Consequently, this isn’t just national parks, as I had to use a credit card at an automated terminal to get into Custer State Park in South Dakota. And with the incredible fees credit cards take you’d have to find their claims dubious. VISA and MC take such high fees, credit card companies now return part of it as an incentive for you to use their card. Consequently, I just used $145 of returned fees to pay for a new Clothes Dryer heating element we needed to fix our dryer. And not only will an armored truck collect the cash and checks, but most provide services for processing which even banks use as I worked for Brinks in the 90’s, with cash credited to bank accounts and bundled up and shipped to the Fed when they pick up cash orders for banks. But you’d have to see this is a testing ground for getting people used to not using cash, so well done to Elizabeth Dasburg and fellow plaintiffs for contesting the issue in court. Also, many parks now make you prepay for a reservation time window or you might not get in, but there is the option of prepaid gift cards you can buy with cash if you wanted to maintain privacy. And wouldn’t this be discriminatory to poor black and brown people that might want to visit the park as they are so prone to go on about in all other aspects of our society?
By Danielle
A woman filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly refusing to accept cash for an entry fee.
In the lawsuit, Elizabeth Dasburg and two other plaintiffs allege the National Park Service is violating U.S. law by refusing to accept U.S. currency.
The lawsuit stems from Dasburg attempting to enter the Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia.
She was told the U.S. National Park Service site could only accept cards for entry.
Dasburg and two other individuals were denied entry into the site unless they used a card.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is funding the lawsuit.
“CHD is excited to support attorney Ray Flores and the plaintiffs in this case to push back against the move toward a cashless society and central bank digital currency,” said Kim Mack Rosenberg, CHD general counsel.
“By forcing people to use credit cards or digital wallets, under the guise of convenience, the National Park Service becomes a player in the surveillance state, undermining park visitors’ privacy right,” Rosenberg said, according to CHD.
🚨 Woman Sues National Park Service After Being Told She Couldn’t Use Cash
“By forcing people to use credit cards … under the guise of convenience, the @NatlParkService becomes a player in the surveillance state…” @KimMRosenberg
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) March 8, 2024
Further details from The Defender:
Flores told The Defender he found it “appalling” that “these pristine lands are the nation’s testing ground” for a cashless society.
The National Park Service has been implementing and expanding a cashless entry payment system over the past few years, Flores said.
Now, nearly 30 national parks, historic sites and monuments deny entrance to those who try to pay with cash, the complaint said. They accept only credit, debit and other electronic forms of payment, such as ApplePay.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare this practice unlawful, which would mean the National Park Service would be forced to let visitors pay with cash. They also seek relief for the cost of the suit, including attorney fees.
Defendants in the case are the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior — which oversees the National Park Service — and Charles F. Sams III in his official capacity as National Park Service director.
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Woman sues National Park Service after being told she can’t use cash to pay entry fee https://t.co/lQnMnb3CKL
— WND News (@worldnetdaily) March 8, 2024
USA Today last year highlighted the National Park System’s gradual push to going cashless and rolling out the digital agenda.
“We are trying to watch where our visitor demand is, but we’re also trying to make smart operational decisions that allow us to keep as many dollars in our parks,” Justin Unger, National Park Service associate director for Business Services, told USA Today.
Death Valley National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, and Mount Rainier National Park are among the national parks to go cashless.
Per USA Today:
There are a number of reasons some parks stop accepting cash.
To start, Unger said in recent years the U.S. Treasury created policies to reduce the amount of cash and checks handled across the federal government and many banks stopped partnering with the Treasury in that process.
“The number of formal banks with relationships with the Treasury Department, where we could actually take cash, has really dried up especially in more rural or remote areas,” he said.
Couple that with the ongoing closure of brick and mortar banks, and many parks wind up having to take that cash even further to deposit, costing both time and money. Death Valley spent roughly $40,000 a year on processing and transporting cash, according to the park.
By going cashless, Unger said, “We’re not paying for armored car service. We don’t have to pay for an employee to be able to shuttle cash back and forth or to have our law enforcement officers doing that. Instead they get to focus on doing law enforcement, providing emergency services.”
Unger also discussed the convenience of cashless transactions inside national parks.
“Imagine a tablet and being able, when we have long queued lines, to swipe people’s cards as you walk down the line so that as people are approaching the entrance gate in very busy parks, they can keep moving through the entrance gate as fast as possible, making a better customer experience,” Unger said.
“This lawsuit goes at the very heart of the war to preserve cash, and with it, our human and health freedoms,” Catherine Austin Fitts, former federal housing commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, told The Defender.
“Removing cash from circulation is an essential step to implementing a complete surveillance state that can shut off our money at will, as we saw happen to the Canadian Truckers, or take our assets and grab our land,” she said.
AWESOME!!! In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Elizabeth Dasburg and two other plaintiffs allege the National Park Service is violating U.S. law by refusing to accept U.S. currency. https://t.co/DfeRTjdGX2
— Larry Cook (@stopvaccinating) March 9, 2024
Read the lawsuit HERE.