National Park Service / Joshua Tree
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who designated Joshua Tree a National Monument in 1936 just three years before WWII against Germany, has to be rolling over in his grave after some German tourists came to America and defaced it while having a paintball battle in one of California’s most beautiful national parks.
Joshua Tree National Park announced in a press release last week that three tourists from Germany were issued “a federal violation notice for vandalizing, defacing, or destroying property. 36 CFR, Chapter 1, Part 1, 1.4” and now face fines up to $5,000 and prison time up to six months for firing paintball guns at signs, bathrooms, and dumpsters inside of Joshua Tree.
German Tourists Deface Joshua Tree National Park With Paintball Guns
Paintball guns are legally considered weapons. Weapons are prohibited inside National Parks. So not only did they bring in legally prohibited weapons into a National Park they then used those to deface National Parks property as tourists visiting from another country. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
Joshua Tree National Park Acting Chief Ranger Jeff Filosa said in the press release “defacing or altering the NPS landscape, no matter how small, is against the law. It diminishes the natural environment that millions of people travel the world to enjoy. The park is regularly tasked with removing graffiti of all types, using time and resources that could be better dedicated to other priorities.”
The incident occurred back on August 4th when a NPS ranger patrolling near the Jumbo Rocks Campground discovered the paintball splatters nearby. He then spotted a slingshot in open view inside of the vehicle.
After that, he questioned the three tourists visiting from Germany who “admitted to firing paintballs with a compressed paintball gun, known as a paintball marker, and slingshots the night before.” A search of their vehicle then revealed three slingshots, paintballs, a paintball gun, and related equipment. They later found 11 more signs throughout Joshua Tree National Park that had been defaced by paintball guns.
Why not throw the book at them?
If the roles were reversed and these were American tourists defacing another country the world would never hear the end of it. Europeans love to smear Americans as the loudest, most obnoxious, and worst tourists that visit their continent. Had American tourists used prohibited weapons and defaced national treasures in Europe they’d have the book thrown at them so why not make an example of these German tourists in this instance?