[url=http://www.azstarnet.com/border/br-simcoxarrest.html]Simcox, companion cited by park ranger[/url]
Monday, January 27, 2003

The leader of a Tombstone citizens' patrol group faces three misdemeanor charges after he walked armed into Coronado National Memorial near the Arizona-Mexico border Sunday.

Chris Simcox was with a companion when they walked onto National Park Service land south of Sierra Vista and were stopped by a ranger.

Simcox said the two were simply hiking, but Chief Ranger Thane Weigand said it appears that they were conducting a border patrol operation without permission.

A ranger detained Simcox and his friend, William Dore, for more than three hours before citing both of them, they said. [red]Simcox was charged with carrying a loaded weapon inside a national park, operating without a special use permit and interfering with a law enforcement function. Dore was cited for operating without a special use permit.[/red]

[red]Rangers confiscated equipment Simcox was carrying: his pistol, two two-way radios, a police scanner, a cellular phone and a digital camera. "It's evidence of him conducting a non-permitted activity in the national park," Weigand said.[/red]

Simcox, who owns the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper, leads one of at least three citizens' groups in Southern Arizona that patrol the border, sometimes armed, in search of illegal border-crossers. Simcox's group, called Civil Homeland Defense, patrolled on Saturday but not Sunday, he said.

Simcox says he and Dore were driving west along the border road when they came to a fence and gate beyond which, a sign said, vehicles were not permitted. So they decided to park and walk in. Simcox says he would not have gone in armed had he realized the fence marked the Coronado National Memorial's boundary.


[i]{a previous version of the story included this also}[/i]
They were driving along Border Road when they came to a fence with a sign that said no vehicles were permitted, Simcox said. 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 cell phone and his pistol.

Weigand said the charges against Simcox and Dore are misdemeanors.

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

[url=http://www.americanpatrol.com/]She Said WHAT?????[/url]
Hereford, AZ (ABP - Jan 27, 2003) Last Saturday a Park Service Ranger admitted a bias against border enforcement when apprehending a border activist on the Coronado National Monument.

According to former law enforcement officer [b]Henry Harvey[/b], [red]the Park Ranger told Chris Simcox of the Homeland Civil Defense Organization, "I am Hispanic and I don't like what you're doing." [/red]According to press reports, Simcox was arrested and cited for carrying a loaded firearm on national park lands and for an unauthorized "border patrol."

In an exclusive interview with American Border Patrol, Harvey says the encounter suggested that someone in the Park Service was out after American Border Patrol.



[url=http://www.americanpatrol.com/FEATURES/030128-CHRIS-SIMCOX-BUSTED-NPS/HarveySimcox.html]Describing the arrest of Chris Simcox by Park Service Officer, on Saturday, January 26.[/url]

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: [red]She said: "I'm Hispanic and I don't like what you're doing."[/red] 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.



[red]According to Simcox, the agent mentioned her Hispanic heritage three times during the interrogation.[/red]

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. [red]Some observers suspect that the ranger was acting on her own as a "self-styled vigilante."[/red]

Quoted:
National Park = NO WEAPONS(I dont agree with it, but they make the rules)

Quoted:

No cellphones, no walkie-talkies, no police scanners, no cameras... [rolleyes]

[i]Rangers confiscated equipment Simcox was carrying: his pistol, two two-way radios, a police scanner, a cellular phone and a digital camera. "It's evidence of him conducting a non-permitted activity in the national park," Weigand said.[/i]

Quoted:

You and I both know they took those as "evidence" for the operating without a special use permit charge 9whatever the hell that means). I sure as hell dont agree with it, but it seems as though the gubmnt can make their own rules in National Parks. I know this and I'm pretty positive Chris was aware of it too.

Quoted:

Huh?

No I [b]DON'T[/b] know that those things were evidence of ANYTHING!

Simcox works for the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper - a camera is his livelihood. A cellphone is evidence of what??????

Just what kind of "non-permitted activity" were they doing with a cellphone and camera?!

[b]kay9[/b] don't EVEN try to defend or excuse or diminish in ANY way at all the confiscation of an American Patriot's camera, phone and radio by a fucking, fascist, badge-carrying member of the Aztlan 5th Column!!

Why didn't this fucking POS Hispanic/Latina/Chicana Border Agent confiscate his shoes, hat and sunglasses too?

Oh fuckit - you may never understand.

1. PURPOSES OF NATIONAL PARKS

The purposes of national parks are -

1.1 conservation of nature, including all native species and ecosystems, biodiversity, evolutionary and other processes, natural features and scenery, landforms and waterways, and

1.2 preservation of cultural heritage, both Aboriginal and introduced.

1.3 provision of appropriate (minimal impact, nature - oriented) recreation opportunities compatible with 1.1 and 1.2.

1.1 has priority over 1.2

2. APPROPRIATE RECREATION.

Recreational activities in national parks are appropriate if they accord with the purposes of national parks (See 1 and definition)

3. INAPPROPRIATE RECREATION.

3.1 Forms of recreation judged to be discordant with the specific purposes of national parks (see 1) should not be permitted within national parks.

3.2 Governments at all levels must attempt to find suitable alternative sites outside national parks for legitimate types of recreation which are inappropriate in national parks.

Quoted:
1. PURPOSES OF NATIONAL PARKS

The purposes of national parks are -

1.1 conservation of nature, including all native species and ecosystems, biodiversity, evolutionary and other processes, natural features and scenery, landforms and waterways, and

1.2 preservation of cultural heritage, both Aboriginal and introduced.

1.3 provision of appropriate (minimal impact, nature - oriented) recreation opportunities compatible with 1.1 and 1.2.

1.1 has priority over 1.2

2. APPROPRIATE RECREATION.

Recreational activities in national parks are appropriate if they accord with the purposes of national parks (See 1 and definition)

3. INAPPROPRIATE RECREATION.

3.1 Forms of recreation judged to be discordant with the specific purposes of national parks (see 1) should not be permitted within national parks.

3.2 Governments at all levels must attempt to find suitable alternative sites outside national parks for legitimate types of recreation which are inappropriate in national parks.


[red]How can you not see that the things they took from him support their charge? [/red]

Quoted:
He shoulda known better than to go into the park.