NPS Report on Glen Canyon/Dennis McGlynn

[guest]

http://www.nps.gov/htdocs1/mrnrpt/msg00386.html


NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT

To: All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From: Division of Ranger Activities,
Washington Office

Day/Date: Friday, October 29, 1999

INCIDENTS

94-557 - Glen Canyon (Utah/Arizona) -
Follow-up: BASE Jumping Fatality

On October 8th, Dennis McGlynn of Truckee,
California, began a three-month jail sentence for
aiding and abetting the fatal illegal BASE jump
of Paul Thompson at Lake Powell on September 15,
1994. McGlynn, head of a business called Gravity
Sports Ltd., was the organizer and leader of
"Cliff Camp '94," which was advertised as "an
accelerated course in fixed object jumping."
After the fatal jump, McGlynn hid in the rocks,
leaving the others on the trip to deal with the
rangers investigating the death. McGlynn's full
role in the jump was not known until November 12,
1994, when he was the subject of a two-day cliff
rescue by rangers at Lake Powell (94-644). After
the rescue, BASE equipment and videos were
seized, including a commercial video called
"Gravity Storm '94." The video showed
"Cliff Camp '94" and the beginning of Thompson's
jump. In addition to the jail sentence, McGlynn
was ordered to pay $2,225.88 in restitution and
given a term of 60 months probation. His company
was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. This is the
last of three BASE jumping cases from 1994 and
1995. Both of the other cases resulted in
circuit court decisions. In U.S. v. Albers, in
which the defendants were found guilty of air
delivery and disorderly conduct, the Ninth
Circuit ruled that the search and seizure of
houseboats fell under the Carroll Doctrine. In
U.S. v. Oxx, in which the defendants were found
not guilty because the judge found that the
government did not prove that the defendants did
not have a permit, the Tenth Circuit ruled that
36 CFR 2.17(a)(3) clearly prohibits BASE jumping
at Glen Canyon NRA and other national parks. Fred
Morelli, the defendant's attorney in all three
cases, has filed appeals. Morelli has stated
that he plans to stage a jump at Lake Powell. [CRO, GLCA, 10/28]

[guest]

Unlike Dan Horner's excellent and objective recap of the October 22 NPS protest, the anonymous writer of the Dennis McGlynn report skewed facts and told one outright lie:

The Tenth Circuit did _not_ rule "that
36 CFR 2.17(a)(3) clearly prohibits BASE jumping
at Glen Canyon NRA and other national parks." It ruled that parachuting is covered by the statute, which means that BASE jumping is not illegal, only that the NPS does have the jurisdiction to manage it under that regulation -- which means it would NOT be illegal if NPS superintendents were allowed by their highers up to issue it.

The anonymous writer of the report seeks to use the Tenth Circuit opinion to justify NPS's unwritten and unspoken blanket prohibition of wilderness parachuting in all of its units. This is flatly wrong and a deliberate attempt to hide NPS's national policy of discrimination.

Ask for a permit from any superintendent in any remote NPS unit with big cliffs and no overuse problems such as Yosemite. Guess what? You won't get it, and not because the super is a jerk; it's because he or she would be looking for new work if s/he broke ranks with this unwritten unspoken policy of discrimination.

When white people did this do homosexuals and minorities in housing, they were attacked through the courts and in the court of public opinion and the practice was ended.

The same needs to happen here. We can fight about the appropriateness of wilderness parachuting in Yosemite for a long time and there are reasonable arguments on both sides given Yosemite's unique overuse problems, but the fact of NPS's deliberate and longstanding national policy of discrimination goes way beyond God's grandest cathedral.