I was near the 120/140 junction. A ranger pulled me over. The ranger said I was speeding and gave me a ticket. He said if I do not pay the fine it would be perceived that I wish to take it to court and will be assigned a court date. Weeks went by and I didn't pay the fine and I waited for a court date. The yellow tick had a phone number and address for Atlanta Georgia office where they handle tickets from all the national parks. When I told them my ticket number they said they haven't received it yet and said it was a very old ticketing system. I called several more times over the course of a few months and they never received the ticket from Yosemite which used a very old ticketing system. It has been many years and nothing has come from this and DMV has no record of it. This would coincide with other stories I was told by other employees who encountered this particular asshole ranger. The stories and rumors I have heard about this ranger is he writes bogus tickets that never get turned in and his objective is to collect your name, address, and drivers license info and keep it in a personal folder at his house. As an former park employee, I lived in the park for four years, maintaining an excellent work status with not a spot on my criminal record. That was until I was arrested for walking home under the influence of alcohol. My frustration isn't only centered on the rangers, but also on the federal prosecutors who vehemently push decent people into criminal status. Given a zero tolerance probation, I found myself being harassed at work and in my residence. Rangers would even patrol outside my window. Are these their daily unheralded efforts to save lives and keep the park and visitors safe that Yosemite Supt. Mike Tollefson speaks of? The collusion between rangers and prosecutors turn any minute infraction into a criminal situation, which the average employee can't fight in court. I encourage everyone who has been railroaded by rangers and prosecutors to write to Tollefson and help him see what's really going on. I heard that most police staff in the United States have 18-24 months of training which includes law and self defense. But these Yosemite Rangers have 6 weeks of training and they get a badge and a gun. I suspect they don't learn any California law and little self defense. I suspect there is little requirement to become a ranger since some of the park concessionaire employee become rangers them selves. It's those rangers who were once employees of the concessionaire are the nicest but eventually move to other parks. Park Rangers Over the Line at Yosemite? Critics see pattern of abusing their authority as police. The evening had begun so well. After wine and dinner at the elegant Ahwahnee Hotel last year, Australian tourists Margaret and Andre Vischer stepped into the frigid High Sierra night and got into their rental car. As they drove through the first dark intersection, neither of them noticed the park ranger's vehicle. Andre, 58, recalled seeing a stop sign and lightly touching the brakes but not coming to a full stop. After they were pulled over by the rangers, Andre Vischer said he told them about the bottle of wine he and his wife had shared during their four- hour dinner. Both Vischers were given Breathalyzer tests. His blood alcohol registered .08, the minimum at which a person is considered legally drunk. Hers tested at .06. Andre Vischer was frisked, handcuffed, read his rights and taken away by two rangers. Another ranger drove the couple's rental car while Margaret Vischer remained at the side of the road where a male ranger frisked her, handcuffed her and took her to Yosemite's small jail to spend the night. There she was fingerprinted, photographed, questioned and told to strip, shower and put on an orange jumpsuit. When she asked why she was being jailed even though her blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit and she was not driving, she said rangers told her they considered her a danger to herself and others. The next day she was released without being charged. The couple spent Margaret Vischer's 60th birthday a few days later at the park's federal courthouse, where Andre Vischer pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and paid a $2,500 fine. The whole thing was totally intimidating and humiliating and totally unnecessary, Margaret Vischer said in a recent telephone interview from the couple's home in Sydney, Australia. Cam Sholly, Yosemite's deputy chief ranger, said the decision to arrest Margaret Vischer was discretionary. This was a fine line between taking someone into custody for their own safety and releasing someone whose judgment is impaired to a degree that they could be a danger to themselves, he said. But Margaret Vischer's story has a familiar ring to other visitors, employees and defense attorneys with similar accounts of alleged overzealous policing in a place where people come to relax and expect to be treated like guests. Most of the people who have questioned the conduct of park rangers have acknowledged doing something out of line. Nonetheless, they contend that the treatment by park rangers was out of proportion to the minor infractions they committed and out of place in a national park. Leah Sesto, an 18-year-old clerk in the park in 2000, said she was dragged out of bed by rangers and arrested on suspicion of being drunk a few hours after friends had escorted her to her room. It was the first time I'd ever had anything to drink, said Sesto, who described herself as a goody- goody church kid. She pleaded guilty to being under the influence of alcohol. Interviewed at the park, Yosemite Superintendent Mike Tollefson vigorously defended his rangers, saying their daily unheralded efforts to save lives and keep the park and visitors safe far outstripped occasional judgment errors. I would adamantly disagree that there is a zero-tolerance policy in this park, Tollefson said. We certainly have problems periodically. Of the complaints we get, law enforcement is the minority, but we take those the most seriously. Despite its bucolic setting amid towering granite walls and waterfalls, Yosemite National Park is subject to the same social ills that police contend with elsewhere. In the mid-1980s a report from the Interior Department's inspector general found a prostitution ring operating at the Ahwahnee Hotel and estimated that 85 percent of the park's commercial workforce used illegal drugs. Five years ago, three tourists and a nature guide were slain. In October, a manhunt for another multiple killer led to a remote section of the park where the suspect started a 2,000-acre fire before fatally shooting himself. If you let your guard down, we might lose a ranger here in Yosemite. I don't want that to happen, Sholly said. Today, 50 full-time rangers are responsible for enforcing the law in the 1,200-square-mile park. They deal with assaults, thefts, arson, illegal hunting and vandalism. Park officials said there had been more than 4,600 citations this year and 306 arrests, higher than last year's tally but well below the record high of 846 arrests in 1992. Tollefson said he stresses the importance of getting out of patrol cars and interacting with visitors. Our job here is to educate and to articulate why the park is important, he said. Yet much of the criticism of law-enforcement practices in the park centers on the way rangers respond to people who question why they're being stopped. One of the things I see as a pattern is people being arrested for mouthing off to rangers, said Carrie Leonetti, an assistant federal public defender who represents people arrested in the park. Time and time again I have clients tell me that they are arrested for asking questions such as, Am I being detained? John Reynolds, former director of the Park Service's Western region, which includes Yosemite, said in a recent interview that the park had long had a reputation for no-nonsense policing. Yosemite was upsetting from a number of points of view, said Reynolds, who resigned in 2000. There was a fair amount of concern -- unsubstantiated concern -- at the regional office level. Employees of the parks concessionaire say rangers shadow them waiting for the slightest infraction and talk about sleeping with one eye open. Climbers who gather here to scale the park's famous granite walls joke about getting tooled in the valley. Tollefson acknowledged there had been conflicts with climbers, whom he said are at the edge in a variety of ways. Drugs and alcohol figure into many arrests in the park, said Sholly, pointing out that there are as many as 20 establishments in Yosemite where alcohol is served or sold at various times of year. He said rangers would be derelict if they were not on the lookout for drunken drivers, given the park's winding roads, distracting scenery and wandering wildlife. Yet critics contend that rangers, at times, can pose the greatest threat. Don Squires, an Alameda County Superior Court judge, said he witnessed such an incident in summer 2000. According to Squires and official reports, a group of British soldiers was drinking beer at a crowded outdoor cafe in Yosemite Valley. The young men were singing raucously, Squires said, but he and his wife, who were chaperoning several young children, saw nothing but bonhomie on a lovely afternoon. However, after a patron complained that one of the soldiers mooned someone in the crowd, Squires said rangers quickly intervened, hog-tieing and striking one of the soldiers as they dragged him off the deck. It was an excessive use of force and an outrageous abuse of authority, Squires said. was stone-cold sober just a few feet away with an uninterrupted view, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a terrible thing for kids to see. The soldier pleaded guilty to being under the influence of alcohol, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. It's not always visitors who run afoul of Yosemite rangers. Park workers complain they have been charged with public drunkenness simply for drinking a beer on the front steps of employee dormitories or as they walked from their rooms to nearby bathrooms. One young woman was stopped after leaving a party in July and charged with internal possession of alcohol, a reference to the contents of her stomach. The charge was dismissed. Stories such as that abound in the valley, said Greg Johnson, vice president of the local Service Employees International Union, which represents concessions employees in the park. Tollefson disagreed. I don't think we have rangers hiding in the bushes waiting for concessions employees to do something wrong, the park superintendent said. Yet some employees say fear of harassment causes them to live outside the park, entailing longer commutes and higher rents. I moved away from my home of eight years because of it, said Bryan Kay, 33, who lived and worked in the valley and volunteered on the park's search and rescue team. I packed my bags. I said, I'm moving to America. Now I commute an hour and a half to my job. Accused stopped or just being followed? I was in my car but not stopped but just followed or I was stopped and harassed. Traffic Accident May or may not be my fault but was harassed and or accused. Walking I was walking minding my own business when. Bike Riding I was riding my bike when. Climbers who were harassed by rangers for climbing issues. housing Areas Rangers harassing you in housing? Lodging Were you harassed in a guest lodging area? Camp Grounds Camping or camp site issues or on the trails? Without Consent Officer demanded or was threatening to get entry. Officer had possession of a warrant. With Consent You allowed officer to enter whether requested or demanded. The John Muir Hotel I spent the night in jail and this is how they treated me. My day in court The things that went on in that place. General Harassment General harassment not found in the above subjects. I just want to know what other people would think of a permit system for big wall climbs in the valley. I have certainly been harassed before just because my car was parked at the base and the rangers took it upon themselves to break into my car to get my personal info. Needless to say I don't want this to happen again. I know permits have their pros and cons I just don't want those tools to break into my car again just because they are "concerned". What do you guys think??? Rangers breaking into your car doesn't justify a permit system. It does, however, justify suing the sh#t out of the rangers for unlawful search and seizure. I know it doesn't justify a permit system. The rangers in yosemite seem to get away with alot. I would rather go through a hassle of getting a permit than the hassle of suing the NPS. In the winter of 2005 I parked my car along HWY 41 looking for the trailhead that leaves the park heading toward the S.fork of the Merced River. I parked there to hike along the trail a couple of times and also parked near Alder Creek. I was later in the Wawona grocery store buying bread and milk and there was a ranger at the register talking to the cashier. I left and walked up to the Wawona Hotel where I was parked. The ranger drove over to me and stopped me as I was getting into my vehicle. He told me my vehicle had been spotted parked along highway 41 in "suspicious areas". I had no idea there are any "suspicious areas" in Yosemite. I told him I had parked near a trailhead! This ranger was a serious freak and I have heard that he got in plenty of trouble harrassing people in Wawona. This is the ranger who shot the wild turkey last spring near employee housing in Wawona. I was really disappointed to be questioned with no probable cause. I went to Chongo's trial in Yosemite (Issue 14, Letters, "The Trouble with Chongo"), which ended up taking three days because of the number of witnesses. Dean Potter, Ivo Ninov, Dave Griffith and one of the Yosemite bus drivers testified on Chongo's behalf. More climbers wanted to testify for Chongo, but were afraid that they would become targets of ranger harassment in the future. The people who work in the cafeteria even sent a letter saying that they all like Chongo and have absolutely no problem with him being there. Three of the rangers who had been assigned to "surveil" Chongo testified against him. Although Ranger Ed Visnovske's report [published in Alpinist 14] labelled Chongo a "master of countersurveillance," I don't know anyone who fits that description less than Chongo. Maybe Ed was joking, or just trying to make an excuse? All the rangers admitted they had never actually caught Chongo sleeping in the Valley. Chongo's attorney made the point that it is not illegal to be in the park 365 days a year and that there was absolutely no evidence that Chongo was "living" there. I only went to law school for a week, but I always thought that in our legal system people were innocent until proven guilty. Since there was no proof against Chongo, I assumed he would have to be ruled innocent. In the prosecuting attorney's closing argument, she even accidentally referred to Chongo as "the victim." I was bewildered when the judge ruled Chongo guilty. As we left the courtroom, Dean called the rangers "pathetic" over and over (which may not have been the best thing to do, but we were upset). Evidently Chongo can appeal the case in Fresno. The Fresno courts are reportedly sick of dealing with frivolous Yosemite cases and may throw this one out. I think it was a real shame to waste so much time and money harassing a person who has never harmed anyone, and I think Ed and Jack Hoeflich may come to regret their unkind actions some day. I am still shocked at how unlawful the ruling seemed. I'd been told that the Yosemite court is a kangaroo court, but it's hard to believe until you see it happening before your eyes. Over the next few days after Chongo's trial, six climbers were brought into court for nonsensical offenses, and Dean was warned to watch his step because the rangers were hot to get him for anything. So far the main result of Chongo's trial seems to be a bigger rift between the climbers and rangers in the Yosemite community. As always, I wonder: Why?