When the thread title is a Nazi Germany reference, perhaps you should give a little more context in the OP.
The specific incident involves the Blue Ridge Parkway and a privately owned business located along the Parkway. As a result of the “shutdown”, all monuments, federally run parks and national forests are closed and Park Rangers were ordered to “make life as difficult as we can.” The Pisgah Inn, a privately-owned restaurant and inn is located on mile marker 408.6 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The executive branch ordered Park Rangers to inform the owner to close his business. When he failed to do so in protest, Park Rangers were ordered to block the entrance of his business, while the Blue Ridge Parkway, in and of itself, an open air park remains open to traffic. As of now, Rangers are stationed in shifts around the clock, blocking the entrances to the business.
So rather than the Park rangers going home without pay, they are actively trying to make sure that Park can not be used. Seems strange to me. Though they probably want to do at least some monitoring, lest somebody takes the opportunity to do irreversible damage to the park.
They were following orders ( illegal?) to make the shut down as painful as possible. Like blocking a public road turnout that you can see Mt. Rushmore from. You can't hurt the monument from there.
That the supervisory chain of command issued orders to Park Rangers to “make life miserable” for American citizens to further political agendas is on its face an unlawful order. There is no constitutional or statutory authority for government officials to harass, intimidate or make life difficult for anyone, let alone law abiding citizens, especially for the purposes of achieving political agendas in violation of constitutional limitations. There are, in fact, court cases addressing privately owned businesses and individuals leasing federal lands winning in court when the federal government disrupted the lawful use of this property like the Park Rangers did when physically obstructing access to the Pisgah Inn and others along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The posting from the LEO community to remind themselves not to be Nazi's which is a little hopeful.
