Simcox, Companion Cited By Park Ranger

Arizona Daily Star ^ | Monday, January 27, 2003 | Tom Steller

[joesnuffy]

Simcox, companion cited by park ranger

By Tim Steller © 2003 Arizona Daily Star From the StarNet archives: a profile of militia leader Chris Simcox.

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 Ran-ger 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. 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.

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.

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.

* Contact Tim Steller at 434-4086 or steller@azstarnet.com.

 

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[joesnuffy]

More Info and Commentary with Pics

[coloradan]

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.

Please Mr. Ranger, what activities are permitted on a park? Is everything prohibited that is not explicitly permitted, or do we have the right to do anything we wish, except for those things that are explicitly prohibited?

[Free the USA]

fyi

[governsleastgovernsbest]

If only the feds were as efficient in stopping illegal immigrants!

[madfly]

Time for "Letters to the Editor" with Jackelope Breeders interview posted yesterday.

[Norman Arbuthnot]

I wonder how many illegal aliens this Park Ranger has prevented from entering our country? Probably Zero.

It is disgusting that Simcox appears to have been targeted by the Feds. If the government was protecting our borders there would be no need for patroitic people like Simcox to take matters in to their own hands.

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

bump

[Redbob]

I can tell you from having been there many times, Coronado Nat'l Monument is not at all well-marked, but it also comprises most of the mountain and desert land around Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca - which incidentally is a major Army communications center for South and Central America.
You hike over the mountains (the Huachucas) on the south side of the Fort, and when you come down, you're in Mexico.
Go just a little west, and you're in Coronado.

And you'd be a durn fool to go there unarmed - witness the park ranger murdered by illegals just a little west of there last week, outside Tucson.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Go to www.americanpatrol.com and take a gander at the picture posted at the top. You will note that the park fence is not marked. It looks like every other cattle fence in the area.

Now note the mountain in the background on the right. The main public areas of the park are located there, in a canyon just out of view.

When I read the original account in the newspaper, I had to wonder why she was in this deserted corner of the park and why she she had these guys who were on private property under surveillance for an hour. Then I read Henry Harvey's account (posted on the same page) and remembered that there are only about 30 rangers on the entire southern border.

Chances are good that this is the same rangerette who took copious photos of American Border Patrol's equipment and members when we passed through the park on 18 January enroute to the San Rafael valley on the west side. She looked vaguely Hispanic and her behavior seemed slightly "off" -- kind of a fake friendliness.

[Spiff]

It is disgusting that Simcox appears to have been targeted by the Feds. If the government was protecting our borders there would be no need for patroitic people like Simcox to take matters in to their own hands.

Actually, it was Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol that this chick was gunning for. If you read the interview transcript or watch it you see that she kept saying she had people from ABP when, instead, she had Chris Simcox from Civil Homeland Defense.

[janetgreen]

Time for "Letters to the Editor" with Jackelope Breeders interview posted yesterday.

Thanks for reminding me, will do.

[rightofrush]

I wish that this thread was more of a suprise. Five years ago it would have been.