Beatings, bombings, death threats and other acts of
violence against Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management
employees are on the rise. According to documents obtained under
the Freedom of Information Act by PEER (Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility), agency workers or buildings were
attacked or threatened nearly 100 times in 1998 alone. One Forest
Service employee found a cat with a hangman’s knot around its neck
placed on his porch – just after a rock and brick were thrown
through his front window. In Idaho, a man phoned in this threat: “I
used to poach moose; now I am going for rangers.” A female Forest
Service employee in Oregon was abducted for four days. Meanwhile,
the Justice Department has asked Congress to repeal the section of
the Anti-Terrorism Act that requires the department to record or
report all attacks on federal personnel. Agency spokesman John
Russell says local police can better track and investigate
incidents. “A crime might be based on a personal vendetta, or be an
act of terrorism,” Russell says, so reporting procedures often fall
into a gray area, one his department says is better navigated on a
local level. But PEER National Field Director Rob Perks, who headed
the research project, believes the move reflects the Justice
Department’s view that the more you talk about threats and other
incidents, the more they occur. “We think that’s bogus. It’s like
saying, don’t arrest muggers, because it may induce more muggings,”
he says. If the threats and attacks continue, Perks fears, some
employees may be less willing to do their jobs. “And if that is
what happens, then the violators win.”
PEER’s
report, Attacks on Federal Employees, is available on its Web site:
www.peer.org. More detailed BLM and Forest Service data is also
available from PEER at 2001 S St. NW, Suite 570, Washington, DC
20009 (202/265-PEER).
* Karen
Mockler
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Risks multiply for land managers.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
