The Squad Has a Meltdown Over Pro-Terrorism Encampments Getting Dismantled
New Polling Shows the Left's Climate Change Hysteria Losing Steam
Joe Biden Just Lost Another Battle With His Teleprompter
Biden's Use of TikTok Cited to Support Company's Lawsuit Against the Government
Police Officer Stuck in BLM Nightmare
Rep. Brian Mast Has Perfect Response to Pro-Hamas Activists Ambushing Him
Speaker Mike Johnson Gets to Keep His Job
Prosecutor Leading Stormy Daniels Questioning In Trump Trial Is a Major Biden Donor
Trump Finds Brilliant Way to Sidestep Judge Merchan's Unconstitutional Gag Order
Lloyd Austin Confirms Delay in Aid to Israel: 'We’ve Paused One Shipment of...
Here’s Why This Democrat Rep Thinks NPR Is 'Necessary’ for Americans
Department of Education's Move Forces Jewish Groups to Pull Out of Meeting
Sickening: 'Newcomer' Illegal Immigrant Arrested in Florida for Heinous Crime
The IRA Is Punishing Small Businesses and Putting Cancer Patients at Risk
House Dems Are Asking for Executive Action on the Border, but KJP of...
Tipsheet

Park Service Director Cries Terrorism on Shutting Down Veteran Memorials

Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service, cited the inability to maintain security as the primary reason for shutting down federal properties, including the open air WWII veterans' memorial. His statement at a recent Congressional hearing directly contradicts several earlier reports suggesting that extra security staff members were hired during the shutdown to erect and police physical barriers and that they were told to be as obstructive as possible.

Advertisement

Republican House Representatives Darrell Issa and Doc Hastings called for the hearing in light of the fact that the National Park Service's response to the federal shutdown extended to barricading open air parks and placing traffic cones along scenic overlooks like Mount Rushmore.

The director's full testimony to Congress can be found here, but it can be summed up as a non-apology blaming the inability of a furloughed workforce to meet the safety and security concerns of a "post-9/11 world" for the National Park Service's actions despite the fact that law enforcement officers, firefighters, border protections, and surveillance programs were maintained throughout the furloughs.

The American public is not going to buy Jarvis's thinly veiled references to terrorism when there were clearly enough staff members to throw families out of privately operated campsites, prohibit weddings, and stand in the way of veterans - all while losing revenue that could supposedly pay some of the security workers Jarvis thinks are necessary.

Critics pointed out that the government shutdown was unprecedented, but the National Park Service response was extreme:

"If they set precedent in 1995-96, why couldn't that precedent be followed today?" said Gregory Bryan, mayor of the town of Tusayan, Ariz., near the Grand Canyon. "I have a hard time believing it took them 10 days to figure out a new policy."..."The administration just wanted the American people to feel the pain of the shutdown in a very visible way," Bryan said.
Advertisement
One managing director of an independent business that operates on National Park property emphasized that the previous shutdown did not require her to cease operations as the recent one did:
"I don't know if Obama said go and [annoy] the American people," said Eberly..."But there was a shutdown less than 20 years ago. People remember that and what happened then. This situation is just bone-headed."

Jarvis is right that there is one crucial difference between the last shutdown and the present one, a difference that pushed the National Park Service to political theater and extremism. It is just not so much a "post-9/11 world" as a post-negotiation Washington.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement