One by One, They Have Fallen

July 26, 2006 - They left their positions in the Department of the Interior.  It started with those who provided advice to her bosses – advice on how to mistreat Chief Chambers and put her life in jeopardy when they sent her home on December 5, 2003, in uniform and unarmed with no vehicle, no cellular telephone, and no police radio.  It soon extended to those who handled the press on this matter from the office of then Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton.  Then, the officials themselves started leaving or being transferred to positions with no operational authority or oversight responsibility for the United States Park Police. 

Finally, there was just one standing – National Park Service Director Frances P. Mainella.  Fran Mainella failed to heed the warnings from Chief Teresa Chambers about critical resource and staffing shortages in late November 2003.  Instead, Fran stood by silently, refusing to meet with Chief Chambers and refusing to intercede when steps were taken to remove her from office.  Then, starting in May of this year, when crime began to rise on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. – an area for which she, as the National Park Service Director, was ultimately responsible through the United States Park Police to protect – Fran stayed silent again. 

Now, the last has fallen.  Today, Fran Mainella submitted her letter of resignation to the President of the United States.  Her resignation was accepted by the current Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne. 

Today no one who was in Chief Chambers’ chain of command when she was illegally removed from office remains in place in the Department of the Interior.  Nothing is standing in the way of Secretary Kempthorne’s returning Chief Chambers to office. 

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