[AZTOY]

...1:52 pm Jan 27, 2003
Park ranger cites border civilian patrol leader


Tim Steller
© 2003 Arizona Daily Star


A National Park Service ranger on Sunday cited Chris Simcox, leader of a Cochise County border militia, for carrying a loaded weapon and operating without a permit at Coronado National Memorial.

The chief ranger at the park south of Sierra Vista, Thane Weigand, said it appeared Simcox and William Dore were conducting a patrol of the border.

"They were doing a special activity inside the park that's not sanctioned by the park," Weigand said.

Simcox, founder of the Tombstone group Civil Homeland Defense, has been conducting citizen patrols of the border area, but this morning he said that's not what he was doing Sunday afternoon. He said he was simply hiking with Dore.

They were driving along Border Road when they came to a fence with a sign that said no vehicles were permitted. So they parked the van and walked past the fence along the road, not knowing the fence was the park boundary, Simcox said.

"Next thing I know, there's somebody waiting in the bushes for us," Simcox said. It was a park ranger, who said she had been watching the pair, knew who they were and what they were up to, Simcox said.

He and Dore were detained for about 3 1/2 hours, and some belongings were seized, Simcox said. Those belongings included a scanner, two two-way radios, his camera, a cellphone and his pistol.

Weigand said the charges against Simcox and Dore are misdemeanors.

http://regulus.azstarnet.com/hourlyupdate/pm_story.php?id=7

[El Tejon]

Enforcers of the law allegedly breaking the law? Isn't that what the doughy types running around in the bugs and weeds calling themselves the Last, Best Hope for Freedom gripe about all the time anywho?:rolleyes:

[Beren]

Shouldn't the park rangers be out there keeping illegal aliens from entering the country through the park, or is that a silly question on my part?

Yup, I'm sure she knew who they were and were glad not to miss a target of opportunity.

Words cannot express my disgust at the continuation of our ineffective police state.

[Waitone]

Its easier to entrap and detain an American citizen than it is to entrap and detain an illegal alien illegally crossing the US in a national park.

Once again we see the mentality of a statist.

BTW, you hadda know the federales were gunning for the guy. He has to be discredited to keep this border fiasco from going critical.

[Zander]

The chief ranger at the park south of Sierra Vista, Thane Weigand, said it appeared Simcox and William Dore were conducting a patrol of the border. Of course they were, ranger...the fools under your "command" won't.

That's what happens when "public lands" are overseen by federal employees who have no obligation to answer to those who own those lands...the taxpaying citizens of the USA.

Here's a call to do the obvious...take back control of the majority of "gov't-owned" land by insisting it be returned to the rightful owners...

Us!

Anybody in agreement?

[Huntersun]

This is truly pathetic;

"They were doing a special activity inside the park that's not sanctioned by the park," Weigand said.

"Next thing I know, there's somebody waiting in the bushes for us," Simcox said. It was a park ranger, who said she had been watching the pair, knew who they were and what they were up to, Simcox said.

I hope the fight this as far as it will go. Looks to me that it will show the pure incompetence of this Park Ranger.

[TallPine]

"They were doing a special activity inside the park that's not sanctioned by the park," Weigand said.

Hiking is a special activity ....?

Gosh, I must be a REAL criminal. considering all of the time I've spent hiking on NF and BLM lands.

I treat them just like I own them. ;)

[DeltaElite]

I agree with these guys in theory, but they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
If they are doing "patrol" shouldn't they know the area and that they were going into a monument where they can't carry their weapons?
Duhhhhhhhhh, what's the fence for? Duhhhhhhhhhh
A GPS and a map would have told them where they were.
All they have achieved was to make their organization look even more foolish by violating a law.

Honestly, I am not impressed with these guys.

[hammer4nc]

I did a little search on the CNM, here's an interesting link... http://www.palominas.com/border01.htm

For those who are quick to question Simcox's motives and/or intelligence...when campared to Mr. Bellamy, who is the CNM Park Superintendent, he looks like Albert Einstein...

Salient points from the above link:

This year’s $728,000 budget for the memorial does not include enough funds to pay for cleanup, so the National Park Service depends on volunteers to pick up trash left by illegal immigrants, the superintendent said.

So, apparently volunteer patrols to clean up trash left by illegal aliens is a "permitted activity", but any help to discourage said traffic is immediately cited? Someone explain the logic here?

Also, The border patrol wants to put up observation towers to track illegals, and Bellamy is concerned because the towers will be "a visual problem for visitors!!!" Huh???

The Border Patrol has indicated it would like to put up seven more towers to control the border in Cochise County. There are already a number of surveillance towers along the Douglas-Naco corridor on the American side of the border. The Border Patrol also has approached the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to put a tower up on the San Pedro National Conservation Riparian Area.

Bellamy said it would be some time before any tower would go up on the memorial because the proposal has to go through an environmental assessment.

Ineffective bureaucratic piddling, and malicious prosecution of any real help on illegals, is apparently much more important to these "officials", than actually doing something about the problem, is my take on the whole issue. Opposing viewpoints welcome, however.

[Standing Wolf]

The federal government is obviously more concerned about law-abiding American citizens with firearms than illegal aliens.

[Erik]

Rangers cite individuals for carrying in the parks they patrol.

No news flash there, folks.

The CHDers should have paid more attention to where they were.

[clem]

"there's somebody waiting in the bushes for us" ????



Sounds like a set-up. With the name Simcox, you can bet the ranger was thinking, $$$$$$$$, just in media attention alone and that's why a citation was issued.

[Bottom Gun]

Apparently cameras, radios and cell phones are forbidden in National Monuments too.
Looks like the local Gestapo is going to harrass this guy into submission.
FWIW, I carry a sidearm all the time when I'm in the parks and monuments and have never been bothered by Rangers.
This really stinks.

[Leatherneck]

Apparently cameras, radios and cell phones are forbidden in National Monuments too. WHAAAATTT?
Can you cite a reference for that? I can't believe it.
TC
TFL Survivor

[Double Naught Spy]

I have to side with the Ranger on this. Simcox seems to be an idiot. He comes to a fence and there is a sign that apparently doesn't identify the property as the park, but it says vehicles are not permitted so he doesn't drive the vehicle. So Simcox didn't know where he was and apparently figured he was just going to be trespassing on some other landowner's property when he mistakenly went onto Federal property.

On top of that, he is mad because his situational awareness was so darned poor that he got nabbed by a Park Ranger who was on patrol. Oh sure, it is okay for him to go snooping around and crossing property lines with a gun to look for people breaking the law but when he gets caught doing it, it isn't fair. Baloney!

If the guy was dumb enough to go crossing fences and not know where he is, then he got off lucky. Why lucky? Because some of the land owners down in there have been shooting at people on their property whom they assume to be illegal aliens. Simcox could easily have been blasted by a property owner while trespassing.

If you want to do that whole citizen patrol thing, great! But do it properly and not like some gun nut idiot lost in the countryside and carrying a gun. :banghead:

My guess is that Simcox, with that high level of situational awareness and comprehension for where he is has not managed to nab too many illegal aliens. Go figure.

So, two way radios and scanners? Hmmm. Citizen patrol or helping transport drugs or illegal aliens across the border?

[Coronach]

Double Naught-

You have forgotten the salient points of this:

1. The guy is a gun owner.

2. This involves the federal government.

I mean, Simcox has to be right. It just remains to figure out how. You, apparently, didn't get the memo.

Mike :rolleyes:

[Bottom Gun]

Leatherneck,

Those items plus a scanner were seized by the Ranger along with the guy's gun.

[Selfdfenz]

Ok let's calm down everyone.
The Ranger in question did something here to enhance her safety.

She disarmed an American citizen.

Everybody know it's durn rare that an American citizen shoots at a park ranger so it was very safe for her to walk right up and disarm and arrest these guys.

Many dope-packing Mexicans, OTOH, sneaking across the border will and do try to shoot the tar out of BP and anyone else that gets in their way.

Smart lady! Pick on the easy....honest...safe....ones. And then sit in the office half the day while they get "processed".

S-

[El Tejon]

Coronach, do you think that this Last, Best Hope for Freedom will get off on a brilliant Motion to Dismiss based on fringe on the flag in federal district court?:D

[Coronach]

El Tejon-

I'm going to go with "no."

Mike

[hammer4nc]

Sounds like the park management has parlayed the illegal immigrant thing into a cash cow for upcoming budget requests.

What kind of "idiot" would dare upset that well-layed plan? Heck, if I didn't know better, I'd think the illegal alien thing was actually a "problem" in Arizona? Fringers? Yuk-yuk...

[Delmar]

It's been a long time since I read the rules, but IIRC, a person employing illegal aliens is subject to arrest and prison?
True enough-Simcox certainly may need a pathfinder or two, but common sense ought to tell ANYONE wandering out in the wild to carry a firearm, period.

[Cosmoline]

And guess who runs the National Memorials?

THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Talk about occupied territory. I will never set foot on their land until that agency is properly DISSOLVED and its lands either handed over the states or at the very least to a more responsible agency like the National Forest Service.

The Park Service believes we should only be allowed to see our parks on organized tour groups. Up here, they've made Denali and Katmai into bizarre travesties.

[clem]

Read it for yourselves:


Tucson Citizen

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/1_28_03simcox_arrest.html


Arizona "Red" Star
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/30128SIMCOXCITATION.html


It's still a set-up.

[DeltaElite]

Sounds like a set up, but Dumb and Dumber allowed it to happen due to their own outright stupidity.

FWIW, I wouldn't go near the border unarmed.

[Waitone]

This article from a site which appears to be friendly to the cause of illegal immigration.

<Editorial comments on>Yep, the guy was guilty of conducting paramilitary operations against poor, unfortunate, uneducated, down-trodden people who only want a tiny sllice of the American dream <Editorial comments off>


http://www.quepasa.com/content/?c=104&id=99517


Arizona anti-immigrant activist cited for weapons violation


Douglas, U.S., January 28, 2003 (EFE) - National park rangers briefly detained for weapons possession the leader of a controversial vigilante group dedicated to the "citizens' arrest" of undocumented immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Chris Simcox, head of the Civil Homeland Defense, was released Sunday after being questioned for some three hours by rangers in Coronado National Memorial Park about the pistol he was carrying and what he was doing on park grounds.

The gun was confiscated, and Simcox will be fined, authorities said.

Thane Weigand, chief of the park rangers, said Simcox and a companion were searching for undocumented immigrants in the national park, which is located west of Naco, Arizona, near the Mexican border.

Weigand said the rangers confiscated all of Simcox's belongings, including a pistol, two radios, a police scanner, a cell phone and a digital camera.

He said the men appeared to be carrying out a vigilante border-patrol operation, an activity banned on federal lands.

Simcox, who is the owner and publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, wrote an editorial in October calling for citizens to join a militia to patrol Arizona's border with Mexico to stop undocumented immigrants from crossing into the United States.

Weigand said Simcox will not have to appear in court, although he will have to pay a fine that could exceed $500.

Simcox flatly denied claims he was in the middle of an operation to hunt down undocumented immigrants when he was caught.

"We were only hiking in the desert," he claimed.

Simcox said he and his companion, William Dore, were driving along the border road when they came across a fence and decided to continue on foot.

The militia leader said he and Dore did not realize they were on federal lands, stressing they would never have knowingly entered the national park armed.

Francisco Medina, head of the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, a Native American human rights group, criticized Simcox.

"These people think they own the border," said Medina, referring to the three paramilitary groups that operate on the northern side of the Arizona-Sonora border.

Medina said he hoped the militia leader's arrest would serve as a warning to anti-immigrant groups.

"It's time they realize they can't go around waving guns and arresting immigrants whose only crime is seeking a better life for themselves and their families," said Medina.

Since the advent of the border militias, human rights groups have questioned the legality of the groups' hunt for undocumented immigrants.

The paramilitaries cite their constitutional right to bear arms, while some ranchers, such as the Barnett brothers of Douglas, maintain they only patrol their own or friends' lands to defend these properties against the damage undocumented immigrants leave in their wake. EFE

[Bottom Gun]

Somebody better give Francisco Medina a laxative.

[Delmar]

"These people think they own the border," said Medina
As a matter of fact, we do.

[Drizzt]

Tucson Citizen


January 28, 2003 Tuesday

SECTION: CITY STATE; Pg. 1C

LENGTH: 145 words

HEADLINE: Simcox says ranger cited him for weapon

BYLINE: Luke Turf, Staff, lturf@tucsoncitizen.com

BODY:
By LUKE TURF

The organizer of Arizona's newest citizen border militia said he was cited for carrying a loaded weapon in a national park, disorderly conduct and hiking without a special-use permit Sunday.

Civil Homeland Defense organizer Chris Simcox, 42, said he didn't realize he was in Coronado National Monument when he was hiking with another person. Simcox says he wasn't patrolling the border, as he does regularly to deter illegal entrance.

No one from the Park could be reached for comment.

Simcox, editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, said his weapon was concealed at the time and that the disorderly conduct charge stems from a disagreement he said he had with a ranger regarding jurisdiction.

He claimed the officer knew who he was and acted "abusive" toward him for "hunting illegals."

"I think it's funny; it's more publicity," Simcox said.

[PATH]

Set up plain and simple. IMHO!

[jimpeel]

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/tue/headlines.html

[jimpeel]

It sounds to me that the BP types are in full job protection mode. If these guys prove to be more effective than the BP then what do they need such a large budget for?

In all things political, simply follow the money.

[Jrob24]

What right did the park ranger have to search and detain him? If he was carrying concealed, and minding his own business then there would be no legal way to detain him.

[El Tejon]

Jrob24, the militia boy was not minding his own business allegedly. Detained for Criminal Trespass apparently.

[Gila Jorge]

CBS television evening news had night vision fotos
of hordes of wets streaming across the border through that Naitonal Park and the a*hole park folks doing absolutely nothing. The issue has already gone critical....critical of the Park Serivce and La Migra. Both are worthless organizations full of feather shovellers. If its on park land La Migra sez its not my job...park serivce sez its not their job. Bottom line they don't give a rats axx. Drugs and Arabs are included in those coming in....someone should give a damn...maybe Homeland Security....? Probably not their job either.

[ahenry]

Jimpeel,
It sounds to me that the BP types are in full job protection mode. If these guys prove to be more effective than the BP then what do they need such a large budget for? HA! I don’t anticipate Simcox, any other group or even all the other groups, to come close to being able to cover the 8,000 miles of border America has. Nor do I think they will come anywhere near the over one million apprehensions the BP gets per year. Not to mention the more than a million pounds of drugs being smuggled across the border that the BP captures per year. I think the Border Patrol will start sweating Simcox and others like him right after they start sweating a full scale invasion by the French army.




BTW, BP got the call to backup the park ranger. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with it, including management. Too bad Simcox had to be a complete and total idiot and break the law.

[sixgun_symphony]

"Next thing I know, there's somebody waiting in the bushes for us," Simcox said. It was a park ranger, who said she had been watching the pair, knew who they were and what they were up to, Simcox said.


The fact that the ranger is a woman leads me to believe that she is one of the bleeding heart types that was jumping at an opportunity to put the border vigilantes out of business.

As far as illegals, the lady ranger is probably out there with food, water, and blankets....


This is abuse of authority that she and other rangers allow Illegal Mexicans to pass through while inhibiting efforts to protect the border.

[Bruce H]

Just remember all the little unimportant sounding laws that are passed and signed every year. Sooner or later one will be used against you when they need it. The ranger would look good in a choya bush but I don't see the need to harm a choya.

[Waitone]

The fact that the ranger is a woman leads me to believe that she is one of the bleeding heart types that was jumping at an opportunity to put the border vigilantes out of business.BINGO

It seems the National Park Service officer may have had multiple agenda's. Read it carefully to gain the full impact


http://www.americanpatrol.com/FEATURES/030128-CHRIS-SIMCOX-BUSTED-NPS/HarveySimcox.html


Transcript of interview of Henry Harvey

by Glenn Spencer, January 27, 2003

Describing the arrest of Chris Simcox by Park Service Officer, on Saturday, January 26.

Simcox was arrested just inside the fence line of the Coronado National Monument. Harvey was with Simcox, but did not cross the fence into Monument grounds. Harvey is a former law enforcement officer.

SPENCER: You're telling me that after Chris was apprehended, this Border Patrol Agent, said I'm Hispanic and I don't like what you're doing.... I mean this National Park Service Officer, excuse me.

HARVEY: She said: "I'm Hispanic and I don't like what you're doing." Now before that, Chris had made it very clear that he was Chris Simcox of the Civil Homeland Defense. He said that very pointedly, and there was not any doubt that he had identified himself correctly. But when they got in, they were transmitting the message for backup, they transmitted that two suspects were apprehended and that they were suspected of being members of American Border Patrol. They transmitted that two or three times over the radio.

SPENCER: Now this is an important piece of data. And I have to admit, on camera, that I was a little suspicious of Chris when he said they arrested me because they thought I was with you. But what you're saying is that they were out gunning for us, not him.

HARVEY: Well, the implication is that way because he explained it very clearly that he was Civil Homeland Defense and what their mission was, they were answering the president's call for volunteerism and they were going to walk along the border and if they saw any illegal entrances, they would call the Border Patrol. That's when she said the statement that she was Hispanic and she didn't like what he was doing. Now the clarity of how they defined who they were, and then for them to confuse it or misstate it in the radio traffic between the agency -- and I heard it either two or three times -- I don't recall precisely what the number was very clear that they thought they had American Border Patrol.

SPENCER: Interesting. Interesting.

HARVEY: And before that, I was speaking with an agent on the border and he asked me was I with American Border Patrol and since I wasn't on an official mission I just didn't answer his question. I don't know how you feel about identifying...

SPENCER: If you have a Hawkeye ID you can say anything you want.

According to Simcox, the agent mentioned her Hispanic heritage three times during the interrogation.

Note: According to reports, the park ranger confiscated Simcox's weapon (he has a permit to carry, but there are rules against bringing loaded weapons onto the Coronado National Monument) , his camera, and his cell phone with all his phone numbers in the memory. Some observers suspect that the ranger was acting on her own as a "self-styled vigilante."

[DeltaElite]

Ok, Simcox was charged with the weapons offense. It is common to sieze the weapon as evidence.
So why were his cell phone and other items taken?
Sounds like theft to me.
Sadly these people have Le power, but are not qualified to be Le, they are park monitors and they don't even do that well.

[Gordon]

I don't go into National Parks packing, but what if those "rangers hiding in bushes" were illeagals? This school teacher(kindergarten) needs a lesson in bushcraft!:rolleyes:

[Uncle Ethan]

I knew a firearm had to be unloaded and locked in a container in a Park, but I didn't know that went for Monuments too!!:scrutiny:

[foghornl]

My closest border is the "North Shore of America" i.e. Lake Erie, but i am armed at home anyway....

Can't carry in Ohio :cuss:

[Thumper]

DeltaElite, you said:
Sounds like a set up, but Dumb and Dumber allowed it to happen due to their own outright stupidity.
The man said he was out hiking. I tend to believe him, as all the news pics I've seen of these guys show them in full cammo totin' ARs when on patrol.

He crossed a fence? You hike much? If you do, I'm sure you've held the strands of a barbed wire fence for your buddy to go through. Nothing illegal about that if the land's not posted, which this evidently wasn't.

He was carrying a gun? :what: You mentioned yourself that:FWIW, I wouldn't go near the border unarmed.

I'm all for armed citizens patrolling the border. Kudos to this guy and those with him for getting off their duffs and doing something.