I have hundreds of nights camping and have yet to see a domestic dispute, I have personally experienced breakins and thefts and know of others who have suffered the same way.
Nesbitt was a long time ago and the slow roll is definitely happening. I have no hope at all that with the current leadership, anything will ever happen to restore the right of self-protection that the Corps management has stripped away. Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive but I'm tired of the Corps management extending the Democratic Party talking point that because criminals exist in the world, I cannot defend myself.
To be fair, my ire doesn't only extend to the Corps. I was to a funeral at the National Cemetery in Dallas this past week. Bigger than life on the gates to that facility is a "no guns" sign. That means that I'm disarmed on the way there and the way back. I can drive to Wyoming and carry my defensive pistol all over Yellowstone National Park but cannot even have it in the car in my own home State. This "stuff" just doesn't make any sense, at least to me.
P.S. As a recreational sailboater and leader of a local sailing club on Lake Grapevine, I got to deal with the predatory practices of monopoly management company of the marinas on Lake Grapevine. The Corp management liked that because they only had one vendor to deal with. When we complained to the Corps about the overt control that the vendor was placing on the use of the lake, the attorneys for the vendor sent letters to any complainer threatening legal action because of "tortous (tort law) interference in their contract with the Corpw". I personally went to the Ft. Worth District Commander's office. His response was "I'm in the flood control management business."
