Lawsuit Settled
This goes back 7 years, but lawsuits do take time to settle out.
From the article: In 2012, a disabled Marine veteran was visiting the Sequoia National Park in California, where he says a National Park Service ranger used excessive force against him over his use of a handicapped parking spot.
Dominic Esquibel said that despite displaying an appropriate handicapped marker, a park ranger didn’t believe he was disabled. Esquibel wears brace on his leg for an injury from a 2011 bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
The end of the confrontation allegedly ended with the parking ranger kicking the Marine veteran’s injured leg and handcuffing him.
“I’m combat wounded, and you’re kicking my salvaged limb,” Esquibel said he told the ranger and his nearby partner, according to the Washington Post.
A charge against Esquibel for failing to follow a lawful order was dropped, but he filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the excessive force that could result in the loss of his leg. — Article
Esquibel lost his heel and part of the ankle, and has been wearing a brace to provide support. Since there are no real details in regard to what happened between the park ranger and the Marine, a judgment call is difficult to make. Likewise, there is nothing about what happened to the park ranger afterwards, which makes information incomplete. And the term “handicapped” does not necessarily mean that the handicapped person requires the use of a wheelchair or anything else.
No, I don’t feel like digging up the details of Esquibel’s lawsuit or the written copy of the charge against him, which was dropped.
However, I am unaware of any training for park rangers that includes physical roughness in regard to park visitors, whether it’s a county, state or national park. I’m not saying that there are no such obnoxious people acting as park rangers. The only physical activity I can think of that might be required includes confronting an intoxicated idiot, or, as my nephew discovered when he worked briefly as a park ranger, stopping poachers and smugglers in their tracks. But it did, after all, take place during a prior administration. YMMV. 🙂
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Marines
I really doubt Obama hand selected a park ranger. I will note an incredible asshole of a ranger who hassled us at Carlsbad Caverns, whom we learned years later was fired for being an incredible asshole. But in general, I have to say most park tourists seem to be insensitive pigs, too.
I’ve seen way more awful tourists, but I have dealt with bad employees. Most of my seasonal time involved saving stupid tourists from themselves. Some of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen are courtesy of tourists on NPS and FS land. Obviously not the case here though.
I will second this. I could recount volumes relating to stupid tourist. Stationed in Alaska in the early 80s my Dustoff unit was part of DoDs MAST program in which we performed Medevac and SAR for the civilian community. The stupid was strong.
Props to you because Alaska SAR is intense. I’ve only worked in the lower 48.
At one posting I spent way too much time carrying or haranguing people down our most difficult trails who were completely out of shape, only brought a bottle of water, wore flip flops, didn’t realize it gets hot in the desert, brought their young children, etc.
At another people constantly crowded the animals (including sow bears with cubs), leaving food out in camp, going into dangerous areas with selfies, going off boardwalks onto unstable thermal areas (despite numerous lurid pictographs), and so on. The conspiracy theorists were hilarious.
I’m continually amazed the DOI run places have so few deaths and injuries.
Obama hand selected many rump rangers.
“Dominic Esquibel, who served with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, was awarded the nation’s second highest valor award for braving enemy machine gunfire three times to save two fellow Marines during Operation Phantom Fury. Esquibel declined the Navy Cross.” Battle Rattle article 6/10/2014
Seems like a rather modest and humble man.
Asswhole NPS Ranger or Outstanding Warrior Marine?
You pick!
I always put my money on the USMC!
👍👍
I’m with you and Skippy Master Chief. Have done many a history program for local, state and National Parks. Most of the Park Ranger types have been outstanding stewards of the Parks and good people. However, there are assholes everywhere and in every job category.
I am with you on that one Master Chief. Dominic Esquibel is far more respectable and a far better man (by miles) than that dickheaded ranger ever will be or could ever hope to be. I sure hope both him and the park employee that caused the confrontation have been fired. Unsurprisingly, not many people are siding with them either. Thankfully many are instead siding with Esquibel. It seems like he might have to get his leg amputated thanks to Mr. Danger Ranger.
I’ve had many dealings with asshole because of my disabilities
I have severe nerve damage from a crash injury overseas
I have a permanent handicap plates
But my issues can be deceptive some days I’m able to walk
And function fine and then out of the blue all hell breaks loose
Embarrassingly I have a cane and carry a walker in my truck
While most of the time I don’t need them, I keep the walker on stand by just in case
I tend not to park in handicap spots unless I need to for my legs going out
It’s stuff like this that’s pisses me off..
a buddy of mine lost his leg and his right foot and while we
Are out and about the stares we get is troubles me because
He’s able to walk without a stick
So he get to a shopping cart and removes his left leg
Then the Stares turn to horror
To goes to show one should never judge
Gets to a shopping cart and removes his left leg…?
Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll bet that scares the crap right out of the Disgruntleds!!!
Skippy,
Ditto. I have handicapped plates on both of my vehicles. I can walk…most days. Some days either my hip flares up (pending hip replacement), or my back flares up (exploded disc between L5 and S1). Those days I use the front spots when available. When I toddle in to the store, people always give me the “You don’t LOOK disabled”. WTF is that supposed to mean?
I also do Spartan Races with Operation Enduring Warrior. People ask why I do them if i’m broke. What the hell am I supposed to do? Lay on my damn couch all day and feel sorry for myself?
If you’re ‘disabled’, you’re apparently supposed to be curled up in a ball in the corner of a room with your t-shirt pulled over your head to drown out The Voices. Or if that is insufficient, you’re supposed to be barely able to move without squawking.
PCS’d to Ft Drum, NY in 1983. The german wife of one of one of my friends there had lost her leg below the knee in an accident at an early age and wore a prosthesis.
She went shopping in Watertown and parked in a handicapped space and started to go into a store and a cop told her over the PA in his car she had to move. She was wearing pants and snow boots because of the snow. She told him she was handicapped and grabbed her placard to show him. He said she didn’t look handicapped and wrote her a ticket.
When she went to court, she wore a dress but not her prosthesis. Her husband wearing his Dress Green uniform accompanied her. The judge called her case, watched her approach on crutches and dismissed her case without her speaking a word. He next asked for the cop and the prosecuting attorney to join him in his office for a chat.
It’s Californica, what does one expect, Pelosi probably loaned her limo to the fella to get back to Maxico after all it is a sanctuary state, illegals are working everywhere. Good rifle and scope and let the Marine kneecap the ranger and give him the experience of a leg that is disabled. Oh wait, paybacks are not allowed.
The thing you have to remember is that there are two completely different kinds of “park rangers.”
There are the ones who majored in Forestry or Biology or Archaeology or Anthropology and who take a $40k/year (if they’re lucky) job because they love what they do and they love working in some of the most beautiful parts of the country.
These kinds of rangers wear the standard uniforms but never an equipment belt or any kind of weapon. They’re the ones who most people at the park interact with.
Then there are the “law enforcement” rangers. They drive marked police vehicles with blue lights, carry weapons and have the power to make arrests. They are sworn LEO’s who have attended a Federal Law Enforcement academy.
IOW they are cops and attract the exact same mix of people to their profession as any other police force. Like any other police force, they occasionally attract the arrogant “bad cops” who misuse their authority.
Now it’s true that SOME of the first type of ranger will eventually become the second – but it’s not as common as you’d think. Most “interpretive” park rangers have zero interest in becoming cops.
And BTW this applies to other Federal lands as well such as National Forests (which fall under the Department of Agriculture) and Bureau of Land Management.
This incident fell in in the “bad cop” category:
“Court records show that the park employee later admitted to trying to stop Esquibel because she wanted to save the parking space for a co-worker who was coming to replace her at the end of her shift.”
Technically there are three with the non-LEO rangers split between actual full time career rangers and seasonals. If she was at the entrance booth she was probably the latter, and would have had even less business handling LEO work than a permanent park ranger.
In the PDRofMD Park Rangers wield the same authority as the State Police.
Why did this happen? Because it could in the United States of America where the police enjoy a huge amount of leniency regardless of how they treat any American citizen.
In many instances where the victim isn’t a decorated American Marine you don’t even hear about the mistreatment.
You’ll hear plenty of police apologists telling you hard the job is though, and how you shouldn’t judge if you’ve never done the job. If the criteria in American for voicing an opinion was you had to do the job before voicing that opinion I suspect it would be a lot quieter around the nation than it is now.
Agreed. Even with all the information available, there’s still a commenter or two on the USMC Times article that can’t get enough LEO boot / cock in their mouths.
I have some cops in my family and know a lot of good, reasonable, responsible guys in law enforcement. I’m generally pro-LE. That being said, there’s also power-tripping dickheads with “I AM the law!” fantasies in that category.
It seems to me that accountability in law enforcement is badly skewed. There’s far too many good cops who get the proverbial hammer dropped via internal discipline and/or politics and public opinion when they’ve done nothing wrong. At the same time, the assholes all-too-frequently get the wagons circled around them when they cross the line. Add to this the fact that such incidents will usually (admittedly not always) involve an asshole on the receiving end, and the crowd that actively tries to find any fault, real or imagined, on the cops’ part, and you have a swampy mess.
More details from
https://taskandpurpose.com/dominic-esquibel-national-park-lawsuit
“….When he said he was disabled, the park employee replied: “I can see that you’re not,” the lawsuit states. The park employee called a park ranger, who arrived a short time later and began questioning Esquibel.
Court records show that the park employee later admitted to trying to stop Esquibel because she wanted to save the parking space for a co-worker who was coming to replace her at the end of her shift….”
I’ve done seasonal work with DOI agencies including the Park Service. This is weird because NPS park rangers don’t do actual law enforcement. They can give citations for things like campground violations, but actual police type work is left to the NPS law enforcement rangers. If she was working the entrance booth I highly doubt she was an LEO, or even a full time NPS employee. I don’t know how in the hell she thought she was justified to put her hands on someone or kick them.
It wasn’t her Eo. She called an enforcement ranger to handle him. All because she wanted to save a parking space for the employee replacing her.
I misunderstood the article, thank you for clarifying. I’m still baffled by why it escalated like this.
No problem Eo. And I am just as confused as you my friend. And the guy was more than willing to cooperate too. I sure hope both of them were fired. Pretty hypocritical too when you think about it (unless the coworker is also disabled which if he/she is not, then they would be doing the exact thing he was accused of.). And all of this happened just because she wanted to save a damn parking space for her coworker. Absolutely pathetic.
I think I might have found the Park Ranger’s name.
I always find it amusing when a a LEO (maybe a LEO here, maybe not) misbehaves some people take it as time to indict the entire law enforcement profession, take all police everywhere and group them all together and give them a good internet rage post beat down. Says volumes about the posters.
If they were one-offs I might agree with you.
It’s a matter of how we the people want to be policed as a society. Any government is a contract between a free people and it’s governing body.
Agreeing to be policed doesn’t mean that we are submitting to the police. That’s a distinction lost on our modern society.
Actually you do. Somewhere, somehow, some people have lost track of the concept of the police merely being the enforcement arm of ROL. If you don’t want to submit to ROL then the police will try to find you and try to make you submit to ROL. What happens after that is up to you.