Violence against National Park Service law
enforcement employees – including shootings and assaults –
increased 940 percent in 2001. And just this past August, Mexican
fugitives killed a park ranger in Organ Pipe National Monument in
Arizona.
These alarming statistics are included
in a report released by Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, a private nonprofit organization that provides
support and services for government agency whistle-blowers. PEER
annually compiles incidents of violence toward and harassment of
employees of federal land-management agencies. “We do it because
the agencies don’t,” says Jeff Ruch, PEER executive
director.
The PEER Web site features the violence
reports as well as profiles of environmental ethics cases, report
cards of agencies’ performance, and results from a survey of state
and federal resource professionals. To learn more, call
202/265-7337 or visit www.peer.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Peer pressure.
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