I pulled into the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Balsam Gap N.C. entrance on 2-17-18 in order to test a hammock I had made. I found the gate closed & locked so I turned my car around in the only feasible place available & being a good citizen I left this area open & pulled off the road to where any traffic could easily turn around & get by my car. I saw Department of Interior National Parks Service Supervisor Chuck Hester pull up just as I was finishing my test, he opened the gate, drove past my car & turned around & pulled behind my car but blocking the whole south lane & facing the wrong way up towards the Parkway with no lights or flashers on. He got out & approached me As he drew near I wondered why he was approaching me & sat back down in the hammock I had been untying & ask him if the Parkway was now open. He said he could not hear me & came closer. I ask again & he said yes, it was now open after being closed due to a rock slide. I answered good, I was going to go get in my car & go onto it. He ask if it was my car parked down there, I told him, yes, I ask him if it was okay if I parked there not knowing why he was not leaving me in peace, telling him I left the only pull off spot available open for other drivers who drove up not being able to see the gate closed until you drove up to it, a bad Parkway practice.He answered my car was legally parked he just came up to see what I was doing. I told him testing out a hammock I had made on different trees.. The National Parks Service Ranger ask me for ID, this surprised me & I ask if I had done anything wrong or criminal or violated any ordinance, he answered I had not, he just wanted my ID to tell his supervisor to whom he had spoken to. I told him if I did not do anything wrong, did not commit a crime or violate any ordinance, his supervisor had no reason to know who I am. He seemed to become really upset and ask me why I was evasive. I told him I was not being evasive, but like a muscle, we Americans needed to exercise our Constitutional Rights to keep them strong, I had sworn an oath upon entering the USAF to defend the Constitution against those like him & respectfully my name was none of his business & that he should just please leave me in peace. . He ask if the car he had said was legally parked was registered to me in his attempt to show me he is boss over my Rights & he would get my name no matter what Rights & Liberties the Founders endowed us mere Citizens with. I answered honestly "No, it is registered to my soon to be wife" & he said because I was LEGALLY exercising my Rights he did not know if I had permission to drive that car and he was going to seize it until he got my name and found out if I had permission to drive it. Violating my 4th Amendment Rights. This Ranger, ego hurt, generated probable cause to UNLAWFULLY seize my car (And later me) out of what he did not know, a criminal offense on his part. Even reasonable suspicion needs be based on facts an officer DOES know and can say. Probable cause is a higher standard. I gather my things & as I walked down he turns his SUV around now to face the back of my car & turns his lights on. I get my phone & record. This too fails & although he says I was not detained he detained me when I tried to move past his car and video his tag number... So now I am seized & ILLEGALLY deprived of the precious American unalienable Right of Liberty itself, let alone my possessions seized without a warrant, probable cause or even reasonable suspicion. I am now in fear for my life, I can see this officer is operating outside the law & his hand always goes back down to his gun. Three cars of Haywood County North Carolina officers descend on the scene like there was a murder going on, actually there was a murder, a murder of my scared Constitutional Rights so many brave Americans have died defending from people like this. I am put in more fear for my life by an officer who stands to the left side of me sometimes fingering his gun like he wants to murder me for talking back to a uniformed government official, which is the only crime I committed, arrogance of Liberty. . Soon Chuck Hester tells me I am no longer being detained & I ask him what reasonable suspicion he had to both detain me & seize property against my Constitutional Rights. Chuck Hester admits the only reason he seized my car and me was because I invoked my Constitutional Rights & it upset him. The federal courts have stated time and time again that refusal to ID or consent to a police request or questions does not, itself alone, rise to the level of reasonable suspicion. Refusal to ID is protected under the 1st, 4th, 5th & 14th Amendments and this officer stated that my refusal alone, not a crime, led him to believe I did not have a permission slip to drive the car I had keys to and full possession of. He had had NO reasonable suspicion, just disdain for my Rights.

• published: 24 Mar 2018
• views: 3779