Rangers issue over 50 tickets

By Doug Thompson

Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers stopped 181 vehicles near FloydFest during the annual summer music festival’s four days, Parkway officials in Asheville say.
That average of 45 vehicle stops a day along a less than 10 mile stretch of the Parkway compares to 35 stops a day for the entire 469 mile length of the Parkway during an average weekend day and three times the stops of a normal weekend day on the entire route. The increase comes from concentrated enforcement activities of a special “Criminal Interdiction Unit” out of Ashville, NC.
Parkway police issued 29 tickets for drug violations, 22 for other traffic violations, two for driving under the influence, two for outstanding warrants and one for public intoxication.
Many of the stops included searches of vehicles and personal belongings of vehicle occupants, although Steve Stinnett, assistant chief ranger, did not specify how many searches were conducted. A Floyd Press reporter, traveling to and from the festival to cover the event, counted 31 vehicles stopped and searched on Thursday and Friday in four trips along a five-mile stretch of the Parkway.
Stinnett defended the actions as normal and “fairly low-intensity,” an assessment not shared by area law enforcement officials. Floyd County Sheriff called the actions by Park Rangers “excessive” and said officers were “rude and abusive.” One Ranger stopped Zeman for speeding in a zone where the speed limit had been temporarily lowered from 45 mph to 20 mph and called the Ranger’s treatment of him “extremely rude.” County chief investigator Jeff Dalton, who was in the car with Zeman, concurred.
“There was no excuse for the way that officer acted,” Dalton said.  Other law enforcement officials were openly critical of the Rangers’ actions in discussions with county citizens.
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) called the actions of the Ranger team “inexcusable” and is demanding a meeting with the Parkway superintendent “to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
“People who come to our area to attend FloydFest or for any other reason deserve to be treated with hospitality and respect,” Boucher told The Floyd Press.  Boucher is seeking to have the Park Rangers removed from law enforcement duties along the Parkway during the festival weekend and wants responsibility turned over to the Virginia State Police.
Stinnett said this year’s stepped up enforcement efforts began last year when the CIT unit made 153 traffic stops and arrested four on drunk driving charges. Stinnett said he did not have statistics on other arrests, but records on file at the Federal District Court in Roanoke show 14 traffic citations were issued. Of those, nine were dismissed when the judge ruled Park Rangers did not have probable cause to stop and search the vehicles of those charged.
A local park service official, who asked not to be identified, said a member of the CIT unit said they had a mandate this year to “increase arrests and justify their presence.”